nfs.statd locks up on reboot: server not responding

[Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il>]

I have a system with a nfsroot file system (it mounts the remote's root read
only with some local overrides)

When I try to reboot the system I get the error:
Stopping NFS common utilities: statdnfs:  server 192.168.1.1 not responding, still trying

The network is still up, and the rebooted system is not supposed to be running
an nfs server in the first place
(exports is all comments and /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server has
RPCNFSDCOUNT=0

any ideas?