IMHO the point is some magic option in the kernel that usually a configured ip-networking (by pxe) is accepted and never again changed (e.g. by enabling bootp in the kernel) ; furthermore the question is: what did you enable in the kernel: bootp and/or dhcp ?It might have something to do with the way I install the machines too. I give it a hostname 'disp01', but use the vctemp address for installation. This is because I install machines on a seperate network and have them renumber during the installation process (by having hostname.var set the new IP, GATEWAYS, etc)
Again, this method works fine when booting from a boot-CD, but with PXE it doesn't seem to work. The DHCP server doesn't give out any (parsing) errors or anything when starting, it only gives out the strange error messages if I do a "255.255.255.255:autoconf". When I add an IPAPPEND 1 instead, the error message is gone, and according to the logs everything seems fine. However, the HOSTNAME variable is incorrect. All other variables, such as DOMAIN, IP, GATEWAYS are set correctly (but not with the new values, since it obviously can't parse the hostname.var). HOSTNAME is set to the first part of the IP (145 in our case) and the CLASS list also mentions a "145" class.
Michael