Questions[netatalk](server)

Note: originally posted on StackExchange. I'm not sure which location is more appropriate, my apologies if the duplication causes issues.

TL;DR: Time Machine cannot create a new backup on my shared drive, but can add to an existing backup.

I'm running macOS Catalina and my Time Machine backs up to a Debian 10 server with NetAtalk and Avahi. Since Mavericks macOS has preferred SMB, and given SMB is marginally faster I decided to switch to using SMB for the Time Machine shares. On a fresh AFP share I can start a new Time Machine backup in System Preferences and it will create a new .sparseimage without complaint.

If I use the exact same directory (/usr/local/smb), so same permissions etc, and create a samba share, when Time Machine attempts to create a new backup it give the error: "Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to SERVER.local. The backup disk image could not be created."

If I first connect to the share with AFP and do the initial backup, I can then connect with SMB and add subsequent incremental backups without error. I thought maybe a permissions issue, but for debugging purposes I have /usr/local/smb set to 0777 and still get the error.

ls -la showing permissions of the share point:

drwxrwxrwx  5 root smbusers 4096 Apr  3 12:35 smb

I find the following possibly helpful error in the log:

Failed to create '/Volumes/.timemachine/SERVER._smb._tcp.local/DDE06691-7411-41DD-8419-24FEFC21CE29/TimeMachine Set A - SMB/8E394711-7E3F-520B-800C-192D4F680177.sparsebundle', results: {
}, error: 13 Permission denied

afp.conf:

[Global]
; Global server settings
vol preset = default_for_all
log file = /var/log/netatalk.log
uam list = uams_dhx2.so,uams_clrtxt.so
save password = no

[default_for_all]
file perm = 0664
directory perm = 0774
cnid scheme = dbd

[Time Machine Set A - AFP]
path = /usr/local/smb
time machine = yes
vol size limit = 4000000

I'm using some smb.conf options suggested in this GitHub: https://gist.github.com/ChloeTigre/4c2022c0d1a281deedba6f7539a2e3ae

smb.conf:

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   wins support = yes

#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).
   max log size = 1000

# We want Samba to only log to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd}.
# Append syslog@1 if you want important messages to be sent to syslog too.
   logging = file

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
   panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

###MacOS compatability stuff
guest account = smbguest
min protocol = SMB2
map acl inherit = yes
vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr  
fruit:metadata = netatalk
fruit:model = MacSamba
fruit:posix_rename = yes 
fruit:veto_appledouble = yes

durable handles = yes
kernel oplocks = no
kernel share modes =no
posix locking = no
smb2 leases = yes


#Turned off for testing compatability
#fruit:wipe_intentionally_left_blank_rfork = yes 
#fruit:delete_empty_adfiles = yes 

####### Authentication #######

# Server role. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible
# values are "standalone server", "member server", "classic primary
# domain controller", "classic backup domain controller", "active
# directory domain controller". 
#
# Most people will want "standalone server" or "member server".
# Running as "active directory domain controller" will require first
# running "samba-tool domain provision" to wipe databases and create a
# new domain.
   server role = standalone server

   obey pam restrictions = yes

# This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix
# password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
# passdb is changed.
   unix password sync = yes

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan <<[email protected]> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge).
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .

# This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes
# when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in
# 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'.
   pam password change = yes

# This option controls how unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped
# to anonymous connections
   map to guest = bad user

######Security#######
security = user
valid users = @smbusers
username map = /etc/samba/users.map
guest ok = no

# Allow users who've been granted usershare privileges to create
# public shares, not just authenticated ones
   usershare allow guests = yes

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

[TimeMachine Set A - SMB]
path = /usr/local/smb
comment = SMB Time Machine Destination Set A
browsable = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0664     #tried turning this off, no fix
directory mode = 0777  #tried turning this off, no fix
vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr
fruit:aapl = yes
fruit:time machine = yes
#guest ok = yes
fruit:time machine max size = 3.9T  #tried turning this off, no fix
inherit acls = yes

I just set up a FreeNAS 8.0.3 server and am trying to use its AFP (Netatalk) service to access it via a Mac OS X Lion system. I created the ZFS volume, set its permissions to include my user in its owner group (and set group write permissions), created an AFP share with AFP3 and told that share to "allow" @uninet (my group). I have a user on the server named tbutler, matching the user on my Mac.

I can see the server, "Beatrice," in Finder. When I try to login in Finder using "Connect As...," the user "tbutler" and the proper password, I am returned to the main Finder window with the black bar now saying "Connection Failed."

Here's the most recent data from /var/messages on the server, which shows me trying to login both as a "Registered User" and a "Guest":

Jul 30 00:29:07 freenas afpd[8972]: AFP3.3 Login by nobody
Jul 30 00:29:08 freenas afpd[8972]: AFP logout by nobody
Jul 30 00:29:08 freenas afpd[8972]: dsi_stream_read: len:0, unexpected EOF
Jul 30 00:29:08 freenas afpd[8972]: afp_over_dsi: client logged out, terminating DSI session
Jul 30 00:29:08 freenas afpd[8972]: AFP statistics: 0.14 KB read, 0.12 KB written
Jul 30 00:29:14 freenas afpd[8975]: AFP3.3 Login by tbutler
Jul 30 00:29:14 freenas afpd[8975]: AFP logout by tbutler
Jul 30 00:29:14 freenas afpd[8975]: dsi_stream_read: len:0, unexpected EOF
Jul 30 00:29:14 freenas afpd[8975]: afp_over_dsi: client logged out, terminating DSI session
Jul 30 00:29:14 freenas afpd[8975]: AFP statistics: 0.62 KB read, 0.48 KB written
Jul 30 00:29:20 freenas afpd[8978]: AFP3.3 Login by tbutler
Jul 30 00:29:20 freenas afpd[8978]: AFP logout by tbutler
Jul 30 00:29:20 freenas afpd[8978]: dsi_stream_read: len:0, unexpected EOF
Jul 30 00:29:20 freenas afpd[8978]: afp_over_dsi: client logged out, terminating DSI session
Jul 30 00:29:20 freenas afpd[8978]: AFP statistics: 0.62 KB read, 0.48 KB written
Jul 30 00:29:27 freenas afpd[8983]: AFP3.3 Login by nobody

(My clock is clearly not properly set, but be that as it may...)

Any suggestions?

UPDATE: Apparently this problem occurs if one gives the AFP share a password in the AFP share settings box. When I removed the password and tried to login using a user account again, it worked just fine.

I have a simple setup of netatalk afp server on my OpenSolaris box. And I also have samba on that box.

transfers from netatalk to my mac mini with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 go at speed 2-3 Mbytes/sec

but transfers from the same server using samba peak at 8-12 Mbytes/sec

Why do i have this huge difference? Am I missing something regarding afp config?

My afpd.conf looks like this

- -setuplog "afpdaemon log_info /var/log/afpd.log" -noddp -uamlist uams_dhx.so -nosavepassword

And this is my AppleVolumes.default

~ cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,invisibledots,upriv perm:0770

netatalk is compiled using gcc 4.3.2 I don't have any tcp/ip tunes applied to my system it's just standart OpenSolaris 2009.06

I have a headless Ubuntu server running on my network. Initially I had configured it for SAMBA for use with my windows machines and that seemed to work ok. I've just bought a Mac and am trying to access the server - it appears in Finder without me doing anything but when I log in, I can't see any files or write to it or anything.

I tried running through this tutorial to set up netatalk and avahi but it fails at the first step - I can't get the source files because I get an error:

Package libcupsys2-dev is a virtual package provided by:
  libcups2-dev 1.4.2-8
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package libcupsys2-dev has no installation candidate
E: Failed to satisfy Build-Depends dependency for netatalk: libcupsys2-dev

and I don't know what to do next. I tried going through the steps just using the basic version from the repos which gets me as far as the server appearing in Finder, but when I try to log on, I just get an invalid username/password error (and I've tried so many times I am certain I have the right ones!)

Does anyone have any tips for setting up an Ubuntu server so I can use it with my Mac?

For the Bounty: I'd like the server broadcast via Bonjour so I can see it in finder, and I'd like the option to set it up as a TimeMachine backup if possible.

Thanks

I've got a huge server (running Ubuntu Linux) which has got a 2TB raid sitting there just begging for me to backup to it.

I run netatalk to enable sharing via the AFP protocol to my Macs (all my client boxes are Macs pretty much) and had setup timemachine to use a shared drive on the server as it's destination.

Only trouble is it seems to be completely unreliable. I reguarly get problems where TimeMachine cannot finish the backup for one reason or another, and sometimes it seems to bring the whole server down (I know its a software rather than a hardware issue because the server is actually Ubuntu running under KVM and the KVM host is always still running).

So the question is has anyone had any success trying to do this? Does anyone know of any issues? Is there a better way to go about this? I know its a little vague but I was wondering if other users had experiences to share.