In the end, the solution came from installing an image on each directly downloaded from libremesh.org, instead of built on the chef server. Seems the chef server is building them broken.
We had the same experience at the installations we've made. IMHO, the new chef should be off-line until these issues are worked out. It's been creating a frustrating experience for many users.
On the other hand, the lime-sdk cooker script is working really well.