We use FAI for installing our debian servers (>10) and workstations (>200). The setup for debian etch is working fine as was the case for sarge.
I am trying to make a setup for lenny now and I have run into a problem. We used to pass NFSROOT=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/path/to/nfsroot from the hex-ip-adress file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ I use a standard debian kernel vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-amd64 with initrd.img-2.6.26-1-amd64. The NFS mount of the nfsroot fails because the ROOTSERVER (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) is always set to the address of our DHCP server, which is not the same as the NFS server. I tried several kernel command line settings and initramfs.conf settings and generating new initrd.imgages. But even turning of auto and providing all parameters hard in ip=clientname:servername:... did not help Digging a bit deeper I found out that this seems to be a bug of klibc (ipconfig to be more precise). In our DHCP server is no ROOTSERVER specified. but ipconfig sets it to the addres of the DHCP server. see snoop-file and ipconfig-out: snoop-file: DHCP: Message type = DHCPOFFER DHCP: DHCP Server Identifier = 130.37.20.13 DHCP: IP Address Lease Time = 432000 seconds DHCP: DNS Domain Name = few.vu.nl DHCP: NetBIOS RFC 1001/1002 Name Servers at = 130.37.20.129 DHCP: NetBIOS RFC 1001/1002 Name Servers at = 130.37.20.132 DHCP: NetBIOS RFC 1001/1002 Name Servers at = 130.37.20.239 DHCP: NetBIOS Node Type = Hybrid Node (8) DHCP: DNS Servers at = 130.37.20.3 DHCP: DNS Servers at = 130.37.20.10 DHCP: DNS Servers at = 192.31.231.42 DHCP: Router at = 130.37.192.1 DHCP: Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0 DHCP: Client Hostname = vyneck.few.vu.nl ipconfig-out vyneck:~# /usr/lib/klibc/bin/ipconfig eth0 IP-Config: eth0 hardware address 00:1d:92:e1:9b:10 mtu 1500 DHCP RARP IP-Config: eth0 guessed broadcast address 130.37.192.255 IP-Config: eth0 complete (from 130.37.20.13): address: 130.37.192.112 broadcast: 130.37.192.255 netmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 130.37.192.1 dns0 : 130.37.20.3 dns1 : 130.37.20.10 host : vyneck.few.vu.nl domain : few.vu.nl rootserver: 130.37.20.13 rootpath: filename : As a result the rootpath is taken from our "NFSROOT=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/path/to/nfsroot" from the kernel command line but the rootserver part is overruled with the incorrect output from ipconfig. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Any ideas for a fix or workaround? I guess if we provide the rootserver from DHCP, we won't trigger this ipconfig bug. I have not yet find out how to provide this from our Solaris DHCP server. Does anybody know hot to do this? Gert Huisman -- Gert Huisman Systeem programmeur IT-groep FEW email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam telefoon: +31 20 5987806 De Boelelaan 1081a, kamer: S4.14 fax: +31 20 5987653 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands