syslog makes a connection to localhost, port 111 at startup and waits until it's established or a timeout occurs. That's why my startup hangs around 5 minutes at this point. I am using a @host-entry in /etc/syslog.conf and linux-2.4.0-test8. The connection attempt can be seen with strace. I suggest to swap the syslog (12) and portmap (13) startup-positions, so portmap runs before syslog will be executed.
It's a change in the kernel's socket behavior. glibc's RPC stuff needs tweaked. Alternatively, don't define an NIS domainname until you run ypbind (this is what the rawhide initscripts and ypbind will do.) Assigning to glibc.
Is this still an issue in RHL9? I very much doubt it. Please report so that I can close the bug (or fix the problem).
Closing since I got no reply.