Friday, January 13, 2017
How To Set Up AFP File Sharing On Linux for Use With Time Machine
How To Set Up AFP File Sharing On Linux for Use With Time Machine
Preface:
In past versions of Mac OS X, the built in backup tool, Time Machine was a lot less picky about where you back up your files to. You could even back up to a Samba file share if you enabled the "unsupported volumes" hack.
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
But that ended with Snow Leopard. Starting with the release of OSX 10.7 Lion, Apple started cinching down on where you could back up your system to, ostensibly for security reasons. Now, with Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion", its gotten to the point where essentially the only places you can back up your system using Time Machine are either on another Mac OS X File Server or on an Apple Time Capsule. My assumption is that their intent is merely to bolster their hardware sales.
I dont know too many people who stay exclusively within the "walled garden" for all their computing needs. Certainly people with a lot more money to burn than me. But for a much more economical approach than shelling out around $300 for an over-glorified USB drive, you could just follow this guide to set up your Ubuntu file server to look and behave exactly like Time Machine would expect a real Time Capsule or Mac to.
Step 1: Install Netatalk
installing Netatalk, the open source Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) implementation is easy! The packages are already in the repos, which makes me wonder why its not enabled by default.
Install the following packages:
sudo apt-get install netatalk libc6-dev avahi-daemon libnss-mdns
Step 2: Configure /etc/nsswitch.conf
Once those packages are installed, there are actually five configuration files that need to be edited in order for the Macs on your network to access your AFP shares properly.
sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf
locate the line that reads
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
and add mdns to it so it now reads
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 mdns
press ctrl+o to save and ctrl+x to exit.
Step 3: /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service
sudo nano /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service
paste the following code
<?xml version="1.0" standalone=no?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
<port>548</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=TimeCapsule</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>
NOTE: Just for fun you can change the string "<txt-record>model=TimeCapsule</txt-record>" to the following devices to change how they appear in Finder on OSX:
| Image | Apple Product | Identifier Strings |
 | Airport Express | AirPort4 AirPort4,102 AirPort4,107 |
 | Airport Extreme | AirPort Airpor5 AirPort5,104 AirPort5,105 AirPort5,108 AirPort5,114 AirPort5,117 |
 | Aluminum 20” iMac | iMac7,1 iMac8,1 |
 | Aluminum 24” iMac | iMac9,1 |
 | Aluminum Unibody MacBook | MacBook5,1 |
 | Apple Cinema Display | Any invalid or blank string |
 | AppleTV | AppleTV AppleTV1,1 |
 | Black MacBook | MacBook1,1,Black MacBook2,1,Black MacBook3,1,Black MacBook4,1,Black |
 | eMac | PowerMac4,4 PowerMac6,4 |
 | Flower Pot G4 iMac 15” | PowerMac4,2 |
 | Flower Pot G4 iMac 17” | PowerMac4,5 PowerMac6,1 |
 | Flower Pot G4 iMac 20” | PowerMac6,3 |
 | Graphite G4 PowerMac | PowerMac |
Available link for download
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