Debian installer dhcp problems

[Niklas Jakobsson <nico@netnod.se>]

Hello,

I have some problems when doing a network install with the kernel and
initrd in the netboot.tar.gz package in 20110106+squeeze3.

I have a local dhcp-server with an address pool configured. After I have
booted into the installer and selected configure with dhcp the lease
file on the server looks like this:

lease 10.0.0.11 {
  starts 3 2011/09/28 07:36:42;
  ends 3 2011/09/28 11:36:42;
  cltt 3 2011/09/28 07:36:42;
  binding state active;
  next binding state free;
  hardware ethernet 00:30:48:f9:5b:22;
  uid "\001\0000H\371[\"";
}

When the install is done and I have rebooted the server the dhcp-server
gives the newly installed server another address then during the
install, so know it looks like this:

lease 10.0.0.11 {
  starts 3 2011/09/28 07:36:42;
  ends 3 2011/09/28 11:36:42;
  cltt 3 2011/09/28 07:36:42;
  binding state active;
  next binding state free;
  hardware ethernet 00:30:48:f9:5b:22;
  uid "\001\0000H\371[\"";
}
lease 10.0.0.12 {
  starts 3 2011/09/28 07:43:50;
  ends 3 2011/09/28 11:43:50;
  cltt 3 2011/09/28 07:43:50;
  binding state active;
  next binding state free;
  hardware ethernet 00:30:48:f9:5b:22;
}

I assume the reason is that the dhcp-client on the installed server does
not send uid (is this the client-identifier?)

I have tried setting the keyword duplicates to both allow and deny
without any success. From what I can tell duplicates makes the
dhcp-server ignore the UID, which is exactly what I want. Am I using it
wrong or is there some bug here?

This used to work fine with lenny so assume something has changed with
the dhcp-client in the installer for squeeze.

If I can not fix the dhcp-server to behave correctly can I modify the
initrd to make the dhcp-client in the installer to not send an UID?

All help is appreciated!

 /Nico

-- 
Niklas Jakobsson - SysAdmin @ Netnod
mailto:nico@netnod.se