The current version of initscripts in our system doesn't regard the kernel command line parameters, while it should. For example, if 'fastboot' is specified in kernel command line, checkroot should be skipped. Another example is hostname. There's a commit in OE-core. commit 9c2bb6822cd23759fbaf4ef5f05f27cf766f3bfb Author: Mark Asselstine <mark.asselstine@windriver.com> Date: Sat Sep 8 08:42:21 2012 -0500 base-files: provide a mechanism to skip creation of the hostname file The existence of a /etc/hostname file causes any hostname provided on the kernel command line or via dhcp to be overwritten by the initscripts 'init.d/hostname.sh'. This change allows you to set a value of "" for 'hostname' which will skip the creation of the /etc/hostname file by the base-files package. I think the better way to do this is to let the hostname.sh take into consideration the kernel command line parameters. The newer version of sysv init scripts has already have this support. I'd like to note this bug as related to bug#3435 because they both involve sysv init scripts optimization.
The hostname could be set in base-files bbappend file. And setting hostname to "" has already provide the mechanism of skip the creation of /etc/hostname file. So it seems unnecessary to do the fix. Mark this bug as RESOLVED/NOTABUG.