Client problems

This section deals with problems which can occur during the mounting of NFS resources. Each individual step of the mounting process can lead to an error - some can even cause several errors. The possible causes are given for each of the error messages listed in the following. The messages which NFS issues relating to client problems are output to stdout.

In the following examples it is assumed that the resource is mounted by way of the command line, but the troubleshooting methods described also apply to automatic mounting via the file /etc/vfstab.

nfs mount: server:pathname: server not responding: RPC: program not registered

The server which is providing the resource to be mounted is not active.
The rpcbind daemon is not running at the server.
The network connection to the server is faulty.

nfs mount: server:pathname: remote mount server not responding: RPC: Timed out

Although the mount command was able to access the rpcbind daemon on the server, the NFS daemon mountd is not reachable there.
Check whether the NFS daemons are active on the server.

nfs_mount: server:pathname: server not responding: RPC: program unavailable

Check whether NFS is installed on the server.

mount: mount-point does not exist

The local mount point does not exist.

mount: ...: Not a directory

The local mount point is not a directory.

nfs_mount: access denied for server:pathname

The resource has not been shared or the name of your system is not contained in the list of clients authorized for access. Check whether and how the resource to be mounted is entered in the table of shared resources on the server. Do this by entering the following command on the client, where server is the name of the NFS server:

$ showmount -e server

If the resource is not displayed, then it must be made available on the server. Do this by entering the following command on the server, where pathname is the name of the NFS resource:

$ share -F nfs [-o ...] pathname

sh: file: cannot create

The user does not have the required access rights or user number.
The resource is shared read-only or mounted read-only.