Woohoo! I fixed it.  Boy oh boy was it ever obscure @_@   The problem
was that I didnt understand the RPC protocol properly.  I went back and
had a closer look at the tcpdump output.  It seemed like it was
rpc.bootparamd that was the problem, but it worked once, why not a
second time.  Then i noticed these lines;

11:40:13.079311 aegis.1023 > 255.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96

11:42:05.703180 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96

The broadcast address on the ethernet interface on my server was set to
10.0.1.255 as I have several ethernet cards, with 10.0.1.0/24,
10.0.2.0/24, 10.0.3.0/24 for each ethernet segment etc.   Then I changed
the bcast address on the interface that connects to the ethernet segment
that the diskless client is on to 10.255.255.255 and voila. she works.

Regards,

Daniel
http://wonkothesane.com
PGP Key: http://wonkothesane.com/DanielBaird.pgp







11:36:54.191627 rarp who-is 8:0:20:a:7b:1c tell 8:0:20:a:7b:1c
11:36:54.191660 rarp reply 8:0:20:a:7b:1c at aegis
11:36:54.205507 aegis.21131 > gateway-eth1.tftp: 23 RRQ "0A000106.SUN4C"
11:36:54.235941 gateway-eth1.1488 > aegis.21131: udp 516
11:36:54.257465 aegis.21131 > gateway-eth1.1488: udp 4
11:36:54.257868 gateway-eth1.1488 > aegis.21131: udp 516
11:36:54.278699 aegis.21131 > gateway-eth1.1488: udp 4
11:36:54.279069 gateway-eth1.1488 > aegis.21131: udp 516
...
11:40:10.678083 gateway-eth1.1489 > aegis.17251: udp 420
11:40:10.689603 aegis.17251 > gateway-eth1.1489: udp 4
11:40:12.762298 rarp who-is 8:0:20:a:7b:1c tell 8:0:20:a:7b:1c
11:40:12.762336 rarp reply 8:0:20:a:7b:1c at aegis
11:40:13.079311 aegis.1023 > 255.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96
11:40:13.089702 gateway-eth1.sunrpc > aegis.1023: udp 68
11:40:13.338013 arp who-has gateway-eth1 tell aegis
11:40:13.338049 arp reply gateway-eth1 is-at 0:a0:cc:5a:69:a9
11:40:13.354532 aegis.1022 > gateway-eth1.828: udp 80
11:40:13.355930 gateway-eth1.828 > aegis.1022: udp 80
11:40:13.723095 aegis.1021 > gateway-eth1.sunrpc: udp 76
11:40:13.724525 gateway-eth1.sunrpc > aegis.1021: udp 28
11:40:13.744417 aegis.1021 > gateway-eth1.913: udp 80
11:40:13.747790 gateway-eth1.913 > aegis.1021: udp 60
11:40:13.768265 aegis.1021 > gateway-eth1.sunrpc: udp 76
11:40:13.769529 gateway-eth1.sunrpc > aegis.1021: udp 28
11:40:13.789641 aegis.6 > gateway-eth1.nfs: 104 lookup [|nfs]
11:40:13.790027 gateway-eth1.nfs > aegis.6: reply ok 128 lookup [|nfs]
11:40:13.826776 aegis.7 > gateway-eth1.nfs: 104 read [|nfs]
11:40:13.827039 gateway-eth1.nfs > aegis.7: reply ok 1124 read [|nfs]
...
...
11:41:41.708016 gateway-eth1.nfs > aegis.2140: reply ok 1124 read [|nfs]
11:41:41.748486 aegis.2141 > gateway-eth1.nfs: 104 read [|nfs]
11:41:41.748671 gateway-eth1.nfs > aegis.2141: reply ok 376 read [|nfs]
11:42:05.308755 rarp who-is 8:0:20:a:7b:1c tell 8:0:20:a:7b:1c
11:42:05.308790 rarp reply 8:0:20:a:7b:1c at aegis
11:42:05.701237 arp who-has aegis tell aegis
11:42:05.703180 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96
11:42:06.699161 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96
11:42:08.699060 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96
11:42:11.698959 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96
11:42:15.698836 aegis.1023 > 10.255.255.255.sunrpc: udp 96