How does Ethernet on Angstrom actually work??

Hey.

I'm new to Angstrom. My Background in Linux is more Debian-ish. I have
two Angstrom installations on two Beagleboards. With one, called A-
install, I used the tar packages of the Angstrom OS, that comes with a
GUI. On the second, called B-install, I used the package creator on
the angstrom-distribution website and picked a commandline flavor.

A-install connects itself to the ethernet, but has not the ifconfig/
ifdown/ifup commands, which seems super weird to me.. without a eth0
defined in the /etc/network/interfaces. Does anybody know, how i can
get ifconfig/ifdown/ifup and may be dhclient installed?

B-install comes with ifconfig/ifdown/ifup, wont connect itself
automatically, even after I added the eth0 to the interfaces and tried
"init.d/networking restart" and I really have no clue why not.

My general idea right now is, that Angstrom doesnt work with ifconfig
or network/interfaces but utilizes something else since the one works
wihtout it and the other not with it. Is this even possible???

Any helpful comments that would bring some light into my darkness very
appreciated!

thanks

Niels