NFS kernel daemon: no support in current kernel

Question

I installed NFS server on my Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit with apt-get install and when I try to start the server I always see:

NFS kernel daemon: no support in current kernel.

Answer 1

Did you check Ubuntu's official docummentation about Network File System (NFS)?

As the error tells you, your current GNU/Linux kernel (what is a kernel?) does not support NFS. You can solve it either by

• Configuring and compiling your own Ubuntu kernel, or
• Configuring and compiling your own upstream kernel (also known as vanilla kernel), or

• Installing the package provided by Ubuntu to save you time and effort required for previous options:

  sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
  

Maybe you have a module for that but it is just not loaded, in such case: modprobe nfs and try again.

Or follow the recommended procedure in the documentation and start the NFS service in the Ubuntu way (hoping that it'll modprobe it for you if needed, I'm not sure if it does):

sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server start

And of course, don't forget to configure your exports in /etc/exports. This is not your problem but since it's part of NFS configuration I explain it too.

Remember that spaces matter, so

/home bob.example.com(rw)
/home bob.example.com (rw)

are different.

The first line works probably as expected, granting bob.example.com read/write permissions, while the second line grants bob.example.com default permissions (read only) and read/write permissions to everybody else. (Credit and further information: The /etc/exports Configuration File, Red Hat)