Setting up netatalk

Netatalk is an open implementation of the afp protocol, needed to serve files to mac computers. This is how I installed it on my home server.

Unfortunately the installation of netatalk in Karmic is a bit more complicated than an apt-get call. Due to licensing issues they could not distribute a package with SSL precompiled inside, and this security layer is mandatory if you try to connect from any mac running leopard or snow leopard.

Many tutorials exist (here, here) which explain how to recompile netatalk from source code, adding SSL support. But neither of these worked for me: no matter how i did configuration or compilation, my mac always failed to connect at the username/password screen, so still an authentication problem in spite of ssl.

So I had to remove netatalk completely (apt-get autoremove netatalk) and upgrade to a newer version, not yet distributed in the official repositories: 2.0.5.

This new version works out of the box: just install it, configure the folders you want to share and you are done. It also has a special option for setting up some space to work as a drive for time machine.  Thanks to this article we can find the packages to install for the new version. Just download and double click the packages in the listed order, say yes to any message recommending an older version.

libdb4.8
libgcrypt11
netatalk2.0.5

now edit your /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default file, appending a line for every share you want to export to your home macs, with this format for a generic share:

/full/path/on/linux/box   "name of the share"

or for time machine drive:

/full/path/on/linux/box   "TimeMachine"    options:tm

then restart the netatalk daemon:

/etc/init.d/netatalk restart

Finally you can check on your mac if everything went fine:
open Finder and do <command-k>, enter the IP address of your server and your (ubuntu) username and password.
You should now be connected and capable of browsing files, like this:

connected nas

Moreover, if you specified a time machine share, you will be able to set it up directly into time machine preferences pane without any terminal hacks on mac side.

The next step is to configure avahi, to advertise services on the network so that they come up in the finder sidebar (no more command-k to connect).