I finally got the profile switching working on my laptop, using Mandrake 10.0 official. it was kind of non-obvious, so I thought I would post it here.
Be sure you have the package "netprofile" installed. The version I used was netprofile-0.6.3-1mdk.
First, using the mandrake control center configuration tool, set up two profiles, like 'office' and 'home'. You switch the profiles up on the top menu bar, not in the network section (seems a bit wierd, but it looks like the profiles are expanding beyond just network).
Set the network settings specific for each, say a static IP for the office profile, and DHCP for home. This seems to not work quite like i would expect, so to check the results I opened a command line session (as root) and looked at the results in /etc/netprofile/profiles. there should be a subdirectory for each profile, and the network settings, etc should reflect what you need in each case.
Here was the hard part - getting the system to change profiles at boot time. The profiles are managed by a tool called /sbin/set-netprofile, and I had to read the script to understand how to make it work.
In the Control Center, select the Boot icon, then the Boot loader tool, and setup the lilo boot loader. I used two separate stanzas, one for office and one for home. In each case the kernel, initrd, etc were the same. Here is the key - In the Append line, add the profile option using PROFILE=<profilename>. You must use CAPS for the word PROFILE, as that is what the set-netprofile tool will parse for. For instance if my office profile is named office, then append PROFILE=office in the bootloader for that event. probably need to increase the timeout so you can be sure and select the right one.
Then - at boot time you just select the option you want, office or home, and the profile will be switched automatically at boot time.
Hope this helps.
r.
