Netatalk 4.0 - Future-proofing Apple File Sharing

[rdmark]

Heads-up that netatalk 4.0.0 is available now as a Debian Sid package. If you add the unstable repo to your package manager you can install it. Although I haven’t tested if all dependencies can be resolved on stable Bookworm or not. At the very least it works great on the latest Testing snapshot (the future Debian Trixie).

Since the netatalk suite is massively sprawling, I created this atomic package structure:

- netatalk — the AFP file server
- netatalk-tools — the various sysadmin tools and scripts
- netatalk-doc — the html manual
- libatalk — the shared library (used by all binaries)
- libatalk-dev — development headers
- atalkd — the AppleTalk controller daemon + sundry AppleTalk network tools
- papd — printer daemon and LocalTalk printing tools
- timelord — time server daemon
- a2boot — Apple II netboot daemon
- macipgw —MacIP gateway daemon

The dependency and recommends should be set up properly so that apt will pull the packages that you need and want.

One neat thing about this structure is that you can install only the AFP server or only the AppleTalk networking suite if you only want, say, the papd print server and nothing else. They all depend on the libatalk shared library but that’s it.

If you run into a dependency bug please let me know!

 

[NJRoadfan]

If you have a NAS device from a major vendor (Synology, etc.), chances are you've used Netatalk without even realizing it.

 

[Mk.558]

I plan on testing Netatalk 4.0 in a VM instance in the near future. I hope I don't have to make my own NAT table for macipgw.

 

[rdmark]

If you have a NAS device from a major vendor (Synology, etc.), chances are you've used Netatalk without even realizing it.

In fact, up until about 2 years ago Synology was still contributing patches for security bugs. Many of the commercial solutions have dropped AFP / Netatalk from their firmwares in recent years, unfortunately. If you are a NAS user, please try to convince the vendor to add it back.

 

[rdmark]

I plan on testing Netatalk 4.0 in a VM instance in the near future. I hope I don't have to make my own NAT table for macipgw.

It is likely that you will have to configure your own NAT table.

I started drafting a wiki page with guidance here: https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk/wiki/MacIP-Gateway

Still in early stages…

Step one is to make sure you are using a Linux kernel without known AppleTalk bugs. Particularly the pesky DDP packet filtering “feature”. Version 6.9 or later is recommended.

 

[KennyPowers]

In fact, up until about 2 years ago Synology was still contributing patches for security bugs. Many of the commercial solutions have dropped AFP / Netatalk from their firmwares in recent years, unfortunately. If you are a NAS user, please try to convince the vendor to add it back.

I have a Synology DS220+ NAS that was running Netatalk 3 out of the box, but it doesn't play nice with some of my older macs (system 9.2.2 can see it, but system 7 can't). I recently decided to try turning off the built in AFP support (Netatalk 3) and install Netatalk 4 using the docker image. However, I'm getting the socket: Address family not supported by protocol error when starting a container, suggesting that this Synology NAS doesn't have AppleTalk support in the kernel. Indeed:

user@NAS:~$ lsmod | grep appletalk
user@NAS:~$

I guess that means it's probably not going to be feasible to get DDP support on this Synology device?

 

[Mk.558]

It is likely that you will have to configure your own NAT table.

I started drafting a wiki page with guidance here: https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk/wiki/MacIP-Gateway

Still in early stages…

Step one is to make sure you are using a Linux kernel without known AppleTalk bugs. Particularly the pesky DDP packet filtering “feature”. Version 6.9 or later is recommended.

Ahhh much thanks, I'll try to remember this when I try again soon this week. Those heroes who dumped all those Apple TIL/KB articles know how to keep me busy

Made a post about Netatalk 4.0 on 68kmla.