Q: How do I diagnose Linux's failure to mount an NFS share? I'm trying to export the /home directory to be mounted on another Unix workstation. I've started rpc.portmap, rpc.mountd, and rpc.nfsd, and verified that they`re running. I've placed the following line in /etc/exports:

/home statler(rw)

and run exportfs.

When I try to mount the /home directory on statler, I get the following error:

nfs_mount 2: error while mounting /home; no such file or directory

I have no reason to believe it's a client-side problem, since statler mounts a directory from another workstation. And, waldorf (the Linux workstation) correctly mounts exported filesystems from statler.

A: This qualifies as one of those "the problem could be anything" questions, unfortunately. Here are a few things to try:

Replace everything you can with IP addresses, at least to start.

Also, make sure that you have a direct route between the machines. Ideally, set up a test configuration (temporarily) using a cross-over ethernet cable, rather than going through a hub or switch between the machines.

On that latter comment: Some ethernet switches do not by default pass large packets. Therefore, you may wish to try qualifying the "mount" command with options to limit packet size to below the MTU value, e.g., "rsize=1024,wsize=1024".

You can analyze your routing tables, or just type route add 100.100.0.1 (use the IP number of the other machine) on both machines.