Hi $LIST, as most of you probably know, it is not only possible to send a host name via DHCP, but also to request one (i.e. instead of the client telling the server "Hi, I'm foobar.", it's possible to send "Hi, what's my name?" and the DHCP server will reply with "Hi, you're barney.")
I've been wondering why Debian-Live wouldn't pick up on this server-provided name. Turns out it is because the default host name set by Debian-Live is "debian", while the stock DHCP client scripts expect the hostname to be "localhost", or else they will assume a hostname has already been set and should take precedence, so they won't touch it. The fix for this is to use the boot parameter: hostname=localhost (But also see http://blog.schlomo.schapiro.org/2013/11/setting-hostname-from-dhcp-in-debian.html for a bug that might cause issues even if you use hostname=localhost - not sure if it applies to Debian-Live.) Is there any chance that this could be added to the documentation somewhere, either debian-live or dhclient? A comment in /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf underneath the block starting with "request" would probably do. Something like # Note: For the command "request host-name" to work, make sure your initial client name is set to "localhost". Kind Regards, Stefan Baur
