[Gllug] Mac clients/Linux server

[jim smith]

>Hi,
>
>can anyone out there offer a bit of advise I have just started 
>working for a new company.  We use a Linux as a file and print 
>server running Samba and Nettatalk (about 80% of the clients are 
>Macs).
>
>An on going problem has been the Macs unable to get connections 
>losing connections and in some cases losing files during transfer. 
>It has recently gotten so bad that we have virtually abandoned using 
>appletalk to copy files across and are using secure FTP in most 
>cases.
>
>My searches for information seem to show that the kernel module 
>responsible is no longer being maintained and that there seem to be 
>problems with proprietary interfaces.
>
>does anyone have similar experiences or have links to sights that 
>maybe more useful for getting a working open source solution.  No 
>one here wants to move to an OS X server with the costs of new 
>hardware, licensing, and integrate it into current setup.
>
>Here's hoping someone can help


I haven't been able to get the latest netatalk  - at 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/netatalk - working at all with OS X: 
the file server advertises itself on the network but the connection 
is lost at log-in: a quick glance at the bugs on the sourceforge site 
notes this as a known problem.

it's /okay/ with OS 9.1 - the disappearing icon problem i used to get 
two years ago has resurfaced from time to time and Save As... 
sometimes crashes the client app - but basically it's stable. the 
problem is probably the lack of classic appletalk support in OS X 
(netatlak uses Appleshare-over-IP but seems to use a different 
protocol). You'll also note that the files at sourceforge haven't 
been updated since April, and we've had three OS X updates since then.

our one OS X enthusiast reports that the previous version (which i 
have compiled for i386 - but no source i'm afraid) worked okay with 
OS X, so i'm considering returning.

one suggested workaround for OS X is to export the Unix system as an 
NFS share and mount that, but that is a tad hairy for my liking. or 
use DAVE on the client machines and just use Samba (note - DAVE is 
commercial and not all that stable)

is secure ftp a vital feature of your internal network? if not, there 
are ftp tools available for the Mac that can at least fake a finder 
interface.

if your users are saving stuff without resource forks then WebDAV 
works well and provides built-in versioning.

one last consideration: redhat and netatalk do not get on - you can 
(and i have) get netatalk working but according other poor sods^H^H^H 
netatalk admins the SuSE version is a doddle by comparison.

for more info try searching the netatalk-admins list - you'll see the 
same unfixed problems coming upover and over again...

http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/archive/

j
-- 



jim smith
07961 319040
Sometimes I wish someone would port grep to everyday life.

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