NFSroot error 13

Dear Group,

I require assistance from an NFS guru - I have googled, but not found a
similar problem, or at least one with a relevent answer.

We currently operate a PC cloning system, in which a host PC is booted
from a floppy containing a Linux kernel with NFS, NFSRoot and kernel
autoconfiguration (bootp) built in. This mounts a remote partition on our
image server, and then runs a script which creates the filesystem and
pulls the files across etc.

The system is currently working fine using our bootp server, however, when
we switch to using DHCP the system stops. The kernel has been
reconfigured to use DHCP in the autoconfiguration, and the lilo.conf has
been changed to show:

image=/vmlinuz-2.4.21
label=Installer
root=/dev/nfsroot
append="nfsroot=193.61.107.141:/usr/local/lics/support/root ip=::::::dhcp init=/scripts/clone"

The problem seems to occur when trying to mount the NFS partition, when I
see an error message:

"Root NFS: Server returned error 13 while mounting
/route/to/image/partition.
VFS: Unable to mount root fs via NFS, trying floppy."

Error 13 is a permissions error, but Ihave checked all the permissions I
can think of and they all apear OK. File permissions, /etc/exports,
/etc/hosts.allow, /etc/hosts.deny.

When I ran TCPdump on the server to see if this threw any light on the
problem the error message cjhanges to:

"Unable to determine rpc port from server, using defaults"

any ideas?


Gareth Ansell
UNIX Team
Infrastructure
Coventry University

Gareth Ansell <ceeceeextwosixfour@coventry.ac.uk> wrote:

> We currently operate a PC cloning system, in which a host PC is booted
> from a floppy containing a Linux kernel with NFS, NFSRoot and kernel
> autoconfiguration (bootp) built in. This mounts a remote partition on our
> image server, and then runs a script which creates the filesystem and
> pulls the files across etc.

Have you ever looked at SystemImager?

Running off floppies is both slow and prone to failure. I would suggest
you go to www.rom-o-matic.net and get yourself a ROM image for the
NIC(s) you are using. This will boot _much_ faster, but you will need to
set up the whole network-booting thing (which is actually easier and
less trouble-prone than the way you're currently doing it.)

You just need a kernel and a root fs in an initrd, then use mknbi-linux
to create a tagged image which has both of these in it, stick it in
/tftpboot/ and configure your clients via DHCP. Here's an extract from
a system I run. (I run with a lot of netbooting in my network, both with
SystemImager (and another custom solution I made before I discovered
SystemImager, and LTSP, and options for local booting as well.)

----------- partial dhcpd.conf -------------
option etherboot-magic code 128 = string;
option nic-settings code 129 = text;
option menu-options code 160 = text;
option menu-entry-1 code 192 = text;
option menu-entry-2 code 193 = text;
option menu-entry-3 code 194 = text;
option menu-entry-4 code 195 = text;
option menu-entry-5 code 196 = text;

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
authoritative;
option domain-name "localdomain";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option log-servers 192.168.1.10;
use-host-decl-names on;

filename "/tftpboot/systemimager.nb";
next-server medussa.xterms;

host manuka.localdomain {
hardware ethernet 00:20:ed:1a:a4:af;
fixed-address manuka.localdomain;
}
}

subnet 192.168.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option domain-name "xterms";
option domain-name-servers crosstalk.localdomain;
option routers medussa.xterms;
authoritative;

group {
filename "/tftpboot/lts/vmlinuz-2.4.9-ltsp-5";
next-server medussa.xterms;
use-host-decl-names on;
option root-path "192.168.3.1:/opt/ltsp/i386";
option log-servers 192.168.3.1;

option etherboot-magic e4:45:74:68:00:00;

option menu-options "timeout=30";
option menu-entry-1 "X-Terminal:::-:::";
option menu-entry-2 "First Hard Disk:::/dev/hda:::";
option menu-entry-3 "Install Slackware Linux 8.1:::slack81inst.nb:::";
option menu-entry-5 "System Imager:::systemimager.nb:::";

host xterm001 {
hardware ethernet 00:06:4F:01:94:26;
fixed-address xterm001.xterms;
}
}
---------- end partial dhcpd.conf -----------

--
Cameron Kerr
cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
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