stale nfs file handle blocks shutdown

[Paul Abrahams]

I'm running a fully updated Kubuntu 13.10 on a 64-bit Lenovo Z58 laptop. When I shut down, the shutdown process gets stuck with the message "stale nfs file handle". The system just sits there thereafter. I know what's going on but I don't know what to do about it, and a system fix is clearly needed.

I have a mounted remote nfs file system. At shutdown, the network shuts down and leaves the connection stranded before the file system can be unmounted. This problem has been reported already in connection with cifs but not, as far as I know, in connection with nfs.

What's needed is a check of mounted file systems before the network is shut down. Any remote file system, whether cifs or nfs, should then be unmounted. Only after the unmount is confirmed can the shutdown process continue. I don't have enough system knowledge to implement this myself, or I would.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1299225/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

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[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

Unfortunately, nothing in FindRightPackages seems to apply to this situation. I suppose it's the package that contains the shutdown scripts, but I don't know what package that is.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

Judging from the description I am going to assume you are talking about system level services, so that's the package upstart most likely :)

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

I can believe that upstart is the correct package, but "FindRightPackage" would never lead me there.

The problem of making sure that remote filesystems are detached before the network is shut down has been around in several guises for quite a while.

[Paul Abrahams (abrahams)]

I can suggest the outline of a fix, but I don't have enough system knowledge to provide the actual code.

What's needed is a script in one of the /etc/rc.d files that checks all mounted filesystems to see if they are remote. If a filesystem is remote, then it is forcibly unmounted. This script should be positioned so that it is executed before the networks are shut down and before the general unmounting.

I'm not sure about the best criterion for choosing the filesystems to be unmounted in this way. It might be better to see what device the root filesystem is on and unmount everything but the ones on that device.