I have solved the problem!!!!
I did, however, recieve a bit of mail from people with similar problems and so
I'm posting my solutions (mail me if this doesn't help you and you need more
specific information).
first problem:
My linux box was set up at home and then brought to work and hooked up to the
network. I had already created an account on linux with the same name as my
account at work. The problem was that the UID #'s (which are most important)
didn't match and so it couldn't resolve the user. Example: I used ncpmount
on linux to mount under the name "twinkie" but didn't have full read/write
access as "twinkie" when the volume was nfs mounted on the sparc.
first solution:
One way to
fix this is removing "twinkie" from the local linux /etc/passwd and using the
"twinkie" from the nfs passwd file.
second problem:
I only had access to local machines and not to machines on remote networks
(this was a big problem because the nfs master is on a local network). I hadn't
used the correct addresses and names in /etc/rc/rc.inet1, /etc/nisdomainname,
/etc/yp.config, and maybe a few other files.
second solution:
Re-check all of your addresses and your domain and nis domain and yp server
names (domain and ins domain names CAN be different). Check with your network
administrator and verify EVERYTHING (yes, I now we aren't second graders but
strange things slip by . . .)
third problem:
the NIS HOWTO says that a "+" isn't needed in /etc/passwd and /etc/group.
My NIS didn't want to work WITHOUT this "+"
third solution:
Add the "+". I tried adding exactly what it said I didn't need to add but it
still didn't work. I had to remove the "*" from the "+:*::::" (or whatever it
was). The "*" tells the system that no one can use that login except root.
Removing the "*" tells the system that the password is disabled for that login.
I see saw this as a security problem if I removed the "*" so I tried to login
as "+" - I wouldn't let me and said it was an invalid login. Apparently the
system knows about "+" and only uses it to refer to the NIS server.
Things are working correctly now and I'm able to mount ncp volumes to linux and
re-export them under nfs to whoever needs to mount them. Unfortunately ncpmount
has shortcomings: It doesn't translat novell file permissions to UNIX file
permissions . . . anyone want to write some code to donate to the next release
of ncpfs?
thayne_harbaugh@lardav.com
If this wasn't specific enough send me some mail. I don't profess to know, or
even understand, all of the problems and solutions of ncpfs.