[Klug-general] Debian Lenny NFS root woes!

[Benjamin Donnachie]

I'd like my machine to boot off a NAS box across the network, using NFS
for the root file system.  Since the box does not support tftp, I've
installed a small flash drive for it to boot off and use as /boot.


Following the instructions at
http://myrddin.org/howto/debian-kernel-recompiling/ I've added support
in the kernel for...

       CONFIG_IP_PNP=y
       CONFIG_IP_PNP_DHCP=y
       CONFIG_NFS_FS=y
       CONFIG_NFS_V3=y
       CONFIG_NFS_V4=y
       CONFIG_NFS_DIRECTIO=y
       CONFIG_ROOT_NFS=y

... and the network card as per
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/NFS-Root.html

I then modified grub to use the following kernel command line:

root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=192.168.2.254:/mnt/ide4/telvin-root ip=dhcp


And modified /etc/fstab to refer to the new location of /.

The machine successfully boots, configures the network card and then
hangs for some time before generating an error message about /dev/nfs
not existing.

I can mount the share on other machines, and rpcinfo and showmount
produce the following:

$ rpcinfo -p 192.168.2.254
    program vers proto   port
     100000    2   tcp    111  portmapper
     100000    2   udp    111  portmapper
     100003    2   udp   2049  nfs
     100003    3   udp   2049  nfs
     100003    2   tcp   2049  nfs
     100003    3   tcp   2049  nfs
     100021    1   udp   1027  nlockmgr
     100021    3   udp   1027  nlockmgr
     100021    4   udp   1027  nlockmgr
     100021    1   tcp   2801  nlockmgr
     100021    3   tcp   2801  nlockmgr
     100021    4   tcp   2801  nlockmgr
     100005    1   udp    926  mountd
     100005    1   tcp    929  mountd
     100005    2   udp    926  mountd
     100005    2   tcp    929  mountd
     100005    3   udp    926  mountd
     100005    3   tcp    929  mountd

$ showmount -e 192.168.2.254
Exports list on 192.168.2.254:
/mnt/ide4/home                     192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0
/mnt/ide4/telvin-root              *
/mnt/ide4/public                   *

The logs on the NAS suggest that it's not even trying to connect to the
share, which I've confirmed with a packet sniffer.

The instructions at Documentation/nfsroot.txt haven't shed any light...

I've wasted far too much time on this and it's driving me NUTS!  I'd be
very grateful for any suggestions!

Take care,

Ben