Using Ubuntu as a Time Capsule

Long ago, back in the days before Gentoo had a binary distribution, when you had to compile everything, I made the switch to Linux. From Windows. This was in 2002, and since then I have spent a significant amount of time using both Debian/Ubuntu Linux and Windows, and I would have gone totally Linux but for 1) the lack of a decent peer for Adobe Creative Suite, and 2) because GIMP sucks. But a couple years ago, I bought a MacBook Pro 15″ and I found the best of both worlds – Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite and a BASH shell.

But, this is not about a Mac vs. PC argument. Use what you like. What this is about is using a Ubuntu server (Intrepid) to act as an AppleShare file server and Time Machine backup volume. It was not nearly as tricky as I expected it to be, and in a couple ways it was down-right easy.

The first thing I had to do: figure out how to get an install of the netatalk libraries with OpenSSL support compiled in. There seem to have been some licensing challenges between the Ubuntu folks and the NetATalk folks, but that’s worked out. The default package in Ubuntu’s current release (Intrepid) has support for encrypted connections. Just install it.

That said, I don’t want to rewrite a really helpful article I found on the tubes. I’ll just say that this is a great article, and it’ll work fine under Intrepid. Make Ubuntu a Perfect Mac File Server…

Even if the first backup took FOREVER…