The fix turned out to be pretty straightforward: clear the shell's umask prior to extracting from the tarballs, to ensure that the permissions of the rootfs contents are preserved.

commit 6095bb5ef1e068e6d14baf26588b3a67a501a2cc
Author:     Gareth Stockwell <gareth.stockwell@arm.com>
AuthorDate: Mon Sep 9 10:43:04 2013 +0100
Commit:     Gareth Stockwell <gareth.stockwell@arm.com>
CommitDate: Mon Sep 9 10:43:04 2013 +0100

    linaro-android-nfs-tool.sh: clear umask before creating rootfs

    This ensures that all files and directories are extracted from the
    tarballs with the correct permissions.

diff --git a/linaro-android-nfs-tool.sh b/linaro-android-nfs-tool.sh
index 2432a45..e1cfbcf 100755
--- a/linaro-android-nfs-tool.sh
+++ b/linaro-android-nfs-tool.sh
@@ -313,6 +313,8 @@ function func_install_binaries(){
 }

 function func_create_rootfs(){
+    umask 0
+
     if [ -z "${rootfs_dir}" ];then
         template=$(date '+%y%m%d-%H%M%S')
         rootfs_dir=`mktemp -d -u --tmpdir=${default_nfs_root_dir} -t $template.XXX`

> -----Original Message-----
> From: linaro-android-bounces@lists.linaro.org [mailto:linaro-android-
> bounces@lists.linaro.org] On Behalf Of Gareth Stockwell
> Sent: 06 September 2013 17:24
> To: linaro-android@lists.linaro.org
> Subject: Android NFS boot problem
>
> I am facing a problem booting Android on TC2 via NFS, using the scripts
> provided in linaro-android-tools.
>
> http://android.git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=platform/external/linaro-
> android-tools.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/linaro_android_4.3
>
> The rootfs is successfully mounted and /init is executed, but system
> services fail to launch due to a permissions problem:
>
> Command line 'earlyprintk mem=2G rw ip=dhcp --no-log
> console=ttyAMA0,38400n8 root=/dev/nfs nfsrootdebug
> nfsroot=10.1.193.42:/work/local/build/linaro/13.08-4.3/rootfs,tcp,v3
> init=/init'
> ...
> [   15.584115] VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem) on device 0:12.
> ...
> [   18.447297] init: cannot execve('/system/bin/servicemanager'):
> Permission denied
>
> I am using the prebuilt binaries from the 4.3-13.08 release for
> vexpress:
> https://android-build.linaro.org/builds/~linaro-android/vexpress-
> linaro-4.3-13.08-release/#build=1
>
> My /etc/exports has this:
> /work/local/build/linaro/13.08-4.3/rootfs
> *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)
>
> I have tried adding various options to the nfsroot kernel argument
> (proto=tcp; vers=3; nolock; exec), but none of these has any effect.
>
> Using a Debian rootfs created using qemu-debootstrap, with the same
> options in /etc/exports and using the same kernel image, the system
> boots up successfully.
>
> Has anyone seen this problem before?
>
>
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>
> ARM Limited, Registered office 110 Fulbourn Road, Cambridge CB1 9NJ,
> Registered in England & Wales, Company No:  2557590
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>
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ARM Limited, Registered office 110 Fulbourn Road, Cambridge CB1 9NJ, Registered in England & Wales, Company No:  2557590
ARM Holdings plc, Registered office 110 Fulbourn Road, Cambridge CB1 9NJ, Registered in England & Wales, Company No:  2548782


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