just trying to setup dhcpd using bootp from a RH9 box. I've been reading the dhcpd and dhcpd.conf man pages and these are my questions:

the parameter filename. in the dhcpd man page the "simple bootp client declaration" looks like

host haagen {
hardware ethernet 08:00:2b:4c:59:23;
fixed-address 239.252.197.9;
filename "/tftpboot/haagen.boot;"
}

but its explination of what that .boot file is isn't too clear to me.

and the "hardware ethernet" parameter doesn't seem to be right. from reading the dhcpd.conf man page, it seems it should be "hardware-address" Is this right?

not sure about needing the filename part at all as i've never seen it. as for hardware ethernet vs. hardware-address, try em both out see if both work

The ethernet parameter is the MAC address of an ethernet card. When a machine with that MAC makes a DHCP request, it will be given the address, hostname, and filename from this entry.

The filename is the name of the file which the client will download via tftpd. It must be a bootable image. Normally this is created by using 'mknbi' of some flavor to add the necessary headers to a linux kernel.

I believe the filename parameter is used with disk-less station which are booting through the net (for boot file specification).

That is correct, though the strictly speaking, the workstation doesn't have to be diskless, it's the most common use.