Naive problem with dataless client

[rlee at digigw.lab.nanko.digital.co.jp]

I'm sure the solution to the following problem is *really* simple, but for
the life of me, I just can't find it!

Configuration: SunOS 4.0.3.
   Sun 4/370 -> exporting home directories and binaries for diskless clients
   SS1       -> dataless client. (has root and swap on internal drives)

4/370 /etc/exports:

/home
/export/exec/sun4c      -ro
/export/exec/kvm/sun4c  -ro


SS1 /etc/fstab:

/dev/sd0a                   /               4.2 rw,nosuid 1 1
/dev/sd0e                   /var            4.2 rw 1 4
370host:/export/exec/sun4c  /usr            nfs rw,bg 0 0
370host:/home               /home           nfs rw,bg 0 0

Problem: The commands, w, vmstat, and ps (!) do not work on the dataless
client, but do so on the 4/370.  "w" and "ps aux" simply return silently
while vmstat comes back with the message "vmstat: Disk init info not in
namelist".

As the only common thread between the above commands seems to be
/dev/kmem, I checked the permissions and they are identical on both
machines:

       crw-r-----  1 root       3,   1 Jun 11 20:28 /dev/kmem

When the SS1 was set up as a standalone machine, everything works as it
should.  So, it would appear to be related to the dataless configuration.
I know that the problem was recently created because these commands used
to work.  Please tell us the solution and we promise not to break our
machines again ;-).  

Thanks kindly,
Robert Lee                                     Internet: rlee at digital.co.jp