We are running kde 4.3.2 kubuntu 9.10 diskless workstations with their filesystem mounted over nfs.

For some reason the diskless clients do not detect new/deleted/changed files over nfs.
e.g. shared $HOME between diskless client and the server:
* open Dolphin file manager on the diskless client to $HOME
* ssh server "touch that"

"that" file does not auto-appear on the client in Dolphin - even after waiting 10 seconds. Sometimes pressing F5 (reload) eventually shows up.

This also effects installing new software - If I install new software for the clients on the server, the menu entries do not appear. This is probably because the client is not aware of the new .desktop files on the nfs server.

the following are installed on the client: gamin libgamin-dev libgamin0
/etc/gamin/gaminrc
fsset nfs poll 10

---

If I boot the diskless client into kde3.5 - everything works fine.

Kubuntu 9.10 wouldn't happen to use a 2.6.31 or later kernel would it? If it does, please upgrade to either the latest KDE 4.3.x release or KDE 4.4.0, since that contains a fix.

* Kernel 2.6.31-16-generic
* KDE 4.4.0 ( just updated from kubuntu ppa )
* /home mounted over NFS.

When I create a file on the nfs server in /home it still does not syncronize with the diskless client (Dophin). I have to manually press "Reload".

If I'm on the client workstation and use konsole to touch a file - it immediately appears in Dolphin on the client.

Again with the old kde3.5 gamin would keep server=>client nfs-mounted files in sync. Another thing to note is that kde 4.4.0 doesn't appear to load /usr/lib/gamin/gam_server as kde 3.5 does.

What do I need to do to get nfs file syncronization updates working between the nfs server and the nfs client?

Here is how to duplicate the problem:

server: /etc/exports # export /home
server: start nfs-kernel-server
client: mount server:/home /mnt
client: open Dolphin file manager to /mnt
server: touch /home/that
client: Dolphin does not show "that" file.

If you are aware of the needed parameters, then running /usr/lib/gamin/gam_server as part of startup is easily possible. Simply add the following into a file named "gamin-serverstart.desktop" in /etc/xdg/autostart

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/usr/lib/gamin/gam_server
Terminal=false
Name=GAMIN
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
OnlyShowIn=KDE

Make sure the file is owned by root and executable.

Added the above script auto-start script - did not resolve the problem and the gam_server seems to exit after 20 seconds or so. If I run it from the command line gam_server exits after 20 seconds or so. Maybe gam_server is broken?

Opened a kde bug:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=227608

It could be possible your distributor compiled KDE without support for FAM.

Started new thread on kubuntu forum to see if they compiled kde with fam support...
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.p ... =3110155.0

From my own research, It looks like Kubuntu's kde4.x does not have libfam.so referenced in its build like kde3.5 does.

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for DIR in /usr/lib /usr/bin; do
  cd $DIR
  for X in `ls`; do
    strings $X | grep libfam
    # ldd $DIR/$X | grep libfam
    if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
      echo $X
    fi
  done 2>/dev/null
done


# returns nothing on Kubuntu's kde4 but returns lots of hits on kde3.5.

So I'm going to have to convince Kubuntu to include libfam or somehow get inotify to be nfs client<=>server aware. Unless anyone is aware of another kde4-school-friendly-easy-to-use distro that already has libfam compiled in?

Posted question again on Ubuntu bug system.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/101768

I also found some useful links on how kde handles file changes over nfs:
http://lxr.kde.org/source/KDE/kdelibs/kded/README.kded
http://lxr.kde.org/source/KDE/kdelibs/k ... rwatch.cpp

So it turns out that for some reason debian/kubuntu stopped building with libfam-dev which in turn breaks diskless/nfs-mounted home folders.

dmonty@acer:~$ zgrep fam /usr/share/doc/kdelibs-bin/changelog.Debian.gz
- no build-dep on libfam-dev
- no build-dep on libfam-dev
- Remove build-dep on libfam-dev
- Don't build-dep on libfam-dev
* Don't build-dep on libfam-dev
* kdelibs5-dev doesn't depend on fam

So I:
* Ensured libgamin-dev was installed (fam.h)
* recompiled kdelibs-bin; apt-get builddep kdelibs-bin; apt-get source kdelibs-bin; build/install packages etc.

Now I see gam_server running when kde starts but it still isn't working right. When I attach a strace to gam_server it just sits at
restart_syscall(<... resuming interrupted call ...>

Normally (on kde3.5) strace on gam_server will show kde monitoring nfs mounts for changes.

Try rebuilding the entire of kdelibs.

dmonty wrote:So it turns out that for some reason debian/kubuntu stopped building with libfam-dev which in turn breaks diskless/nfs-mounted home folders.

Just a note: Debian kdelibs (3 and 4) packages never disabled libfam.

Also, a way to recompile kde4libs (the source package for kdelibs of kde4) can be:

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$ apt-get build-dep kde4libs
$ apt-get source kde4libs
$ apt-get install libfam-dev
$ cd kde4libs-<tab> # to enter in the newly extracted directory
$ YOUREDITOR debian/changelog # add a suffix like "+my1" to the version number at the topmost changelog entry
$ dpkg-buildpackage -nc -us -uc


Then, when it finish, "cd .." and install the resulting *.deb packages.

Thanks Pino. I found this fixed the issue for Kubuntu 12.04:

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sudo apt-get build-dep libkdecore5
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts libaspell-dev libgamin-dev gamin libgamin0
mkdir kde4
cd kde4
apt-get source libkdecore5
cd kde4libs-4.*/
time debuild -us -uc -i -I -j4
 # -j4 is for my multicore machine.
 # compile took 1 hour on my machine.
sudo dpkg -i ../libkdecore5*.deb


Rinse and repeat after each upgrade to libkdecore5*.