nis client blocks boot (/etc/group)

When "+" line is present in /etc/group the nis client locks the system up on boot. Eventually the system will boot up, but it comes up in an unstable state and action that tries to access group info (I think) locks the system up (like logging in!).

This occurs on a completely fresh Mint LMDE2 Betsy install (12/4/2015) with the only extra packages installed autofs, nfs-client and nis.

This has been a long standing issue for me -- also occurs in non-LMDE versions of Mint and various versions of Ubuntu. The only solution I've found is to set up some init scripts to clean /etc/group early in the boot process to make sure groups are not coming from nis and then restore nis direction it at the end of the boot (major kludge). Doesn't matter if you enable nis-queries with a + in /etc/group or via modification of nssswitch.conf.

Passwords and auto mount tables from NIS don't cause problems.

I'm surprised nobody else is having this problem or am I just the last person to still be relying on NIS??

To generate the problem:
1. Stock install Mint LMDE2 Betsy
2. sudo apt install autofs nfs-client nis
3. add "+" and end of /etc/passwd and /etc/group
4. reboot.