[plug] slow to mount nfs, Gentoo <- Debian

[Denis Brown]

Dear PLUG list members,

I'm using nfs to share files on a Debian (predominantly woody) server with 
a Gentoo-based workstation.   In the Debian machine's /etc/exports I have:
/shared/directory specific.workstation.dns.name

In the Gentoo machine's / directory I have created my mountpoint for the 
share and as root in a terminal window I do:
mount -t nfs server.dns.name:/shared/directory /mountpoint

The command (mount) just hangs in the terminal window.   ctrl-C's, ctrl-D's 
etc do not get my command prompt back.   For up to five minutes an ls -al 
/mountpoint (in another terminal window) merely returns the standard . and 
.. directories.   A ps -A reveals that mount is active.   A top does not 
list "mount" in the top-20 resource consumers.   The underlying network is 
100Mbit, all dns entries are correct although admittedly the DNS machine is 
on another subnet sep. by links at 10Mbit but I doubt that is the issue 
here.   All ping times are reasonable including to the DNS machine.

After about five minutes the mountpoint suddenly has the shared directory 
visible although by that time I've killed the stuck "mount blah, bah, blah" 
terminal session.   Maybe I should leave it on and see if there are failure 
messages at conclusion?

The Debian (server, "laurel") daemon log shows happiness, for example:
Jul  8 11:33:21 laurel mountd[30809]: NFS mount of /data/psychiatry/brain 
attemp
ted from ip.address.of.workstation
Jul  8 11:33:21 laurel mountd[30809]: /data/psychiatry/brain has been 
mounted by
  ip.address.of.workstation

Note that there is zero time difference between the mount request and the 
mount taking place (both 11:33.21 in this case.)

Not yet tried:
using IP numbers in lieu of dns names in the exports file and the mount 
command.
adding the mount into /etc/fstab on the Gentoo machine.
nfs'ing from another Debian machine, rather than from a Gentoo machine.

Any thoughts?   According to the NFS HowTo I'm doing everything okay and 
whenever I've used NFS in the past (Debian-Debian) all has been 
sweet.   Looks like - somehow - the Gentoo machine is not processing the 
mount request in a timely manner.   No other resource-heavy tasks were 
being run on the Gentoo (workstation) machine at the time.

Cheers,
Denis