1 Netatalk Frequently Asked Questions
2 ($Id: FAQ,v 1.9.2.2 2003-03-29 22:23:42 srittau Exp $)
4 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Q1: Where can I get more information on Netatalk?
7 Q2: What is this I keep seeing about asun?
8 Q3: How do I get the most recent version of Netatalk?
9 Q4: Can I get an almost current version of Netatalk without having to learn
11 Q5: Is there an RPM, package, or tarball for my platform?
12 Q6: I can't seem to use passwords longer than 8 characters for my netatalk
13 accounts. How can I fix that?
14 Q7: I would like to use encrypted passwords to authenticate to the Netatalk
15 server. How do I do that?
16 Q8: How can I set who has access to certain directories?
17 Q9: What are the .AppleDouble and .Parent directories which are created in
18 the netatalk locations?
19 Q10: Hidden files - what's up with that?
20 Q11: I get a "socket: Invalid argument" error when trying to start netatalk
21 under Linux. What is causing this?
22 Q12: Netatalk works over Appletalk, but my IP connections are refused, even
23 though I have enabled them in the configuration files.
24 Q13: I'm having Quark Express file locking problems, is there information on
26 Q14: I'm getting this error in Quark Express when trying to save a file to
27 the server: 'Error Type -50'
28 Q15: Does netatalk work with Mac OSX?
29 Q16: I'm getting an 'Application for this document not found' error on OS X.
30 Q17: I'm getting an 'Error Type -43' error on OS X.
31 Q18: How do I get the directories that are created by Netatalk to have the
32 correct permissions by default?
33 Q19: What does this error mean:
34 'afpd[#####]: setdirmode: chmod .AppleDouble Operation not permitted'
35 Q20: I'm having problems with the Trash folder: either when someone drags
36 files into it, the system want's them todelete them immeidately, or files
37 get stuck in there and won't delete.
38 Q21: The daemons aren't starting, things aren't showing up in the Chooser,
39 and I get a message like this in the logs: afpd[####]: Can't register
41 Q22: I want to be able to allow users to change their passwords? How do
42 I enable this feature. Every time I try I get an error that it was
43 unable to save the password.
44 Q23: Can a mount a Mac volume on my unix machine?
45 Q24: Can I run Samba and Netatalk together to access the same files?
46 Q25: Files I create on my Samba shares are invisible on the mac side.
47 Q26: How can I set netatalk to hide some files from the Samba (or
49 Q27: Files I create on my netatalk shares are invisible on the PC side.
50 Q28: How can I set Samba to hide the netatalk specific files (e.g.
52 Q29: I compiled Samba with the --with-netatalk flag. What did that do?
53 Q30: What about the differences in naming schemes, and legal/illegal
54 characters between Windows, Macs (and unix?)
55 Q31: Where can I get the cnid-db (Berkely DB) software? (needed for
57 Q32: What about security in Netatalk?
61 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
64 Q1: Where can I get more information on Netatalk?
66 A: Netatalk's home page can be found at:
68 http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/
70 Netatalk is maintained at SourceForge. The Netatalk project page on
71 SourceForge is located at:
73 http://sourceforge.net/projects/netatalk/
75 There are (at least) three very active e-mail lists to which you can
76 subscribe. The first, netatalk-admins, is for usage and setup/compile
77 questions. Subscription information as well as an archive are available at:
79 http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/netatalk-admins
81 This can be very high volume, but usually a few messages a day.
83 Netatalk-devel list is more specific to coding and testing. The archive
84 and more information can found at:
86 http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/netatalk-devel
88 This list varies in volume, but is usually moderately active.
90 Netatalk-docs is specific to documentation. For more information see:
92 http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/netatalk-docs
94 There are other netatalk information sites. Some of these are no
95 longer actively updated, some are site-specific, but still have
98 http://www.anders.com/projects/netatalk/
99 http://www.faredge.com.au/netatalk/index.html
102 Q2: What is this I keep seeing about asun?
104 A: Before Netatalk moved to SourceForge, Adrian Sun (asun) had written
105 some patches to Netatalk which helped significantly with its usability,
106 especially using AppleShare IP. These patches are still provided by many
107 Unix vendors. All of these patches are included in the current SourceForge
111 Q3: How do I get the most recent version of Netatalk?
113 A: Via CVS from SourceForge.net. This is the actively maintained version
114 of Netatalk, changes are being made constantly, and therefore it is not
115 suitable for production environments. The netatalk at SourceForge is in
116 Beta, so keep that in mind.
118 To create the CVS tree - from the directory you want to use as your CVS
121 % cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.netatalk.sf.net:/cvsroot/netatalk login
123 hit <enter> at the Password: prompt
126 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.netatalk.sf.net:/cvsroot/netatalk co
129 This will create a netatalk subdirectory, and check out all of the files.
130 If you run this same command subsequently, you will update any files which
131 have changed (on the CVS server) since your last checkout.
133 Once you've done that, read the INSTALL file in the netatalk/ directory,
134 plus the CONFIGURE file. If you're installing from CVS, you'll most likely
135 need have some supplementary software installed, such as gmake. Some
136 systems work fine with make. Additional information can be found in doc/.
138 The main things to know, though, are this: you must run
142 in the netatalk/ directory first, in order to create your configure file.
146 % ./configure --help | more
148 in order to get a feel for which compile flags are available. Some of these
149 flags are summarized below, some are summarized in the INSTALL file, and
150 some have individual README files.
152 To learn more about CVS, good places to start are:
154 http://www.cvshome.org
155 http://www.cvshome.org/docs/manual
156 http://www.cvshome.org/form/form.cgi (this is the FAQ)
158 There are GUI CVS systems for Windows and MacOS. Search on SourceForge for
162 Q4: Can I get an almost current version of Netatalk without having to learn CVS?
164 A: Yes. Daily snapshots of the CVS tree should be posted for the benefit of
165 those that don't want to / can't use CVS. They are available at:
167 http://www.marcuscom.com/netatalk/nightly/
169 You should be able to treat these images as you would a release. Just
170 configure as you normally work, then run make (or gmake as the case may
171 be). There is no need to run autogen.sh on these images.
174 Q5: Is there an RPM, package, or tarball for my platform?
176 A: Perhaps. These vary in how often they're updated:
179 port: /usr/ports/net/netatalk - maintained by Joe Clark
181 included in the distribution
183 port: /usr/ports/net/netatalk/ - not actively maintained
185 included in all current distributions
187 included in the distribution
190 Q6: I can't seem to use passwords longer than 8 characters for my Netatalk
191 accounts. How can I fix that?
193 Q7: I would like to use encrypted passwords to authenticate to the Netatalk
194 server. How do I do that?
196 A: Update to a newer version of AppleShare Client (I think the most
197 recent is 3.8.8). This allows longer passwords, and will allow you to
198 use encrypted passwords. Set which way you would like to authenticate
199 in either afpd.conf or netatalk.conf, depending on your setup.
201 For more information on the AppleShare Client from Apple, and which clients
202 are needed for which MacOS, see
204 http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60792?OpenDocument&software
206 (this site requires cookies, and a registration and sign-in).
209 Q8: How can I set who has access to certain directories?
211 A: You can certainly do this with your Unix permissions, but also explore the
212 allow/deny/rwlist/rolist options in the AppleVolumes.default file:
214 # allow/deny/rwlist/rolist format [syntax: allow:user1,@group]:
215 # user1,@group,user2 -> allows/denies access from listed users/groups
216 # rwlist/rolist control whether or not the
217 # volume is ro for those users.
219 Also, some unices, specially FreeBSD, have other options:
222 "What about file and directory permissions? Since I didn't use the FORCE
223 UID/GID code, I decided to use a feature of FreeBSD called SUIDDIR. From
224 the LINT kernel config file:
226 # If you are running a machine just as a fileserver for PC and MAC
227 # users, using SAMBA or Netatalk, you may consider setting this option
228 # and keeping all those users' directories on a filesystem that is
229 # mounted with the suiddir option. This gives new files the same
230 # ownership as the directory (similar to group). It's a security hole
231 # if you let these users run programs, so confine it to file-servers
232 # (but it'll save you lots of headaches in those cases). Root owned
233 # directories are exempt and X bits are cleared. The suid bit must be
234 # set on the directory as well; see chmod(1) PC owners can't see/set
235 # ownerships so they keep getting their toes trodden on. This saves
236 # you all the support calls as the filesystem it's used on will act as
237 # they expect: "It's my dir so it must be my file".
239 FORCE UID/GID code, I decided to use a feature of FreeBSD called
240 SUIDDIR. From the LINT kernel config file:
242 # If you are running a machine just as a fileserver for PC and MAC
243 # users, using SAMBA or Netatalk, you may consider setting this option
244 # and keeping all those users' directories on a filesystem that is
245 # mounted with the suiddir option. This gives new files the same
246 # ownership as the directory (similar to group). It's a security hole
247 # if you let these users run programs, so confine it to file-servers
248 # (but it'll save you lots of headaches in those cases). Root owned
249 # directories are exempt and X bits are cleared. The suid bit must be
250 # set on the directory as well; see chmod(1) PC owners can't see/set
251 # ownerships so they keep getting their toes trodden on. This saves
252 # you all the support calls as the filesystem it's used on will act as
253 # they expect: "It's my dir so it must be my file".
255 And the associated mount command:
257 mount -o suiddir /dev/da2s1e /macvol/artfiles
259 This was used on my dedicated Netatalk/Samba filesystems. On
260 filesystems that were also used for interactive shell access, I chmod'd
261 my Netatalk shares 2770. The reason for this is that I set up a UNIX
262 group for each department in the ad agency. I had an art group, a media
263 group, an accounting group, and then, or course, a general staff group.
264 Each share was only allowed access by the group that needed to access
265 the share. So, the Artfiles share allowed access only to the art group:
267 /macvol/artfiles "Art Files" allow:@art
269 And the others followed in kind. Therefore, the 2770 mask allowed only
270 owners and people in the associated group access to read and write
271 files. The leading 2 set the setgid bit so that all child files and
272 directories would retain the same group permissions. I found this to
275 This was used on my dedicated Netatalk/Samba filesystems. On
276 filesystems that were also used for interactive shell access, I chmod'd
277 my Netatalk shares 2770. The reason for this is that I set up a UNIX
278 group for each department in the ad agency. I had an art group, a media
279 group, an accounting group, and then, or course, a general staff group.
280 Each share was only allowed access by the group that needed to access
281 the share. So, the Artfiles share allowed access only to the art group:
283 /macvol/artfiles "Art Files" allow:@art
285 And the others followed in kind. Therefore, the 2770 mask allowed only
286 owners and people in the associated group access to read and write
287 files. The leading 2 set the setgid bit so that all child files and
288 directories would retain the same group permissions. I found this to
292 Q9: What are the .AppleDouble and .Parent directories which are created in
293 the Netatalk locations?
295 A: See the README.veto file in this directory.
297 The .AppleDouble folders hold the resource fork information for the Mac
298 files, plus other attributes which are not normally stored by Unix. For
299 this reason, when you want to move files around in your Mac volumes, it's
300 a good idea to do it from the Mac side (as opposed to from the Unix side,
301 or Samba), unless you make absolutely sure you get the .AppleDouble
302 directories. These directories are often hidden from the Samba side, via
303 the veto files configuration.
305 You can also set Netatalk to not create an .AppleDouble directory unless
306 it absolutely needs it, by setting the noadouble setting in
307 AppleVolumes.default.
310 Q10: Hidden files - what's up with that?
312 A: If you set the noadouble flag in AppleVolumes.default, you won't see
313 the .Apple* or .Parent directories on the Mac side. If you use the veto
314 files option in Samba, they may be hidden from the Windows side as well.
315 (More information in the Samba section, and in the README.veto file in
319 Q11: I get a "socket: Invalid argument" error when trying to start Netatalk
320 under Linux. What is causing this?
322 A: The "appletalk" and "ipddp" kernel modules have to be installed under
323 linux for Netatalk to function. The appletalk module can be automatically
324 loaded by adding the line "alias net-pf-5 appletalk" to the
325 /etc/modules.conf file. Issuing the command "modprobe (module)" will
326 load the module for the current session.
329 Q12: Netatalk works over AppleTalk, but my IP connections are refused, even
330 though I have enabled them in the configuration files.
332 A: If tcp_wrappers support is compiled into Netatalk, access has to be
333 granted in /etc/hosts.allow for Netatalk to successfully accept IP
334 connections. This can be done by the addition of the line:
336 afpd: 127. xxx.xxx.xxx. (whatever other subnets)
339 Q13: I'm having Quark Express file locking problems, is there information on
342 A: Yes, see the question regarding DID conflicts and the --enable-did= flag.
343 Also, try using the --flock-locks flag. Enabling this code disabled the
344 new byte locking feature. With FLOCK locks, the whole file would be locked.
345 With byte locks, a byte range could be locked without locking the whole
349 Q14: I'm getting this error in Quark Express when trying to save a file to
350 the server: 'Error Type -50'
352 A: Turn off the document preview feature off in Quark.
355 Q15: Does netatalk work with MacOS X?
357 A: Yes, but only the most recent versions, and it's still being finalized.
358 Versions prior to 1.5Pre7 did NOT work with OS X, although some really
359 early versions did (netatalk 1.4+asun?).
362 Q16: I'm getting an 'Application for this document not found' error on MacOS X.
364 Q17: I'm getting an 'Error Type -43' error on MacOS X.
366 A: Configure with --with-did=last. More info on this flag is given in the
367 DID conflicts question.
370 Q18: How do I get the directories that are created by Netatalk to have the
371 correct permissions by default?
373 A: Investigate the setgid bit on your Unix platform. It's a good idea to
374 set this on your shared directories, and your .AppleDouble directories.
375 From the mail archives: "Usually directories designated for use with
376 AppleShare have the setgid (g+s) bit set. It forces inheritance of
377 permissions. Without it, the .AppleDouble subdirectory can't be created
378 since the new folder doesn't necessarily have the same write privileges."
380 Information about the setgid bit can be found in Evi Nemeth's
381 "Unix System Administration Handbook" (3rd. ed, chap 5.5, pg. 69):
383 "The bits with octal values 4000 and 2000 are the setuid and setgid bits.
384 These bits allow programs to access files and processes that would
385 otherwise be off-limits to the users that run them. [...] When set on a
386 directory, the setgid bit causes newly created files within the directory
387 to take on the group membership of the directory rather than the defualt
388 group of the user that created the file. This convention makes it easier
389 to share a directory of files among several users, as long as they all
390 belong to a common group. Check your system before relying on this
391 feature, since not all version of UNIX provide it. [...] This interpretation
392 of the setgid bit is unrelated to it's meaning when set on an executable
393 file, but there is never any ambiguity as to which meaning is
396 NOTE: The setuid is usually discussed along with the setgid bit. The
397 setuid bit is VERY dangerous. If you set it on an executable, and the
398 executable is owned by root, anyone who runs that executable is root for
399 the duration of that executable's run, so a clever person can leverage
400 that into a full-scale compromise. The setgid bit also has other security
401 implications, so be careful where you set it.
403 You set it by doing a chmod 2xxx, where xxx are the normal file permissions
404 (i.e. owner/group/other permissions).
407 Q19: What does this error mean:
408 'afpd[#####]: setdirmode: chmod .AppleDouble Operation not permitted'
410 A: This can be due to a few things.
412 1) The setgid bit might not be set on either your directory, or on the
413 .AppleDouble directory. It has to be set recursively on the .AppleDouble
416 2) You may not be member of the group set on the directory you're trying
419 3) This was a persistant bug in 1.5pre6 for awhile, upgrading might help.
422 Q20: I'm having problems with the Trash folder: either when someone drags
423 files into it, the system wants them to delete them immediately, or files
424 get stuck in there and won't delete.
426 A: chmod the Network Trash folder to 2775 (/home/public/Network Trash
427 Folder for instance).
429 As of 10/16/01, MacOS X trash didn't work properly with afps volumes.
430 Apple is working on it.
432 Q21: The daemons aren't starting, things aren't showing up in the Chooser,
433 and I get a message like this in the logs: afpd[####]: Can't register
436 This is sometimes a result of missing NIC information in the atalkd.conf
437 file. Put your network interface (something like le0, eth0, fxp0, lo0)
438 alone on a line in atalkd.conf, and reboot. When atalkd starts, it will
439 populate the file with a line such as:
441 le1 -seed -phase 2 -addr 66.6 -net 66-67 -zone "No Parking"
443 To find your network interface, run
447 and see which interface has your IP address. Use that one.
450 Q22: I want to be able to allow users to change their passwords. How do
451 I enable this feature? Every time I try I get an error that it was
452 unable to save the password.
454 A: Use -[no]setpassword in afpd.conf. This enables or disables the ability of
455 clients to change their passwords.
458 Q23: Can a mount a Mac volume on my Unix machine?
460 A: Well, maybe. MacOS X obviously might be able to do this with NFS.
461 Also, there is a program called afpfs which was designed to do this,
462 but is not actively maintained and has been reportedly highly unstable.
463 It should be available from:
465 http://www.panix.com/~dfoster/afpfs/
467 Q24: Can I run Samba and Netatalk together to access the same files?
469 A: Sure. Lots of us do. But there are some concerns. Quite often it's
470 useful, for instance, to hide files of one OS from the other. See
471 the AppleVolumes.default file in Netatalk, and investigate the veto
472 files option in Samba. (See the README.veto file.)
474 Also, when copying and moving files created on the Mac, it's better
475 to do that from the Mac, rather than from the Unix server or from
476 Samba. This is because the .AppleDouble folders hold the resource fork
477 information for the Mac files, plus other attributes which are not
478 normally stored by Unix.
480 You can also set Netatalk to not create an .AppleDouble directory unless
481 it absolutely needs it, by setting the noadouble setting in
482 AppleVolumes.default.
485 Q25: Files I create on my Samba shares are invisible on the Mac side.
487 A: Have you checked the AppleVolumes(.default? .sytem? I don't remember
488 which one hides files!) file?
490 How long are the file names? Names longer than 31 BYTES (not characters)
491 are not visible on the Mac side. This is because some old MacOS's don't
492 accept long names, and some Finders crash when they encounter them.
493 Therefore Netatalk hides long filenames to prevent crashes. If you
494 prefer Netatalk to truncate the names, use the --with-mangling ./configure
495 option when compiling Netatalk.
497 The BYTES distiction is made because there exist doublebyte fonts too,
498 which limit names to 15 chars.
501 Q26: How can I set Netatalk to hide some files created on the Samba
504 A: AppleVolumes(.system or .default?) allows you to hide certain files.
505 This might be a good thing to set on, say, .cshrc, ssh keys, and
509 Q27: Files I create on my Netatalk shares are invisible on the PC side.
511 Q28: How can I set Samba to hide the Netatalk specific files (e.g.
514 A: Check your Samba veto files option in smb.conf. It's often useful
515 to hide files like .AppleDouble or the network trash folder here.
517 Does the mac file have a \ or / in it? Would this cause Samba to
521 Q29: I compiled Samba with the --with-netatalk flag. What did that do?
523 A: Nothing. Some code was written (by a Samba developer?), but as of
524 Fall 2001, Samba doesn't utilize it.
527 Q30: What about the differences in naming schemes, and legal/illegal
528 characters between Windows, Macs, and Unix?
530 A: Check out the documentation about the 'mswindows' flag in
531 AppleVolumes.default. For instance, having / or \ or : in a name is
532 especially bad, as they are path seperators on Unix, Windows, and MacOS,
533 respectively). Educating the end user is important for this problem.
536 Q31: Where can I get the cnid-db (Berkely DB) software? (needed for
539 A: First check to see if your Unix has a port or package. If not,
540 Berkeley DB is available at:
542 http://www.sleepycat.com/download.html
544 Q32: What about security in Netatalk?
546 A: Most of the security for Netatalk must be derived from the
547 security of the Unix server on which it runs. Directory permissions,
548 valid users, firewalls, IP filters, file integrity checkers, etc.
549 are all part of the equation. That said, it is possible to configure
550 Netatalk to minimize access, and close potential security holes.
552 These two flags are especially important:
554 --with-tcp-wrappers: enable TCP wrappers support.
556 Enables Wietse Venema's network logger, also known as tcpd or
557 LOG_TCP. These programs log the client host name of incoming
558 telnet, ftp, rsh, rlogin, finger etc. requests. Security
559 options are: access control per host, domain and/or service;
560 detection of host name spoofing or host address spoofing;
561 booby traps to implement an early-warning system. TCP
562 Wrappers can be gotten at:
564 ftp://ftp.porcupine.org/pub/security/
566 Note, if you use TCP Wrappers, it would be a good idea to set your
567 afpd.conf file to disable DDP, or accept connections only on TCP.
568 You can also configure afpd to only run on a certain port, which
569 you can then let through your IPFilter.
571 --with-ssl-dirs=[PATH]: specify path to OpenSSL installation.
573 NOTE: This is dependent on the same directory layout as the
574 source distribution of OpenSSL. That is: include/ and
575 lib/ to be on the same level. Many .rpm formats do not
576 have their files laid out in this format.
577 The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a
578 robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source
579 toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3)
580 and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well as a
581 full-strength general purpose cryptography library.
582 This is required to enable DHX login support, which
583 will encrypt all of the passwords being sent across the
584 connection. (Some old Mac clients don't support this, check
585 this FAQ for the section on AppleShare clients.)
586 Check to see if your Unix has OpenSSL already, or
589 http://www.openssl.org/
591 Be aware that on the volumes that are shared, some of the
592 special folders (.AppleDesktop, "Network Trash Folder") get
593 assigned. A lot of these get created as world-writable (because that's
594 what the Mac clients are expecting them to be) which is often quite
595 undesirable from the Unix system administrator's point of view.
596 Documenting this behavior could be a somewhat daunting task, but
599 Shares can be set to be read/write only by certain people and groups.
601 The Netatalk code has not been through a major code audit. However,
602 it's Open Source, so if you want to do said audit, contact the
603 Netatalk maintainers (which can be done through the SourceForge site).
605 Has anyone tried to run Netatalk in a chroot jail? If so, please
606 share your experiences with the mailing lists.