mount error messages

A remote mounting process can fail in several ways. The error messages associated with mounting failures are described here.

mount: ... already mounted

The file system that you are trying to mount is already mounted.

mount: ... not found in /etc/filesystems

The specified file system or directory name cannot be matched.

If you issue the mount command with either a directory or file system name but not both, the command looks in the /etc/filesystems file for an entry whose file system or directory field matches the argument. If the mount command finds an entry such as the following:

/dancer.src:
          dev=/usr/src
          nodename  =  d61server
          type  =  nfs
          mount  =  false

then it performs the mount as if you had entered the following at the command line:

/usr/sbin/mount -n dancer -o rw,hard /usr/src /dancer.src

... not in hosts database

On a network without Network Information Service, this message indicates that the host specified in the mount command is not in the /etc/hosts file. On a network running NIS, the message indicates that NIS could not find the host name in the /etc/hosts database or that the NIS ypbind daemon on your machine has died. If the /etc/resolv.conf file exists so that the name server is being used for host name resolution, there might be a problem in the named database. See Host name resolution on an NFS server.

Check the spelling and the syntax in your mount command. If the command is correct, your network does not run NIS, and you only get this message for this host name, check the entry in the /etc/hosts file.

If your network is running NIS, make sure that the ypbind daemon is running by entering the following at the command line:

ps  -ef

You should see the ypbind daemon in the list. Try using the rlogin command to log in remotely to another machine, or use the rcp command to remote-copy something to another machine. If this also fails, your ypbind daemon is probably stopped or hung.

If you only get this message for this host name, check the /etc/hosts entry on the NIS server.

mount: ... server not responding: port mapper failure - RPC timed out

Either the server you are trying to mount from is down or its port mapper is stopped or hung. Try restarting the server to activate the inetd, portmap, and ypbind daemons.

If you cannot log in to the server remotely with the rlogin command but the server is up, check the network connection by trying to log in remotely to some other machine. Also check the server network connection.

mount: ... server not responding: program not registered

This means that the mount command got through to the port mapper, but the rpc.mountd NFS mount daemon was not registered.

mount: access denied ...

Your machine name is not in the export list for the file system you are trying to mount from the server.

You can get a list of the server exported file systems by running the following command at the command line:

showmount  -e  hostname

If the file system you want is not in the list, or your machine name or netgroup name is not in the user list for the file system, log in to the server and check the /etc/exports file for the correct file system entry. A file system name that appears in the /etc/exports file, but not in the output from the showmount command, indicates a failure in the mountd daemon. Either the daemon could not parse that line in the file, it could not find the directory, or the directory name was not a locally mounted directory. If the /etc/exports file looks correct and your network runs NIS, check the ypbind daemon on the server. It may be stopped or hung. For more information, see Network Information Services (NIS and NIS+) Guide.

mount: ...: Permission denied

This message is a generic indication that some part of authentication failed on the server. It could be that, in the previous example, you are not in the export list, the server could not recognize your machine ypbind daemon, or that the server does not accept the identity you provided.

Check the /etc/exports file on the server and, if applicable, the ypbind daemon. In this case, you can just change your host name with the hostname command and retry the mount command.

mount: ...: Not a directory

Either the remote path or the local path is not a directory. Check the spelling in your command and try to run on both directories.

mount: ...: You are not allowed

You must have root authority or be a member of the system group to run the mount command on your machine because it affects the file system for all users on that machine. NFS mounts and unmounts are only allowed for root users and members of the system group.