diff --git a/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-audit.service b/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-audit.service
index 4ca6b79..7bf8e5e 100644
--- a/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-audit.service
+++ b/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-audit.service
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
 [Unit]
-Description=Bee: on-demand hardware audit (not started automatically)
+Description=Bee: hardware audit
+After=bee-preflight.service bee-network.service bee-nvidia.service
+Before=bee-web.service
 
 [Service]
 Type=oneshot
 RemainAfterExit=yes
-ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'curl -sf -X POST http://localhost/api/audit/run >/dev/null'
+ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/bee-log-run /appdata/bee/export/bee-audit.log /usr/local/bin/bee audit --runtime auto --output file:/appdata/bee/export/bee-audit.json
 StandardOutput=journal
 StandardError=journal
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
diff --git a/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-web.service b/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-web.service
index f07595d..6c0bf1a 100644
--- a/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-web.service
+++ b/iso/overlay/etc/systemd/system/bee-web.service
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 [Unit]
 Description=Bee: hardware audit web viewer
+After=bee-audit.service
 
 [Service]
 Type=simple
diff --git a/iso/overlay/usr/local/bin/bee-network.sh b/iso/overlay/usr/local/bin/bee-network.sh
index 0715230..9f41927 100644
--- a/iso/overlay/usr/local/bin/bee-network.sh
+++ b/iso/overlay/usr/local/bin/bee-network.sh
@@ -6,25 +6,66 @@ LOG_PREFIX="bee-network"
 
 log() { echo "[$LOG_PREFIX] $*"; }
 
-# find physical interfaces: exclude lo and virtual (docker/virbr/veth/tun/tap)
-interfaces=$(ip -o link show \
-    | awk -F': ' '{print $2}' \
-    | grep -v '^lo$' \
-    | grep -vE '^(docker|virbr|veth|tun|tap|br-|bond|dummy)' \
-    | sort)
+list_interfaces() {
+    ip -o link show \
+        | awk -F': ' '{print $2}' \
+        | grep -v '^lo$' \
+        | grep -vE '^(docker|virbr|veth|tun|tap|br-|bond|dummy)' \
+        | sort
+}
 
-if [ -z "$interfaces" ]; then
+# Give udev a short chance to expose late NICs before the first scan.
+if command -v udevadm >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    udevadm settle --timeout=5 >/dev/null 2>&1 || log "WARN: udevadm settle timed out"
+fi
+
+started_ifaces=""
+started_count=0
+scan_pass=1
+
+# Some server NICs appear a bit later after module/firmware init. Do a small
+# bounded rescan window without turning network bring-up into a boot blocker.
+while [ "$scan_pass" -le 3 ]; do
+    interfaces=$(list_interfaces)
+
+    if [ -n "$interfaces" ]; then
+        for iface in $interfaces; do
+            case " $started_ifaces " in
+                *" $iface "*) continue ;;
+            esac
+
+            log "bringing up $iface"
+            if ! ip link set "$iface" up; then
+                log "WARN: could not bring up $iface"
+                continue
+            fi
+
+            carrier=$(cat "/sys/class/net/$iface/carrier" 2>/dev/null || true)
+            if [ "$carrier" = "1" ]; then
+                log "carrier detected on $iface"
+            else
+                log "carrier not detected yet on $iface"
+            fi
+
+            # DHCP in background — non-blocking, keep dhclient verbose output in the service log.
+            dhclient -4 -v -nw "$iface" &
+            log "DHCP started for $iface (pid $!)"
+
+            started_ifaces="$started_ifaces $iface"
+            started_count=$((started_count + 1))
+        done
+    fi
+
+    if [ "$scan_pass" -ge 3 ]; then
+        break
+    fi
+    scan_pass=$((scan_pass + 1))
+    sleep 2
+done
+
+if [ "$started_count" -eq 0 ]; then
     log "no physical interfaces found"
     exit 0
 fi
 
-for iface in $interfaces; do
-    log "bringing up $iface"
-    ip link set "$iface" up || { log "WARN: could not bring up $iface"; continue; }
-
-    # DHCP in background — non-blocking, keep dhclient verbose output in the service log.
-    dhclient -4 -v -nw "$iface" &
-    log "DHCP started for $iface (pid $!)"
-done
-
-log "done"
+log "done (interfaces started: $started_count)"