DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Hi kstar,

I'll try to answer your questions and also pose one of my own, for anybody that wants to help...

kstar wrote:

1. All those files on the HD_a2. ( .lpd, .systemfile, 'etch' folder, fun_plug, 'lnx_bin' folder, starttelnet.sh )I assume they need to stay there in order for it all to work?

Yes. Keep that stuff all where it is.

2. When I have afpd running, it obviously doesn't mean I can suddenly use the whole disk as an AFP share, or does it?

No, you won't see the whole disk unless you specifically configure it that way. You will log in using AFP as a particular user in the Debian etch install, and see that user's home directory.

3. I assume I need to make an AFP share on each Volume (Volume_1 and Volume_2) I want Vlome_1 as my main disk, and want to use Volume_2 as a back up of Volume_1?

Not necessarily; you will be able to see/use whatever the user account you are logging in as can see/use. If you include links to other universable-readable directories on the other volume, you'll be able to follow them from the Finder.

3. Do I or don't I need to have Apple Share on?

I'm not sure what this means. If you have afpd running, then Apple File Sharing is on. You don't need any other software running on either the box or your Mac.

4. In order to make an AFP share, do I need to first creat a new directory on Volume_1, and then tell afpd where that is and then...

Nope! You'll just see your user's home folder. See (1) and (2).

5. Does everything get set in the files inside the Netetalk folder( AppleVolumes.system and AppleVolumes.default), or do I need to set somehting up on my Macs too?

On the box, the two files you mention and afpd.conf control everything. You don't need to do anything on the Mac except select Go->Connect to Server... from the Finder and enter your box's address.

Have you created a user on the etch Debian install? If not, chroot back to it and do "adduser <yourusername>" and set up a password. That's what you'll use to connect. Then when you connect from your Mac, you will have access to [etch directory]/home/<yourusername>/.

I'm having a problem with files becoming invisible, but I think I'll put that up on a separate post.

kstar wrote:

I tried copying a folder, and that worked, only, it is not visible to me on the share. Probably the same "invisible files" you were talking about?

How did you install netatalk? After experimenting yesterday, I have tentatively concluded that installing netatalk using apt-get leads to this invisible files problem, but compiling it myself from scratch does not. Of course, if you compiled it from scratch, you will quickly defeat my thesis.

The other question which still remains for me is how do I make a similar share on Volume_2? I need to use that one for the back up of Volume_1. Would I also need to set up etch on Volume_2 in order to mount an AFP share from that disk?

You don't need to set up a separate etch install. What I have done to have access to my whole drive is to put a line in my fun_plug that puts a link to my drive within my home folder. Basically, telnet to the box and mkdir a folder within your home folder... I called mine "drive"... and then run this (and add to your fun_plug):

mount --bind /mnt/HD_a2 /mnt/HD_a2/etch/home/<username>/drive

I assume you could do the same with your second drive. Then they'll both show up as folders when you mount the drive from your Mac.

kstar wrote:

I guess the word "compile" scares a non-linux user. I am beginning to wonder if this was the right choice for NAS on a mac. It seems strange there are no other users with invisible file problems, which leads me to believe that even with an apt-get install it should be workable. Unless everyone else besides me is doing a compile.

Don't worry. I'm not a linux user most of the time either.

I think the answer to your questions about "everybody else" is that there isn't an everybody else. Very few people are running AFP on their NAS, and the stuff on the wiki was entirely written by me. Now, when trying to get AFP working using apt-get, the three people I know who've tried it -- you, me, and a friend of mine locally -- have all gotten the invisible file problem. I think that's where it comes from, and I'll update the wiki accordingly.

As for why nobody else is running it, there are a few reasons. There aren't *too* many Mac users on this forum, of course. But maybe more importantly, for most purposes, you could just use the built-in SAMBA server and things would work fine. Mac OS X's support for SAMBA is pretty good, and you can connect to the SMB share almost as easily as to an AFP share; you just need to add smb:// before the IP you are connecting to. I have chosen to go with AFP because I am keeping a lot of files on the share that have characters that SMB doesn't allow, and I don't want to change my whole file system over that. AFP's filename rules are extremely close to HFS+'s.

How much work is a compile compared to apt-get?

If everything goes according to plan, not much at all. If anything goes wrong, then you're at a disadvantage w/o any Linux/programming knowledge, but I'd encourage you to try it and post here if you have any troubles. This is how you learn it, after all!

When you mount --bind the drive, does that mean the whole drive is running AFP?

I'm not sure exactly what "the whole drive is running AFP" would mean. afpd will be running the same way as before, it just means that there will be a link to the root of the drive -- like an alias on the Mac side -- inside your home folder, so you can access everything on the drive. You could have one called Volume1 and one called Volume2, which would achieve exactly what you want, I think.

kstar wrote:

So I need to get a few things straight I guess.

When the DNS volumes are mounted in my finder (the unit appears in network, then I get a choice of the volumes) This is before I started messing with AFP. If I copy a directory to it, is it using Samba at that point? Or do you specifically need to use smb:// to invoke Samba?

My problem is that I tried to copy a few directories and kept getting errors that not everything could be copied and assumed this was due to file name length and charachters and such. This directory was a system directory (or user directory). Since I want to use it as a maindisk/backup, I can't have it spitting back errors all the time.

That is why I thought I would need AFP. Is that correct? Or is there something else going on?

Sorry if this isn't really clear, but I have so many "linux" things floating in my head that I'm zoning out on it a bit. Maybe all this afpd stuff wasn't really neccessary?

If you connected before setting up AFP, then yes, you were using SAMBA. I didn't realize you didn't need the smb://. My mistake!

The errors you are describing do sound like a filename/character/length problem to me. I'm not an expert myself, but I think AFP will solve that. However I'm not sure what you mean by "maindisk" -- I'm pretty sure that you will not be able to boot your Mac from the NAS without going through a whole lot more steps, that I at least haven't been willing to try. It definitely will work for backups, though. I'm using it that way myself.

kstar wrote:

Well, I think I have tried all I can at this point. Compiling doesn't look like an option to me. It says you first need GCC (whatever that may be) but the instructions and pre-requisites looked way out of my league. And does compiling imply that you have a windows machine to do that with, or can you compile on a mac? 

When I say "main drive", I mean that not only do I want to keep all my documents, music and movies on that drive, but also a copy of system files, or an image of my account. I would also like to keep my mail folder on that drive so both computers can access the same mail folder (assuming that is possible). Basically, I am looking for a way  to keep as little as possible on the computer itself so that if I need to a clean install, it will be as painless as possible.

It looks like I will just have to use it for all files which fit the requirements.

Don't give up! You're almost there!

All the compiling is done on the NAS itself. You don't need anything special on your Mac, and it doesn't matter whether you're on Mac or Windows. GCC is the compiler; all you need to do is

sudo apt-get install gcc

and you're there. Then you *should* be able to follow the instructions in order...

'sudo' assumes the permissions of Root for that particular command. That way you don't have to actually be logged in as root(usualy related to security).

-Aaron

kstar wrote:

Just one more question, do I first need to un-install Netatalk, or simply remove the folders?

I'm not certain, but I would uninstall it to be safe.

apt-get remove netatalk