Chapter 6. FAQ

Karen A. Swanberg

initial version

Björn Fernhomberg

port to docbook/XML

(01 December 2003)

Revision History
Revision 0.111-28-2003

docbook import

Table of Contents

Where can I get more information on Netatalk?
What is this I keep seeing about asun?
Is there an RPM, package, or tarball for my platform?
I can't seem to use passwords longer than 8 characters for my Netatalk accounts / I would like to use encrypted passwords to authenticate to the Netatalk server.How can I fix that?
What are the .AppleDouble and .Parent directories which are created in the Netatalk locations?
Netatalk works over AppleTalk, but my IP connections are refused, even though I have enabled them in the configuration files.
I'm having problems with the Trash folder: either when someone drags files into it, the system wants them to delete them immediately, or files get stuck in there and won't delete.
The daemons aren't starting, things aren't showing up in the Chooser, and I get a message like this in the logs: afpd[####]: Can't register Tests:AFPServer@*
I want to be able to allow users to change their passwords. How do I enable this feature? Every time I try I get an error that it was unable to save the password.
Can a mount a Mac volume on my Unix machine?
Can I run Samba and Netatalk together to access the same files?
How can I set Netatalk to hide some files created on the Samba (or Unix) sides?

Where can I get more information on Netatalk?

Netatalk's home page can be found at:

http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/

Netatalk is maintained at SourceForge. The Netatalk project page on SourceForge is located at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/netatalk/

There are (at least) two very active e-mail lists to which you can subscribe. The first, netatalk-admins, is for usage and setup/compile questions. Subscription information as well as an archive are available at:

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/netatalk-admins

This can be very high volume, but usually a few messages a day.

Netatalk-devel list is more specific to coding and testing. The archive and more information can found at:

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/netatalk-devel

This list varies in volume, but is usually moderately active.

There are other netatalk information sites. Some of these are no longer actively updated, some are site-specific. The informations presented on those sites are rather outdated, and may not apply to this release anymore: http://www.anders.com/projects/netatalk/ http://www.faredge.com.au/netatalk/index.html

What is this I keep seeing about asun?

Before Netatalk moved to SourceForge, Adrian Sun (asun) had written some patches to Netatalk which helped significantly with its usability, especially using AppleShare IP.

These patches are still provided by many Unix vendors. All of these patches are included in the current SourceForge versions.

Is there an RPM, package, or tarball for my platform?

Perhaps. These vary in how often they're updated:

FreeBSD port: /usr/ports/net/netatalk - maintained by Joe Clark

SuSE Linux included in the distribution

OpenBSD port: /usr/ports/net/netatalk/ - not actively maintained

Debian GNU/Linux included in all current distributions

RedHat Linux included in the distribution

I can't seem to use passwords longer than 8 characters for my Netatalk accounts / I would like to use encrypted passwords to authenticate to the Netatalk server.How can I fix that?

Update to a newer version of AppleShare Client (I think the most recent is 3.8.8). This allows longer passwords, and will allow you to use encrypted passwords. Set which way you would like to authenticate in either afpd.conf or netatalk.conf, depending on your setup.

For more information on the AppleShare Client from Apple, and which clients are needed for which MacOS, see http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60792?OpenDocument&software (this site requires cookies, and a registration and sign-in).

What are the .AppleDouble and .Parent directories which are created in the Netatalk locations?

The .AppleDouble folders hold the resource fork information for the Mac files, plus other attributes which are not normally stored by Unix. For this reason, when you want to move files around in your Mac volumes, it's a good idea to do it from the Mac side (as opposed to from the Unix side, or Samba), unless you make absolutely sure you get the .AppleDouble directories. These directories are often hidden from the Samba side, via the veto files configuration. You can also set Netatalk to not create an .AppleDouble directory unless it absolutely needs it, by setting the noadouble setting in AppleVolumes.default.

For further information see the chapter about special folders in the manual.

Netatalk works over AppleTalk, but my IP connections are refused, even though I have enabled them in the configuration files.

If tcp_wrappers support is compiled into Netatalk, access has to be granted in /etc/hosts.allow for Netatalk to successfully accept IP connections. This can be done by the addition of the line:

afpd:  127. xxx.xxx.xxx. (whatever other subnets)

Previous version had a problem if the first IP-address in /etc/hosts was the local-loopback address. We believe this is fixed in this version.

I'm having problems with the Trash folder: either when someone drags files into it, the system wants them to delete them immediately, or files get stuck in there and won't delete.

chmod the Network Trash folder to 2775 (/home/public/Network Trash Folder for instance).

Up to the current Panther (10.3.1) release, OS X does not use the Network Trash Folder. There's nothing we can do about it.

The daemons aren't starting, things aren't showing up in the Chooser, and I get a message like this in the logs: afpd[####]: Can't register Tests:AFPServer@*

Please make sure atalkd started and your platform supports AppleTalk.

This is sometimes a result of missing NIC information in the atalkd.conf file. Put your network interface (something like le0, eth0, fxp0, lo0) alone on a line in atalkd.conf, and reboot. When atalkd starts, it will populate the file with a line such as:

 le1 -seed -phase 2 -addr 66.6 -net 66-67 -zone "No Parking"

To find your network interface, run

%ifconfig -a | more

and see which interface has your IP address. Use that one.

I want to be able to allow users to change their passwords. How do I enable this feature? Every time I try I get an error that it was unable to save the password.

Use -[no]setpassword in afpd.conf. This enables or disables the ability of clients to change their passwords.

Can a mount a Mac volume on my Unix machine?

Well, maybe. MacOS X obviously might be able to do this with NFS.

Sometime ago there was a linux kernel module called afpfs that supported this. It has never been ported to the more recent 2.2 and 2.4 kernels.

It might still be available from:

http://www.panix.com/~dfoster/afpfs/

Can I run Samba and Netatalk together to access the same files?

Sure. Lots of us do. But there are some concerns. Quite often it's useful, for instance, to hide files of one OS from the other. See the AppleVolumes.default file in Netatalk, and investigate the veto files option in Samba. (See the README.veto file.)

Also, when copying and moving files created on the Mac, it's better to do that from the Mac, rather than from the Unix server or from Samba. This is because the .AppleDouble folders hold the resource fork information for the Mac files, plus other attributes which are not normally stored by Unix.

You can also set Netatalk to not create an .AppleDouble directory unless it absolutely needs it, by setting the noadouble setting in AppleVolumes.default.

How can I set Netatalk to hide some files created on the Samba (or Unix) sides?

AppleVolumes(.system or .default?) allows you to hide certain files.

This might be a good thing to set on, say, .cshrc, ssh keys, and the like.