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From: mld@netcom.com (Matthew Deter)
Subject: Re: xdm and NFS (a curious question)
Message-ID: <mldCwBHnA.BI4@netcom.com>
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References: <35cmdd$mp8@sundog.tiac.net>
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 1994 08:45:09 GMT
Lines: 32
Brian McGovern (mcgovern@spoon.beta.com) wrote:
: My initial reaction was that maybe it had something to do with the way NFS
: was working. After playing with it for awhile, I found that directories owned
: by root, or root-alikes (ie - bin, daemon, etc) I could read fine, but not
: write to if I was root, but any directories owned by non-root type users
: (ie - I NFS mounted /usr/homes) would allow me to read and write with no
: problems at all.
: Can I possibly get some input on this, and how to avoid it. I would like it
: for both my work and home set of machines.
I don't know if xdm requires root privs on the /usr/X386 tree or not,
so I can't tell you whether this is the problem, but it sounds like it
could be: If xdm does indeed need root write privs, it is failing
because you have not exported your NFS directory with root privs.
Add "-root=clienthost" to the line in /etc/exports on your server
which exports /usr/X386. This will allow the client to do root writes
to the NFS mounted volume. Note that NFS defaults to not exporting
root for security reasons, and there are definite issues with security
which may or may not apply to your site. (if you don't trust root on
the client, you ought not export root to it, etc...)
Of course, "clienthost" is the hostname of the client machine you are
mounting /usr/X386 to.
--
$$ Matthew Deter -- mld@netcom.com
$$$$
$$ "Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding
$$$$ star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but
$$ one direction. They point to me."
$$$$
$$ -- from the novel _Anthem_ by Ayn Rand