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[Reese, Allen]

I'm going through the iterations of installing and using FAI for the first
time and am encountering some of the usual pitfalls and configuration
issues.  I've stumbled upon something, though that I can't seem to grasp
dealing with the way the fai-kernel deals with DHCP vs. the way the current
debian kernel does and was wondering if any of you, out there, could help.

Here's my problem.  I have one machine acting as an install server (running
debian and FAI) and another that will be acting as a client (previously
loaded with debian as well).  I can create the boot floppy fine, and the
client machine reads it and loads the kernel.  Everything is fine up to this
point.  When it comes time for the DHCP requests to be made, the client sits
there spewing:

Sending DHCP requests ........ Timed out!
IP-Config: Retrying forever (NFS root)...

over and over.  Now, when I have the DHCPD daemon running on the server
machine, I'm seeing DHCPDISCOVER's and DHCPOFFER's being made but no
DHCPREQUEST's coming from the client although the machine says it's sending
requests.
I thought this was odd, so to try to narrow down where the problem was, I
took the floppy out of the drive and let the machine come up under it's
previous configuration (debian installation) and watched the DHCPD log from
the install server...

Sure enough, I saw DHCPDISCOVER, DHCPOFFER, DHCPREQUEST, and DHCPACK for the
client machine.  It came up fine and has the desired IP address and
everything.  So from what I gathered here, is that with the install client
allowed to boot up under it's own kernel, it's able to establish a
connection with the install server and obtain an IP.  However, with the FAI
boot floppy, it sits there and "supposedly" spins on DHCPREQUESTs forever,
however I'm not seeing it at all on the install server.

Is there something I'm missing here?  Does the FAI boot floppy kernel have
different DHCP parameters in it than a normal kernel and how would I go
about changing the FAI-kernel DHCP parameters to match those that would be
on the install client.

Sorry if I seem like I'm going off on this, I've been messing with this for
a long time, and am starting to feel a little wrapped around the axle, here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,


Allen Reese
Software Engineer
Air Traffic Systems
Sensis Corporation