please consider the attached patch, which adds boot prompt parameters for two
of ipconfig's commandline options in the configure_networking function:

  - using an alternate DHCP port (dhcpport=NNN, ipconfig -p NNN)
  - specifying the vendor-class-identifier (dhcpvci=XXX, ipconfig -i XXX)

supporting these options gives additional flexibility in distinguishing thin
clients from conventional workstations in a mixed network.

live well,
  vagrant

patches also available in a git branch:

http://dev.freegeek.org/~vagrant/git/initramfs-tools/

live well,
  vagrant

* Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant+debianbugs@freegeek.org> [Mit Dez 17, 2008 at 07:01:51 -0800]:

Sorry that no one took care of your bugreport for so long, Vagrant.
Patch looks fine to me.

maks, any objections against inclusion of the patches?

regards,
-mika-

I had been dragging that patch as I do not like to add to many
bootparams that are outside of documented upstream linux-2.6 handling
and thus initramfs-tools specific. waited to see if a second voice
would raise..

I do not see so much the point of setting ipconfig vendor class id.
why would that be needed for booting?

the alternate DHCP port looks indeed more interesting, but no idea
how common that is in the wild? and if there is not a place in the
ip= monster bootparam?

thanks

It would be used for selecting the boot image.

Using an alternate DHCP port sounds pretty crazy.

Another possibility is to configure the switch(es) to put the thin
clients on a separate VLAN.  But I suppose people also want to use cheap
switches with no VLAN support.

Ben.

understandable.

perhaps it would be better to rewrite in such a way that ipconfig could be
passed arbitrary arguments? of course, if it ever switched away from ipconfig
to some other dhcp client, it'd be nice to not have to change syntax or
configuration names...

in order to distinguish a machine that's doing network boot for
debian-installer, LTSP or PXE. for example, in each case, you might want to
hand it a different dhcp filename option. pxe should get pxelinux.0, d-i gets a
preseeding URL, and ltsp could get a configuration file...

i don't know that it's incredibly common, but is not infrequently asked for in
LTSP environments, though there are other alternatives using dnsmasq's dhcp
proxy support now, so it's maybe less important.

don't believe so.

live well,
  vagrant

* Vagrant Cascadian [Son Jun 20, 2010 at 07:11:41 -0700]:

[...]

Hm, so again no one took care of that for another "period of time".
I'm sorry, Vagrant. :(

This patch is non-intrusive, but I'd still vote for non-inclusion as
of today since it depends on ipconfig and not too much people seem
to really care about it.

If someone still thinks it should be included please stand up.

maximilian, please comment.

regards,
-mika-