NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

[rlangset]

Do we have support for NFS in 8.10?

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

I have found the nfs support on intrepid very archaic at the moment. I have one PC with 8.10 and two other computers with 8.04 on my home network connected by a wireless router. All machines have static IP addresses. I have installed nfs-kernel-server and nfs-common on all machines. On the Intrepid PC, I edited the file /etc/exports to list the directories to export and I edited the file /etc/hosts to add the IP and host names for the other PC's. I then edited the file /etc/fstab to add the nfs mounts making sure that the mount points on the intrepid PC were valid directories.

The intrepid PC does not mount the directories on the other machines during the boot procedure. I have to issue a mount command using Konsole. On the 8.04 machines this is easily done with the Storage Media option in Dolphin.

[3vi1]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Works fine here.

I've had NFS configured since version 6.10. My server is still at 8.04, right now (I usually don't update it until we get the final version), but I have two clients at 8.10 that have no issues mounting the shares at boot.

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Works fine here.

I've had NFS configured since version 6.10. My server is still at 8.04, right now (I usually don't update it until we get the final version), but I have two clients at 8.10 that have no issues mounting the shares at boot.

Good to know that you can do that. I am wondering how you automatically mount the NFS shares as my mount in the fstab file has the form

LAN_user:/home/user   /home/user_me/a_LAN_user    nfs   noauto,users,rw 0 0

This is not mounted on boot and is only mounted by the command

sudo mount /home/user_me/a_LAN_user

[Guest]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

when i installed kubuntu intrepid beta last week my machine wouldn't connect to nfs shares on bootup either. I could manually mount them from konsole, but they would not mount at startup.

I reinstalled (from the same cd) a couple of days ago and it works fine now. I'm not sure what caused the problem, but a reinstall cleared it up. The way my lan is setup having nfs working properly is a must.

[3vi1]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Good to know that you can do that. I am wondering how you automatically mount the NFS shares as my mount in the fstab file has the form

LAN_user:/home/user   /home/user_me/a_LAN_user   nfs  noauto,users,rw 0 0

Mine looks like this:

server_name:/server_share /local_mount_point nfs user,noatime,auto,rw,nodev,exec,suid 0 0

[Detonate]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

I have assigned static IPs to all of the computers on my network. So in the fstab line, I use the ip address instead of the server_name. Same thing in the exports file. It seems to avoid errors and to me, seems to work with complete reliability this way.

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Good to know that you can do that. I am wondering how you automatically mount the NFS shares as my mount in the fstab file has the form

LAN_user:/home/user   /home/user_me/a_LAN_user   nfs  noauto,users,rw 0 0

Mine looks like this:

server_name:/server_share /local_mount_point nfs user,noatime,auto,rw,nodev,exec,suid 0 0

I have just returned from being away and have tried the fstab options that you suggest. It does work when the system is booted and the other computers on the network are up. However, if the 8.10 system is started first, then I have to manually mount the connections to the other computers after they are booted. There is no option on 8.10 to mount as in 8.04 with the System Menu > Storage Media option of Dolphin.

Unless I can be convinced otherwise, I find 8.10 still behind 8.04 in this area as well as with some applications such as kweather, kmoon, kworldclock and knemo not being available.

About 24 hours from now I will be away again for a a couple of weeks and will check on what can be done to make NFS more convenient when I return. I am not sure a reinstall will fix this problem but I may try this as a last resort. After all, 8.10 is only on a test PC on my home network.

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

I have done a reinstall and I get the same results. With the fstab line

LAN_user:/home/user   /home/user_me/a_LAN_user    nfs   rw,user 0 0

The nfs mount occurs when 8.10 is booted. If a second machine on my home network is booted, the files on this machine can only be seen after issuing the command:

sudo mount -a

If any machine that has an nfs mount active is turned off, then the Dolphin file manager hangs.

This is avoided by using Konsole and issuing an umount for the nfs connection to the computer before it is turned off. For 8.04, I can do the umount using the gui available with "System Menu" > "Storage Media".

Just for the record, my exports file for the nfs mounts on all my home network computers has the form:

/        192.168.10.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,all_squash)
/home/user_me  192.168.10.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,all_squash)
/home/user_me  host_me.local(rw)

At this stage I will wait for KDE 4.2 and then evaluate whether I will changing all the PC's on my home network to 8.10.

[Detonate]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

These are my settings for my NFS network which links my desktop, my laptop, and my wife's computer. Everything works. Note my use of static IP's.

http://www.thegeezergeek.net/NFSSettings.html

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Sounds like you have a similar arrangement to what I have. I also use fixed IP addresses as I do not know how to use nfs without the IP addresses fixed.

I decide to try your fstab and exports options on my laptop and desktop which currently use 8.04. As before, if the laptop is booted after the desktop, the desktop does NOT automatically make the nfs connections after the laptop is booted. To get the connections in 8.04, I use the Storage Media gui to mount the nfs connections to the laptop. If I then shutdown the laptop without unmounting the nfs connections to the laptop, Dolphin and Kongueror file managers hang.

I decided to not add entries to the hosts.allow and hosts.deny files as, from what I have read, an empty hosts.allow file permits all mount requests.

I will be interested to know your definition of "Everything works". Eg, if the computers on your home network are booted in order, does the first one make the nfs connections automatically when the others are booted? Also, if the nfs connections are established to one computer which is then shutdown, can you still use Dolphin on the computer that is still running? My definition of "Everything works" is that these actions can be performed without resorting to the command line to perform mount and umount.

[Detonate]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Hmm, now that you mention it, sometimes I do have to issue the commands to restart nfs-coomon and nfs-kernal-server to get things working. Not a big deal, but they should connect automatically. I'll have to do a little more research on the correct options.

Oh. and after restarting the NFS system, you have to run the fstab again. sudo mount -a. Too late to work on it tonight, I'll check it out tomorrow.

[Detonate]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Everything worked this morning when I booted up. I don't have any issues with my file manager hanging up after shutting down a computer on the network. You may find a clue to that problem in man nfs, especially the part about async and sync.

[NoWorries]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

Glad to hear the you did not have any trouble. Here is a more detailed description of what I have found. I am not sure how you started your network PC's as I have found that this has an impact on the mount operations.

My PC's are called "basil", "sybil" and "manuel". The desktop on my wife's PC sybil is "aurora" and the home directory folders for the NFS mounts on sybil, which is an 8.10 system, are:

/home/aurora/a_basil
/home/aurora/a_basil_home
/home/aurora/a_manuel
/home/aurora/a_manuel_home

I use these names to have them at the top of the home directory listing so the files on the other PC's can be easily accessed.

If any of these PC's are mounted from sybil and then shutdown, I can start Dolphin but I cannot enter the home directory. If I change the NFS mount to use the following home directories:

/home/aurora/a/basil
/home/aurora/a/basil_home
/home/aurora/a/manuel
/home/aurora/a/manuel_home

I can then start Dolphin and enter the home directory and any other folders with the exception of /home/aurora/a/ when any of the other PC's are mounted and then shutdown.

If I boot sybil and wait for it to show its desktop before starting basil and manuel (my laptop), I have to do a command line nfs mount for both of these from sybil. If I switch them on in sequence without any significant wait, then auto mount is normally successful.

Currently, my intention is to change the nfs option from auto to noauto and use the command line to mount and umount from the 8.10 system (sybil) when required. I also have noticed that on bootup of the 8.10 PC, there is a significant delay checking the network when the other PC's are not on.

The Linux distribution which, in my opinion, handles the nfs mounts the best is Mepis. I would be very pleased if kubuntu followed their approach. I changed from Mepis because of their slowness in getting the latest applications.

[Detonate]

Re: NFS support in KUBUNTU 8.10

I usually run three computers on my network. I don't have the problems you do. On my computer, I have it set up to share two directories from my home directory, Documents and Pictures. On the other computers, they are set up to share the home directory of the primary user. I am running Xubuntu on all three so my file manager is Thunar.

As to the boot up delay, while reading the man nfs document, i saw a mount option called bg, which stands for background. I have not tried this, but if I read this correctly, adding this option to the line in fstab will cause the mount to immediately go into "background" mode if it fails to mount on the first attempt, which means it will skip that line and continue to process the rest of the fstab file. It will keep trying to mount the skipped line in the background. I think that would solve the boot up problem.

If I know one of my computers is going to be out of service for awhile, I simply comment out it's line in fstab until it is back online.