Problem switching to static IP address

[lists at tomgeorge.info (Thomas H. George)]

I have built a very nice Debian Live CD but with two problems.

One, I can't switch to the static IP addressed used by my lan.  I 
included a copy of my interfaces file in chroot_local-includes.  When I 
boot from the CD I can substitute this file in /etc/network but I can't 
find a way to shutdown the network and restart it with the substituted 
file.  I must have failed to include some package as there is no network 
entry in the Debian/Applications drop down list.

(Bringing along my special config files does work very nicely in other 
cases.  Specifically, I have an xorg.conf file which allows me to use a 
Wacom tablet.  After booting from the cd I substitute a copy of this 
file and restart gdm and the Wacom tablet works perfectly.)

My second problem must also be an omitted package as only root has a 
terminal window.

The CD is 575 MB.  I hope a couple small packages might correct these 
problems without taking more than the remaining space.

Tom