I remember from some time ago that Eclipse had auto-complete when you type, and now I can only get it when pressing Ctrl + Space. I already checked and
At some point recently (not sure but since March 2013?) my Eclipse CDT stopped auto completion. I figured out that at Editor->Content Assist->Advanced checking Parsing-based Proposals lets auto completion work on my machine.
Ubuntu 12.10, Eclipse 4.2.2, CDT 8.1.2

This snapshot shows Task-Focused, which I don't see on my another Eclipse instance. In that case I just checked Parsing-based Proposals and completion still works.