AFP server in under 15 minutes (Debian)

January 14, 2010

categories:

Tested under Debian Lenny 32 bits.

This howto is based on http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/ Matthias' post is very comprehensive. This post is basically a raw copy paste of commands, if you want more information, go see Matthias post. If you find this useful, please give credit to Matthias :-)

I wanted to see if AFP was faster than SMB. A quick test showed my Macbook (running OS 10.6.2) is transfering files 20 % faster on AFP than SMB.

**Build netatalk to support encryption **

Starting with Netatalk version 2.0.4 (and Debian Squeeze) you won’t need to rebuild to support SSL (see Frank’s comment).

Lenny comes with version 2.0.3 so we still need to go through recompilation (which I recommend doing on another box).

`# apt-get build-dep netatalk

Install modified version of netatalk

`# dpkg -i ../netatalk_2*.deb

/etc/default/netatalk

ATALKD_RUN=no PAPD_RUN=no CNID_METAD_RUN=yes AFPD_RUN=yes TIMELORD_RUN=no A2BOOT_RUN=no

/etc/netatalk/afpd.conf

- -transall -uamlist uams_dhx.so -nosavepassword

/etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default

/home/seb "Seb's share" allow:seb

Start netatalk

/etc/init.d/netatalk start

Advertise the service with Avahi

You can skip this step, but it’d mean the server doesn’t magically appear as a Shared drive in your Finder.

apt-get install avahi-daemon

/etc/avahi/services/afpd.service

%h AFP

_afpovertcp._tcp 548

_device-info._tcp 0 model=Xserve

# /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

Firewall :

Allow tcp/548 (netatalk) and tcp/5353 (avahi)

Sebastien Wains