Netmask issue

[Antonio Guerrieri]

Hi all,
I have a dhcp3 server running on debian lenny hosted as virtual  
machine on a xen server.

I am testing a new wireless system and I configured the dhcp in this  
way:

subnet 10.0.200.0 netmask 255.255.254.0 {
     range 10.0.200.10 10.0.201.254;
	
     option broadcast-address 10.0.201.255;
     option routers 10.0.200.1;
}

Well, mac and windows clients receive all 255.255.255.0 as netmask and  
they "mysteriously" work "perfectly".

Some linux client (slackware) refuse, correctly, such netmask.

Sniffing packets revealed that clients receive 255.255.255.0.

I suspect that there is something related to virtual machine (the  
physical server uses a different private IP from a C class).

Any idea?

Thanks,

Antonio