> local net. In the past I was able to get yp up and running by 
> copying the /var/yp/binding file from my local sun and rebooting. 

That is the incorrect way to do it. You enable YP by doing
	mkdir /var/yp
	reboot

I suspect your /var/yp/binding directory is closed to world, and
you are running your tests as non-root.

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