afp connection rejected: (bad user/pass) afp log: "too many"

I just solved my own problem, but not without a lot of frustration and head-banging.

Here was the post I was writing (eg in the *present* tense) to describe the situation:

On my macbook pro, running OS X 10.5.8, every time it tries to log into my new ReadyNAS NV+:
I'm mostly trying command-K, "connect to Server"; no dice. "Invalid username or password."
Left sidebar sees it, but if I click on it, I get 'connection failed' or whatever.

Here is a log file from Console.app:

9/17/09 7:46:22 PM kernel ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest:  cancelling slot 1 error 89 reqID 2 flags 0x9 afpCmd 0x3F so 0x8c00000 
9/17/09 7:46:22 PM kernel ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest:  cancelling slot 1 error 89 reqID 2 flags 0x9 afpCmd 0x3F so 0x8c00000 
9/17/09 7:47:14 PM kernel ASP_TCP CancelOneRequest:  cancelling slot 1 error 89 reqID 2 flags 0x9 afpCmd 0x3F so 0x909a4c8 

The afp daemon log on 'turbot' (readynas NV+) as I'm being rejected from logging in:

turbot:/var/log# tail -f netatalk.log 
Sep 17 20:01:54 afpd[1277][server_child.c:390]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1308 exited 1
Sep 17 20:01:55 afpd[1310][dsi_tcp.c:208]: I:Default: ASIP session:548(6) from 192.168.1.70:50062(8)
Sep 17 20:01:55 afpd[1277][server_child.c:390]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1309 exited 1
Sep 17 20:01:55 afpd[1277][server_child.c:393]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1310 done
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1277][server_child.c:390]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1312 exited 1
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1313][dsi_tcp.c:208]: I:Default: ASIP session:548(6) from 192.168.1.70:50066(8)
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1277][server_child.c:393]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1313 done
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1314][dsi_tcp.c:208]: I:Default: ASIP session:548(6) from 192.168.1.70:50067(8)
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1314][dsi_getsess.c:91]: I:Default: dsi_getsess: too many connections
Sep 17 20:01:56 afpd[1277][server_child.c:390]: I:Default: server_child[1] 1314 exited 1

I have an older NV+ to which I can do afp connections just fine. Both are running 4.1.6.

I can log into the new one (turbot) with CIFS with no problems.

I cannot log into the new NAS via afp with other user credentials on the NAS.
I cannot log into the new NAS via afp from other macs.

On the old NAS (specialdisk) the process descriptor looks like this:

root      1579  0.0  0.2  7840 2432 ?        S    Sep13   0:00 /usr/sbin/afpd -U uams_dhx.so,uams_clrtxt.so,uams_guest.so -c 50 -n specialdisk

On the new NAS (turbot) the process descriptor looks like this:

root      1277  0.0  0.2  7840 2432 ?        S    19:58   0:00 /usr/sbin/afpd -c -n

Oho.

(I have not made any changes to any config files yet; I'm just studying file contents.)

Hmm, looks like -c is the culprit. Looking further:

specialdisk:/etc/netatalk# tail -1 afpd.conf 
 - -uamlist uams_clrtxt.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_guest.so -nosavepassword -unixcodepage UTF8 -maccodepage MAC_ROMAN

turbot:/etc/netatalk# tail -1 afpd.conf 
 - -uamlist uams_clrtxt.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_guest.so -nosavepassword -unixcodepage UTF8 -maccodepage MAC_ROMAN

They look identical to me (same checksum), permissions look the same on the enclosing directories and on the conf files themselves, etc.

I feel like I'm not looking in the right place for the config, or that part of the conf is coming from somewhere else...

Let's look at /etc/init.d/netatalk: both files are identical in size, same checksum, same perms.

Oh wait, reading is fundamental, it references /etc/default/netatalk:

# Set defaults. Please change these options in /etc/default/netatalk.
AFPD_UAMLIST="-U uams_dhx.so,uams_clrtxt.so,uams_randnum.so"
AFPD_GUEST=nobody
AFPD_MAX_CLIENTS=50
ATALK_ZONE=
ATALK_NAME=`/bin/hostname --short`
ATALK_BGROUND=no

# Read in netatalk configuration.
if [ -f /etc/default/netatalk ]; then
  . /etc/default/netatalk
fi

And on my old one, that file has stuff in it. On the new one, it existed, but was empty.

Copied contents of one to the other, rebooted, it works wonderfully.

The new NAS came with 4.1.5 and I upgraded it to 4.1.6 right away, FWIW.

Maybe this post will help someone else out there who runs into the same problem.