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Netatalk 2.0.0 Released
SuperBanana writes "After what seems like an eternity, Netatalk (an Appletalk server suite for unix) has caught up with the latest version of the Apple Filing Protocol (aka Appleshare). This means long filenames, files larger than 2GB, and other goodies that will bring much happiness for Unix sysadmins supporting Macintosh users (check out the human-friendly release notes for the full list). As with any major release, even though this has been through several release candidates- read the gotchas, review the known bugs in their bug tracker, test it out on something non-critical...and help stabilize the release by reporting any bugs you find. Of course, make sure you read a guide to reporting bugs first!"
... especially when dealing with the evil AFP and OS9 gods.
.AppleDB directory - even if you set the dir 2775.
1.6.4 has a nasty habit of b0rking the CNID database (A berkely DB that contains all of those wonderful resource forks for the Mac files). You have to shut down the AFP service, repair the DB, then connect one Mac so you can fix permissions in the
I haven't played too much with version 2 yet, but it does seem faster and more stable. I'm hoping that the DB will stay unscrambled for more than 2 weeks at a time, and that the DB daemon will honour the directory permissions.
I compiled it from source, and the included SPEC file didn't want to let me create an RPM - if anyone has one of netatalk 2 for FC2, I would appreciate it.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Out of curiosity, how long does it usually take for something like this to show up in urpmi? I'd like to install it that way on my Mandrake server if at all possible but right now its only offering me 1.6. Also, I've been a longtime fan of AFP. As an OS X user it offers many great advantages over SMB, specifically the ability to move a file around on the server while it is open without the application losing track of it (just like a local file on an HFS+ disk). Also, most ISPs block the SMB port since Windows viruses spread through shares but they don't block the AFP port, which makes connecting to AFP shares over IP a breeze. Although for the record I'm not so much a fan of AFP over AppleTalk. AT was good about 15 years ago but Rendezvous has made it useless nowadays.
Finally I can't tell you how dead-awful it is when you have a Linux box serving files, and then sitting on a Mac OS X client in all its Unicode glory having to deal with long Japanese filenames on the server (that Windows users put there) and being f***ed, because the "old" AFP protocol can't handle long filenames and going in via SMB doesn't work either, because the filenames being in Japanese cause problems, too.
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
I just know someone is going to ask this, so I'm writing this as a preemptive strike.
Yes, there really *are* people who have files greater than 2 GB. A perfect example is hard drive images. At a previous place of employment, we imaged entire iMac hard drives and put them on a server so that the HDs could be reimaged at any time. Seeing as the iMac HD was about 6 GB, it was absolutely essential to have support for 2+ gig files. Just one example.
the JoshMeister on Security
I just installed 2.0 on freebsd last night, from what little tests I have done so far afpd seems to be alot faster in this version and is just as fast as nfs.v3. I got an average of 8.43MBps with netatalk and an average of 8.54MBps with nfs. Both were bouncing back and forth on which was faster.
Longer file names are also supported! This is a huge plus if you have long file names (ie. mp3s)
Because Samba Is Shit(tm).
Between resource forks, HUGE files (16g+) and Special Characters SKULLFUCKERY- not to mention hideously incompetent Windows domain administration at the highest levels of corporate IT... around here, it's AFP or it's shuffled around on Firewire drives.
Our network sucks so goddamned bad that any OS X client with Samba enabled becomes the PDC inside of a few minutes. IT insists that their incompetent administration is somehow our fault. It rules.
Also, AFP is to Apple as SMB is to Windows. SMB isn't there for Windows boxes running WinME and older, is it? NO. It's the damned OS networking protocol. Apple didn't throw in samba support to replace AFP or NFS, they threw it in so macs can talk to PCs.
Ideally, you'd use AFP to talk to Macs, NFS to talk to Unices, and SMB to talk to Windows boxes.
But for some reason, every linux admin under the SUN seems to have a GIANT BONER for samba, despite its limitations.
As I recall, there were problems doing AppleTalk over serial stuff. I have an old Mac IIsi that I might hook up for grins if so. I have an Ethernet card, but it's busy in my SE/30 running my website. :->
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
IIRC (so don't take this for gospel):
AppleTalk over serial == LocalTalk,
AppleTalk over ethernet == EtherTalk,
AppleTalk over token ring == TokenTalk.
You'd need something to convert the physical layer to get the IIsi online though. I bought a relatively rare LT/EN bridge by lurking on a Mac list several months ago. Now I've got my ancient LaserWriter 4/600 (serial connection only) on my network, and Panther prints to it just fine.
Constitutionally Correct
Nice.
I've actually got an old 700 (quadra) and some SE-30s that want to talk to my serial laserwriter, but the laserwriter's fuser hardware has gotten melty and gummed up. Do you know of a good way to emulate an apple laserwriter on a serial port on a linux box and hook up the apple's RS-422 to the serial port and make it think that the linux-box is a post-script level one printer?
I've tried simple things like making a linux serial console and running GS on it but the mac's couldn't make it through. And my old computer with two serial ports on it which I could use to peek at serial protocols is stuck in storage (mold problems... water leakage everywhere... >$30k hardware damaged as attic-collapsed-from-water-weight... ) so I can't probe it to make a serial emulator. Is there a quick and dirty way to do this for older macs that don't have ethernet availability?
So the Linux box would capture the print job and then do something with it? I'd love to help, but this kind of thing (serial protocols, etc) is outside my bailiwick. I'll point you to the MaX list at LEM though. That's where I ask all these sorts of questions, since it involves *n*x. Signal to noise there is very high, which is nice.
Constitutionally Correct
Also, if you could find one of those bridges, you could put the Mac on your network via its serial port. If your other devices spoke AppleTalk, you might have a solution. Using netatalk on the Linux box to translate and route print jobs? You can find these bridges on eBay, though they tend to go for a bit more than I really wanted to pay. There's actually one there right now, ending today.
Like I've said, I may be talking out of my butt here. Networking and low-level protocol stuff really is not a strength of mine.
Constitutionally Correct