start up (serial) LAN at boot up

Hi there,

I'm fairly newbie on linux, about 6 months now.
I'm running Debian 3.1, installed from Knoppix live CD.
Must say, best thing that happened to me for quite a while (computerwise that is).

The problem at hand:
I intend to set up a LAN, including my desktop Pentium III, and a server to connect me to the outside world.
I do not have that server yet, but do have an old Compaq Presario that could serve as standin whilst
setting up network + services.
Setback here was that Compaq has no slots to put an Ethernet card in.
It has a serial port though.
Reading through linux manuals I found out that this was directly supported.
Either SLIP or PPP, of which the latter clearly is superior IMHO.
So I use a null-modem cable (no modems) to connect RS-232 to RS-232.
I've now gotten to the point where pppd / sshd / nfs runs on both machines.
The setup works, I can login and also mount remote filesystems (vice versa).
(we're not talkin speed here . . .)

My problem:
Whats the 'proper' way to do this, and how to automate it?
(proper automation is what i'ts all about eh?)

sshd and nfsd are started from /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh :
/etc/init.d/ssh start
/etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server start

pppd is started from /etc/inittab :
S0:2345:respawn:pppd ttyS0
The ttyS0 is configured thru /etc/ppp/options - /etc/ppp/options.ttyS0
Then I have to manually do a 'ifconfig ppp0 local_addr pointopoint remote_addr'

Now I want this to work straight away from boot without the manual ppp0 configuration.
I've tried it with:
- use 'interfaces', that uses 'pon' and doesn't work, or hangs the boot sequence.
- put 'ifconfig ppp0 local pointopoint remote' in /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh -> no effect
- created script /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/ip-up.local -> no avail

I've figured this out by reading lots of documentation, and trial and error.
So, althouhg my setup (more ore less) works, I'm not happy, since it's not automated.
I'm still hackin' away, but no progress booked, hence this message.
I'm pretty sure someone out there knows better, please inform me!

l_e_e