[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#360123: nfs-common: NFS filesystems not mounted on boot

[Jim Hague]

I have this problem too, on a recent (6/6/2006) install of etch.

The core problem is that the network is not available at the time mountnfs.sh 
is run. The reason for this in turn is that the installer, not unreasonably, 
configures the network as a hotpluggable device. The relevant stanza 
of /etc/network/interfaces is:

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping eth0
       script grep
       map eth0

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

On my system (Asus Terminator K7, onboard SiS900), the kernel driver doesn't 
deliver the hotplug 'eth0: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex' message for 
some time. In my case, the system has started on the rc2.d scripts by the 
time it arrives and dhclient kicks off. There is therefore no network 
interface configured when mountnfs.sh is run.

I have worked around this by reverting the network config to the old-fashioned

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

This forces the network link up at the required time. Of course, I lose the 
hotplugginess of eth0.
-- 
Jim Hague - jim.hague at acm.org          Never trust a computer you can't lift.