I am having a similar issue with the following server configuration: vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic, nfs-kernel-server and kubuntu 10.04 the workaround restarting portmap before nfs-kernel-server fixes the problem for me. I don't see the problem with normal nfs directory access unless I use thunderbird on an nfs directory which does the file locking and does not work at all until I restart portmap before nfs-kernel-server. I modified the /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf as suggested in #1 above to the following but I still need to restart portmap and nfs-kernel-server each time the system reboots. My /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf is: # rc-sysinit - System V initialisation compatibility # # This task runs the old System V-style system initialisation scripts, # and enters the default runlevel when finished. description "System V initialisation compatibility" author "Scott James Remnant