Comments on: NFS in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard

By: Mac OS X (10.5), NFS, and Linux | Pete Ware

Mac OS X (10.5), NFS, and Linux | Pete Ware — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:58:11 +0000

[...] mount an NFS filesystem from my Linux server. There’s a nice set of instructions on using the Directory Utility to do so. The problem stumping me [...]

By: Ted M

Ted M — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:23:59 +0000

For what it’s worth, the mount_nfs man page recommends using “-o resvport” rather than “-P” So my options are

-o resvport -o rw,bg,intr,soft,tcp

where “soft,intr” allows commands to be interrupted if the file system becomes unavailable. (tcp is the default first choice, anyway, after which udp is attempted)

By: Roy Miller

Roy Miller — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:52:04 +0000

For those wondering about how to change UID and GID values – check out the Directory Services Command Line tool (dscl). This is/was available in Tiger as well, which I didn’t find out about until Leopard came along and NetInfo disappeared!

Read the man page.

Try:
dscl . -list /Users to see a list of users.
dscl . -list /Users PrimaryGroupID to see a list of users and their associated primary group
dscl . -read /Users/username to see all the details of a particular user
dscl . -change /Users/username PrimaryGroupID oldID newID to change the GID value.

I recommend using the -change option for changes, rather than the -create option. Create will go ahead and overwrite or create a new field with the assigned value, while Change will complain if you make a typo on the field or old value.

Now if I could only get my Linux export to mount! Does anyone know if the Linux export works for USB attached disks on a Linux box?
Cheers!

By: Stephane Blackburn

Stephane Blackburn — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:25:32 +0000

Voila! It was the -P option! Damn! Thanks for your hint page!

Server: Ubuntu 8.04, working ok with a ubuntu client. I’ve change my uid on the Mac side last night doing test… can’t tell if it’s a combination of uid/-P or just the -P option, thanks!

By: syrabo

syrabo — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:40:41 +0000

My solution for “secure”-mounts with a Linux-NAS (qnap 209 Pro) is the option:

resvport=2049 (NFS on Linux works on port 2049 by default; look at /etc/services

Syntax in the CLI:

sudo mount_nfs -o resvport=2049 :/qusb /Volumes/qusb

In the appication “Directory Utility” set in “Advanced Mount Parameters”:

resvport=2049

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:23:26 +0000

Looking for a howto on changing the uid/gid in leopard, anyone found one that works?

By: Paolo

Paolo — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:33:59 +0000

#/etc/exports

/shares/PINO/ 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(insecure,insecure_locks,rw,sync,all_squash,anonuid=33,anongid=33)
/shares/ 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

in this way works with tiger (first share) and leopard (second share). Finally!

By: VM

VM — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:28:06 +0000

Ok thanks.. I’m pretty sure the problem is something along the lines you suggested above. Something to do with privileges in any case.

By: russo.

russo. — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:28:40 +0000

Umm, i’d say check the host by using rpcinfo -p If you can’t map the host then check hosts.allow and hosts.deny

Sometimes configuring nfs is hard the first time, but if you read the manual carefully (the best manual i’ve ever seen for something of this type) then you can usually find a solution.

Again, I got this working with debian with no problems at all other than the fact that you maybe have to work with the privileged flag (-P in leopard or make the shares insecure on debian)

Good luck!

By: VM

VM — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:54:06 +0000

Just can’t get Leopard to work with my Debian shares… “#%#”.

Could someone say what switches in /etc/exports are required to get Leopard SOME access to them.. nice blog but I just can’t get ANY access to the shares. Nada. From terminal I get “access denied” basically.. and from Finder after setting up in Directory Utility I just get “alias couldn’t be opened because the original item can’t be found”..

What am I missing here.. and yeah I’ve checked the full path too..

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:10:07 +0000

So my problem seems a little more basic. Directory utility works fine and the linux computer shows up as /Volumes/potter. However, I can’t even change to the directory on the iMac because I do not have permissions.

I am using a login/user that does not nave administrative privileges. However, if I login under an administrative account everything seems works fine.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:08:32 +0000

Thanks for the info… I wish Mac OSX would just use the secure port by default.

By: Iain Houston

Iain Houston — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:24:41 +0000

I think my solution is simple enough.
I was missing the step to map all uids and gids to the anonymous user.
Now the anonuid and anongid will take effect as I had hoped!

In the event:
The Ubuntu clients actually don’t need gid uid mapping, but
the Mac clients need id mapping offered by the ‘all_squash’ option

Now we all have rw access to the nfs exports … great!

I came across http://linux.die.net/man/5/exports which explained well.

Hope this helps other Leopard users mounting (Ubuntu) nfs exports.

By: russo.

russo. — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:30:31 +0000

Even if you use anongid and all that, you still have to change the permissions for the folder to allow that gid/uid to write. Just do an ls -l and check the owner and group.

-P might not work if you’re running debian, there you have to compile it yourself so that it has the secure authentication used by Mac OS.

Also “doesn’t work” isn’t helpful, NFS is very well documented just check your logs, and you’ll probably find the problem… eg. tail /var/log/messages

By: Iain Houston

Iain Houston — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:23:21 +0000

Great article! Thanks.
Problem that remains for me is gaining rw access to NFS mounts from Leopard.
I use anonuid and anongid in server’s exports and export only to local network.
These exports give me rw access from other *nix machines but not from Leopard.
Tried unsuccessfully the -P option you suggested … but am thrashing a bit now!
Any attempt by Leopard to change directory names on server results in “you do not have sufficient privileges”

By: russo.

russo. — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:45:46 +0000

Sorry guys Marcus, is right. What i did was created a folder and it works when you have a folder enclosing all the mounts, and thus i didn’t notice that this doesn’t work untill just now.

So Just mount all the mounts /Volumes/Host or /Network/Host and or /Volumes/Mounts or whatever you want. Then in Volumes you will see the folder with the mountnames, these can be dragged into places. If you only have one mount, then i’m not sure that this is that practical.

You could try to create a symlink in command line, i haven’t tried this though… yet.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:43:43 +0000

Hi Brent,

I too had the same problem, until I realized that you cannot create an alias of the mount point, but you can create aliases for any and all directories under the NFS mount point.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:08:36 +0000

I tried adding the share to my places however, i just get a white rejection sign when i try to place it in my places. i tried option apple, and the apple T command to move it to my places.

By: B0rkdox

B0rkdox — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:03:53 +0000

How do i get the share in my Finder Sidebar?

I’m a Linux user, just got my first macbook. What the is to “drag it while holding apple + option”? I’ve got my NFS mount in /Network, how do I make it accessible the “mac way”?

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:28:18 +0000

Great tip, thanks!

Almost everything is working perfectly, I’m just having one small problem that I’m almost ashamed to admit: I can’t create aliases for these shares. The Make Alias option is greyed out in the File menu in Finder. Any ideas out there? Thanks!