Re: automount won't start - just hangs

[Jim Duda <jim@duda.tzo.com>]

I have gathered the information required in this post.  I have provided 
the common information for machines which work and fail.  I have 
provided the syslog debug message for those that work and also those 
that fail.

lroom# rpm -q autofs
autofs-5.0.1-31

lroom# uname -a
Linux lroom 2.6.22.2-tftp #1 Sun Aug 12 11:14:47 EDT 2007 i686 i686 i386 
GNU/Linux


lroom# cat /etc/auto.master
#
# Sample auto.master file
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# For details of the format look at autofs(5).
#
#/misc  /etc/auto.misc
#/net   -hosts
/mnt/usb /etc/auto.usb --timeout=2
#
# Include central master map if it can be found using
# nsswitch sources.
#
# Note that if there are entries for /net or /misc (as
# above) in the included master map any keys that are the
# same will not be seen as the first read key seen takes
# precedence.
#
#+auto.master

lroom# cat /etc/auto.usb
device_a         -fstype=vfat,rw,gid=100,umask=002       :/dev/sda1
device_b         -fstype=vfat,rw,gid=100,umask=002       :/dev/sdb1

lroom# cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# An example Name Service Switch config file. This file should be
# sorted with the most-used services at the beginning.
#
# The entry '[NOTFOUND=return]' means that the search for an
# entry should stop if the search in the previous entry turned
# up nothing. Note that if the search failed due to some other reason
# (like no NIS server responding) then the search continues with the
# next entry.
#
# Legal entries are:
#
#       nisplus or nis+         Use NIS+ (NIS version 3)
#       nis or yp               Use NIS (NIS version 2), also called YP
#       dns                     Use DNS (Domain Name Service)
#       files                   Use the local files
#       db                      Use the local database (.db) files
#       compat                  Use NIS on compat mode
#       hesiod                  Use Hesiod for user lookups
#       [NOTFOUND=return]       Stop searching if not found so far
#

# To use db, put the "db" in front of "files" for entries you want to be
# looked up first in the databases
#
# Example:
#passwd:    db files nisplus nis
#shadow:    db files nisplus nis
#group:     db files nisplus nis

passwd:     files
shadow:     files
group:      files

#hosts:     db files nisplus nis dns
hosts:      files dns

# Example - obey only what nisplus tells us...
#services:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#networks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#protocols:  nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#rpc:        nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#ethers:     nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#netmasks:   nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

bootparams: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

ethers:     files
netmasks:   files
networks:   files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
services:   files

netgroup:   files

publickey:  nisplus

automount:  files
aliases:    files nisplus

lroom# cat /etc/sysconfig/autofs
#
# Define default options for autofs.
#
# MASTER_MAP_NAME - default map name for the master map.
#
#MASTER_MAP_NAME="auto.master"
#
# TIMEOUT - set the default mount timeout (default 600).
#
TIMEOUT=300
#
# BROWSE_MODE - maps are browsable by default.
#
BROWSE_MODE="no"
#
# APPEND_OPTIONS - append to global options instead of replace.
#
#APPEND_OPTIONS="yes"
#
# LOGGING - set default log level "none", "verbose" or "debug"
#
LOGGING="debug"
#
# Define the default LDAP schema to use for lookups
#
# System default
#
#MAP_OBJECT_CLASS="nisMap"
#ENTRY_OBJECT_CLASS="nisObject"
#MAP_ATTRIBUTE="nisMapName"
#ENTRY_ATTRIBUTE="cn"
#VALUE_ATTRIBUTE="nisMapEntry"
#
# Other common LDAP nameing
#
#MAP_OBJECT_CLASS="automountMap"
#ENTRY_OBJECT_CLASS="automount"
#MAP_ATTRIBUTE="ou"
#ENTRY_ATTRIBUTE="cn"
#VALUE_ATTRIBUTE="automountInformation"
#
#MAP_OBJECT_CLASS="automountMap"
#ENTRY_OBJECT_CLASS="automount"
#MAP_ATTRIBUTE="automountMapName"
#ENTRY_ATTRIBUTE="automountKey"
#VALUE_ATTRIBUTE="automountInformation"
#
# AUTH_CONF_FILE - set the default location for the SASL
#                          authentication configuration file.
#
#AUTH_CONF_FILE="/etc/autofs_ldap_auth.conf"
#
# General global options
#
#OPTIONS=""
#

The "linux" machine is the NFS server which provides the root file 
system for the "lroom" and "gym" machines.  The /tftpboot/muekow/i386 
directory is the root file system for the diskless machines, which is a 
static hard mount setup during the early boot process.

Here are the log files for the "lroom" machine which works properly.

Jan  1 11:43:37 lroom automount[1968]: Starting automounter version 
5.0.1-31, master map auto.master
Jan  1 11:43:37 lroom automount[1968]: using kernel protocol version 5.00
Jan  1 11:43:37 linux mountd[2130]: authenticated unmount request from 
lroom:915 for /tftpboot/muekow/i386 (/tftpboot/muekow)
Jan  1 11:44:12 linux mountd[2130]: authenticated unmount request from 
lroom:637 for /tftpboot/muekow/i386 (/tftpboot/muekow)
Jan  1 11:44:12 lroom automount[1968]: mounted indirect mount on 
/mnt/usb with timeout 2, freq 1 seconds
Jan  1 11:45:06 lroom automount[1968]: attempting to mount entry 
/mnt/usb/DCIM
Jan  1 11:45:06 lroom automount[1968]: failed to mount /mnt/usb/DCIM
Jan  1 11:45:06 lroom automount[1968]: attempting to mount entry 
/mnt/usb/dcim
Jan  1 11:45:06 lroom automount[1968]: failed to mount /mnt/usb/dcim
Jan  1 11:45:17 lroom xinetd[1820]: START: telnet pid=2280 
from=192.168.1.254

Here are the log files for the "gym" machine which fails to start 
automount properly.  The automount program is in the hung state at this 
point.

Jan  1 11:49:36 gym automount[1846]: Starting automounter version 
5.0.1-31, master map auto.master
Jan  1 11:49:36 gym automount[1846]: using kernel protocol version 5.00
Jan  1 11:49:36 linux mountd[2130]: authenticated unmount request from 
gym:778 for /tftpboot/muekow/i386 (/tftpboot/muekow)


I realized today that the machines which fail to work are P3 processors 
whereas the one that works is a P4 processor.  I don't know if that has 
meaning or is a pure coincidence.

Thanks for the help.

Jim





Ian Kent wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-12-31 at 17:03 -0500, Jim Duda wrote:
>> I'm attempting to use autofs on some diskless machines which operate 
>> using an NFS mounted root file system.  I have three different computers 
>> which share the same root file system (with unique /tmp and /var 
>> directories) and the same 2.6.22 kernel.
>>
>> I want to use autofs for removable USB memory sticks.
>>
>> On one machine, I can use autofs just fine.  Autofs mounts and unmounts 
>> the usb sticks as I expect it to.  Works nice.
>>
>> However, on the other two machines, I cannot get automount to start.  It 
>> simply hangs upon startup, I cannot ^C to exit or anything.  I have to 
>> kill -9 the process.
>>
>> I cannot figure out what automount is looking for, and not getting, 
>> which would cause it to hang.  I've attempted to use gdb to help me find 
>> the problem, but I haven't had much luck.  (I've downloaded the most 
>> recent 5.0.2 tar bar and build automount with -g to debug.
> 
> Did you apply any of the patches for 5.0.2?
> 
>> I'm hoping someone might shed some light on how best to debug this issue.
> 
> Have a look at http://people.redhat.com/jmoyer for what to collect and
> post here.
> 
> Ian