<--snip-->
>

> What does the following show (everythingish installed that triggers dhclient)
> for P in $(dpkg -l | grep dhcp); do apt-cache rdepends $P 2>/dev/null | grep '|' ; done
>

> If 'NetworkManager' rears its head.....purge with prejudice would be my advice.

Arrgh! that command chain doesn't (distinguish between what is and isn't installed) work right.
Lesson learned, test before you post...