"option nis-domain larger than buffer" while flashing a DBoxII with Debian/Ubuntu

Recently, I needed to update the image on my (already Linuxed) Dbox-II. Now, there are many good guides out there, like http://www.lug-kr.de/wiki/DBoxLinux (german), but after booting with the ppc bootloader, the flash image wouldn't be transferred.

The syslog would countain multiple lines of

dhcpd: parse_option_buffer: option nis-domain
(32) larger than buffer.

As it turns out it is most likely a bug in the Dbox's implementation of the dhcp client and is known in debian's BTS: http://bugs.debian.org/338023

My solution was to use the bootpd package instead. (apt-get install bootpd) Configuration is a bit more complex but still easy:

Put this in /etc/bootptab:

dbox:hd=/tftpboot:bf=ppcboot:ha=00509c:ip=192.168.0.99:sa=192.168.0.21:sm=255.255.255.0

The ha=00509c is your dbox's MAC address, ip= is the IP-address of the dbox, sa= is the tftp server's address.