Do search for ClusterKnoppix, Quantain is based on it.
1. I have come to the same conclusion about the dhcp being overwritten. It seems like a good way to bind the MAC to a IP address for a diskless node. I am currently booting nodes from a short script. It uses etherwake+MAC and sleep command to boot the nodes in a timed orderly fashion. Along with the Terminal server allocating ip address in a decending manner. Default ip is 192.168.0.200, next 192.168.0.199, ect. It works by giving the same IP to the same MAC address. It's not great but it works. I have also have had NFS mount get "swamped" by to many nodes booting at once. Some of the nodes will wind up as zombies...
I also shut them down with a script. To boot again correctly, they need to be powered down to a "warm" state. The command that works for me is "ssh NODE halt -p -d -i -f"
2. Many have struggled with a hard drive install. There is an * missing from the Knoppix-terminalopenmosix script. Search this forum for a more detailed answer.
3. I was able to shorten the node boot times considerably :
"gethostip 192.168.0.200"
C0A800C8
create a file with this name and copy the pxelinux.default to it. Place it in the pxelinux directory. Now the node wont nibble slowly away at the ip address it skips straight to default. While this is good it dosent bind it to a MAC address as far as I can tell.
johnb