When mounting an NFS directory by doing:

sudo mount 192.168.1.5:/home/shared /mnt/common

I get the following error:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on 192.168.1.5:/home/shared, missing codepage or helper program, or other error (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program) In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so.

The kernel is up to date.

The question was already asked (for example here and here), but are either not answered or the answers are not helpful in my case.

What is wrong?

5

6 Answers

The error message mentions:

(for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount. helper program)

This is relevant given that you are trying to mount NFS. The /sbin/mount.nfs helper program is provided by nfs-common. You can install it with:

sudo apt install nfs-common

On the other hand, if you are trying to mount CIFS, the helper program is provided by cifs-utils. You can install it with:

sudo apt install cifs-utils
5

Make sure mount.cifs is listed into /sbin:

ls -l /sbin/mount.cifs

Check to see if package cifs-utils is installed: 

dpkg -l cifs-utils

If it isn't, install the cifs libraries with

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
5

It appears that nfs-common package should be installed in order to be able to mount NFS directories.

sudo apt-get install nfs-common

When it's not, the mounting of an NFS directory results in the error I've got.

0

I solved it by installing virtualbox. Do

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-utils

It installs the mount.vboxsf

3

Try:

mount -t nfs 192.168.1.5:/home/shared /mnt/common
1

I was having this same problem in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I tried the nfs-common package install without any success.

I was able to resolve the same issue you had by:

  1. Going to the Linux "disks" application.
  2. Clicking the USB drive I was trying to mount in the devices section (window left).
  3. Clicking more actions under the Volumes filesystem partition section (two little gears right of the minus/plus signs).
  4. Clicking edit mount options (top of the mount options window).
  5. Clicking to TURN ON Automatic Mount Options.
  6. Then clicking the mount button (+ sign under volumes) -- this should change to a square.

This mounted my USB drive and resolved the issue.