Build a Netatalk Time Capsule for OSX Lion 10.7 using Debian 6.0 Squeeze

After going to the Apple Store with a friend and seeing the $300+ Apple Time Capsule I decided to see if I could do the same thing with Netatalk. Turns out I could but if you’re using Debian stable like me you need to get at netatalk 2.2.x before it’ll work with OSX Lion 10.7.x. After seeing a variety of other examples out there on the net and getting a little confused as to why they were doing certain things I decided to just post how I did it. Also, rather than install things from source I like to use debian packages to keep servers clean. But there was a small problem due to a netatalk make bug that debian’s package didn’t account for. So I will post those packages I backported to stable for this.

Packages

Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) AMD64

• netatalk_2.2.1-1_amd64.deb

Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) i386

• netatalk_2.2.1-1_i386.deb

Netatalk Time Capsule Server Setup

After you’ve installed the packages create a service group by creating /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service and adding the contents below: (this might not be necessary with netatalk 2.2)

<?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=Xserve</txt-record>
  </service>
</service-group>

Make a directory to store your time machine data:

Now mark the volume saying it is a supported time machine share:

Define a volume in /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default with the allowed user, usedots to support hidden files, uprivs for afp3 privileges that osx lion needs, and tm to enable time machine support. (highlighted below)

# By default all users have access to their home directories.
~/                      "Home Directory"
/var/timemachine         TimeMachine allow:joe cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,upriv,tm

Now that things are configured we need to restart avahi.

And restart netatalk

Apple OSX 10.7.x Lion Setup

Now set your OSX installation so it sees unsigned time machine volumes.

You should now see your volume in Time Machine Preferences under “Select Disk…”.