How to mount NFS on Windows 7 and Mac OS X

Laurence Muller
Laurence Muller

This is a short tutorial on how to setup NFS file sharing on Ubuntu (Server) and connect to it from Windows and Mac OS X. I am assuming you have a Linux server running a NFS server running on ip 192.168.2.1 and that the share is located at /home/username/NFS-Shared.

Linux (Ubuntu) – Server

  1. Install NFS support:
    sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmap
  2. When you configuring portmap, do not bind the loopback!
  3. Edit the the exports file:
    sudo nano /etc/exports
  4. Change it to something like this (please note that I’m configuring it for Read Only access):
    /home/username/NFS-Shared 192.168.2.1/24(ro,async,insecure,no_subtree_check)
  5. Restart the NFS server:
    sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
  6. After changing the /etc/exports file you need to run:
    sudo exportfs -a

If you want Read Write access, replace ro with rw.

Windows – Client

  1. Download and install the Dokan library the current version is DokanInstall_0.6.0.exe
  2. Download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  3. Download and install Neko Drive the current version is NekoDrive_0_9_0.7z
  4. After NekoDrive is installed, launch the application.
  5. Change the Target Connection ip address to your server IP (e.g. 192.168.2.1).
  6. (optional) Set version to V3
  7. Click on connect and it should connect to your server
  8. To mount the drive in windows, set the Device location and select a Disk name. Make sure Devices is set to the correct item (e.g. /home/username/NFS-Shared)
  9. Click on mount and the drive should show up in Windows Explorer

Mac OS X – Client

  1. Open up the Disk Utility
  2. Choose File > NFS Mounts…
  3. Click the small plus (+) icon at the botton
  4. Enter your NFS URL (IP + PATH), for example: nfs://192.168.2.1/home/username/NFS-Shared
  5. Enter a Mount location (local mount), for example: /Volumes/myNFS
  6. (optional) Enable Mount as read-only if you’re only planning to stream music/video from it
  7. Click Verify, OK
  8. If everything went fine, you can open up Finder and browse to /Volumes/myNFS

5 responses

  1. get onc/rpc error when using this to NFS mount after connect. Mount works fine in centos 6.

    Puddin – August 15th, 2012

  2. Hi, I have tried on my Windows 7, the mount is successful, and the folders on NFS showed up. However, if I click any of the folders, the system will just keep trying and trying, not able to connect. Any suggestions? Thanks

    Wayne – November 21st, 2012

  3. Make sure that on your NFS share source that the IP address of your system is listed as a trusted client, and on allot of systems you are going to need to make certain that the share that is associated with the IP of your client is bound to some kind of internal client account with at least share access.

    Xander J – December 21st, 2012

  4. When I run it I get a partition marked “Disconnected network Drive” and when I reboot it’s gone. How do I make it look kike, say, a thumbdrive?

    SteveGlines – November 24th, 2013

  5. There’s a stand alone version from same developer: 3 files NFSClient.exe; NFSLibrary.dll; NFSClient.exe.config Do i just put dll and .config file in sys32 folder? anybody try this?

    Kris – October 10th, 2016