I realised that the ID of files on NFSv4 mounts on my desktop (client) were the default nobody, 4294967294. In checking there was no idmapd running. Also I noted I had not even edited the /etc/idmapd.conf file to enter the local domain name. Did that but still, there was no idmapd init script to launch and executing idmapd would not start. I found out from some google searching that this is a commonly report problem, that is, idmap is started in the /etc/init.d/nfs script, but if you are mounting NFSv4 mounts (that need idmapd) with autofs, then this script won't be called. Calling it manually doesn't help as it aborts after not finding any NFS monts in /etc/fstab.
So I hacked up an idmapd using the nfs init script and tearing out everything besides the idmapd lines. I have not thoroughly tested it, so YMMV. ensure the file is named rpc.idmapd as this is important. Script is below:
cat /etc/init.d/rpc.idmapd #! /bin/bash -x # Copyright (c) 1996-2002 SuSE Linux AG, Nuernberg, Germany. # Copyright (c) 2008 SuSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany. # All rights reserved. # # Author: Florian La Roche, 1996 # Werner Fink, 1996,2008 # Burchard Steinbild, 1996 # # Please send feedback to http://www.suse.de/feedback # # /etc/init.d/nfs # ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: rpc.idmapd # Required-Start: $network $portmap # Required-Stop: $network $portmap # Default-Start: 3 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6 # Short-Description: idmap Daemon # Description: The NFSv4 idmap Dameon ### END INIT INFO . /etc/rc.status . /etc/sysconfig/nfs # XXX: there should be separate init scripts for these really IDMAPD_BIN=/usr/sbin/rpc.idmapd IDMAPD_CLIENT_STATE=/var/run/nfs/nfs-rpc.idmapd IDMAPD_SERVER_STATE=/var/run/nfs/nfsserver-rpc.idmapd if [ -z "$RPC_PIPEFS_DIR" ]; then RPC_PIPEFS_DIR=/var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs fi NEED_IDMAPD=no NEED_GSSD=no NEED_LDCONFIG=no state=0 usr="" opt="" mnt="" nfs=$NFS_START_SERVICES if [ "x$nfs" != "xyes" ] then nfs=no fi if test "$NFS4_SUPPORT" = yes ; then NEED_IDMAPD=yes fi if grep -E '^(sunrpc|fs.nfs)' /etc/sysctl.conf > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then nfs=yes fi mount_rpc_pipefs() { # See if the file system is there yet case `stat -c "%t" -f "$RPC_PIPEFS_DIR"` in *67596969*) return 0;; esac mount -t rpc_pipefs rpc_pipefs "$RPC_PIPEFS_DIR" } umount_rpc_pipefs() { # See if the file system is there case `stat -c "%t" -f "$RPC_PIPEFS_DIR"` in *67596969*) umount "$RPC_PIPEFS_DIR" esac } do_start_idmapd() { mount_rpc_pipefs # as idmapd needs to be run by server and client # check if there is already a idmapd running if checkproc $IDMAPD_BIN && test -f $IDMAPD_SERVER_STATE; then killproc -HUP $IDMAPD_BIN else startproc $IDMAPD_BIN return $? fi } rc_reset case "$1-$nfs" in start-no|reload-no) # Always run smnotify, even if no mounts are listed in fstab. # If there is nothing to do, it will exit quickly, and if there # is something to do, the sooner it is done, the better. /usr/sbin/sm-notify $SM_NOTIFY_OPTIONS echo -n "Not starting NFS client services - no NFS found in /etc/fstab:" rc_status -u ;; start-yes|force-start-*) echo -n "Starting NFS client services:" # start idmapd if test "$NEED_IDMAPD" = yes ; then echo -n " idmapd" do_start_idmapd || { rc_status -v rc_exit } [ -d /var/run/nfs ] || mkdir /var/run/nfs echo $IDMAPD_BIN > $IDMAPD_CLIENT_STATE fi rc_status -v # # generate new list of available shared libraries # if test "$NEED_LDCONFIG" = yes; then # check if ld.so.cache needs to be refreshed /etc/init.d/boot.ldconfig start fi # ;; stop* ) # stop idmapd if test -f $IDMAPD_CLIENT_STATE; then # only stop idmapd if it is not needed by server if test ! -f $IDMAPD_SERVER_STATE ; then echo -n " idmapd" killproc $IDMAPD_BIN fi rm -f $IDMAPD_CLIENT_STATE fi umount_rpc_pipefs rc_status -v ;; reload*|force-reload*) # only IDMAP has any sense in which 'reload' makes sense. if checkproc $IDMAPD_BIN; then killproc -HUP $IDMAPD_BIN fi rc_status ;; restart*) ## Stop the service and regardless of whether it was ## running or not, start it again. $0 stop $0 force-start rc_status ;; status*) # if test "$NEED_IDMAPD" = yes && ! checkproc $IDMAPD_BIN; then echo "idmapd not running" rc_failed 3 fi rc_status -v ;; try-restart*|condrestart*) # This restart is not only conditional on the services already # running, but is also gentler in that NFS filesystems are # not unmounted or remounted. # It is possible that the programs have been reinstalled so # we pass a basename rather than a full path to checkproc and killproc echo -n "Restarting NFS services:" if checkproc ${IDMAPD_BIN##*/}; then echo -n " idmapd" killproc ${IDMAPD_BIN##*/} startproc $IDMAPD_BIN fi rc_status -v ;; *) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|reload|force-reload|restart|try-restart}" exit 1 esac rc_exit