Hello and thanks for taking the time to look at my question,
I am afraid I am very new to Linux and probably should not be using Kali as my first local install, however I love to throw myself in far too deep as I tend to learn more if the process was hard
Just to paint a picture of what you are dealing with, I am the sort of idiot who would attempt to learn skydiving after I have already left the plane and without a parachute, as for previous forays into Linux, I have used Ubuntu and Mint a few times previously inside of a VM on a Windows machine, but please don't take that information as a precursor to competence. Assume you are dealing with the bottom end of the IQ curve when providing instructions. I am the improved version of the fool who will look for an 'any key'...

The issue I have is quite simple and I suspect is an easy fix, When I installed Kali, I put in a static IP address so I could bypass a proxy to get direct internet access to make the install nice and easy. Fortunately everything worked and I have a desktop. The problem I am experiancing is as follows:
If eth0 is disconnected, or the static address is already in use, I am stuck on a black screen with a white cursor in the top right of the screen.

The first thing I want to try is change the Static to a DHCP as I am hoping this will fix the issue, or at the very least I’ll get a link-local ipv4 address in the 169.254.x.x range and it will still boot to the desktop.

After a little Google Fu mixed with total & complete ignorance I believe if I change the etc\network\interfaces with leafpad from

Code:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 10.19.210.212
    netmask 255.255.0.0
    network 10.19.0.0
    broadcast 10.19.255.255
    gateway 10.19.1.1
    # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
    dns-nameservers 10.19.10.30 10.19.10.40
    dns-search shg.local
to
Code:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
I will now get a DHCP address. My obvious concern is I am convinced I should be doing this from the terminal, and that if I am wrong, I could potentially find myself stuck at the blank screen with a cursor in the top right and have a larger issue on my hands

Basic Detail (AKA I read the How To Make A Valid Thread post but still probably got this wrong):
Installed on a Dell Precision M4800 http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/pr...workstation/pd
Kali version: Release Kali Linux 1.0.6 64-bit, Kernel Linux 3.12-kali1-amd64, GNOME 3.4.2
Kali installation: SSD
Basic output of commands:

ifconfig:
Code:
root@lt06418-Kali:~# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr ec:f4:bb:09:5c:a1  
          inet addr:10.19.210.212  Bcast:10.19.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::eef4:bbff:fe09:5ca1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:87926 errors:0 dropped:2295 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:17086 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:25532794 (24.3 MiB)  TX bytes:3459952 (3.2 MiB)
          Interrupt:20 Memory:f7f00000-f7f20000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2959 (2.8 KiB)  TX bytes:2959 (2.8 KiB)

root@lt06418-Kali:~#
iwconfig:
Code:
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.
An error message (if any): Black Screen
Links to the same problem (if any): Lots of Black Screen issues but Google Fu fails me and its all graphics related issues.
Solutions tried and their result: None, I want to check my understanding before I make matters worse.

I have lots of other issues to address, but I will research each one and try not to burden your kind souls with my ignorance prior to posting. If you have any questions or if I am missed out what should be obvious information I apologize in advance and will attempt to answer promptly.

Thanks,
Jon