Thank you all for your replies.
The original problem concerened /usr/adm/messages filling up with bootp requests from unknown devices after I installed an HP 4m with a JetDirect card. I didn't know where they were coming from and I did not have bootpd running before, so there should not have been anybody out there to request bootp services. I thought the problem was related to either a screwed up bootp/HP printer installation or ghosts in the system. I KNEW I could not have any machines that needed bootp.
The majority of the replies said that there MUST be a machine out there needing bootp. After careful analisis (my shrink) I started looking for 3 of something that I had on the net (there were always 3 bootp requests clumpted together). My net is small, about 75 pcs on the ethernet and 50 macs that sit on the otherside of a Cayman Gaterbox, none of those could be the problem. About 15 printers around the building, some on Mylan print servers and 2 on JetDirect cards, not them.
BUT, I do have 3 subnets, each subnet has a Synoptics 2310 36 port concentrator on it. These are so called "Intelligent" hubs (I now know that means they have a "intelligents" to screw you up), they start out as dumb hubs, but they are always tring to boot off a server for their managment software, then they become smart hubs. There is no harm if they don't find one, they just keep acting as dump hubs, and keep tring to reboot. So, for the last 12 months, these hubs have been tring to boot off a s
but because there was no bootpd running, there was nothing indicating there was something tring to boot. Then bootp was installed by the HP installation, and now there was something to keep track of this.
Synoptics tech support has 2 solutions;
1) Hook a terminal into the management port of the hub and hit ^C. This puts the hub into manual mode until you tell it to reboot or it power cycles. Then unplug the terminal and walk away; all is well until a power cycle, then you do it again.
2) They have a disk that they send out with the newer versions of the 2310 that has a dummy bootp file that will shut it up. Make an entry in your bootptab file, load the file onto your server, and stop worrying about it.
They have sent me the disk, but I haven't tried it yet. The ^C trick works, and that's were they are now.
Thank you all again.
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