AFP Out Of Date In OS X Lion

I tried to install the update LionAFPd_2.1.3-rns-0.1.2.bin on a ReadyNAS Duo with RAIDiator 4.1.7 [1.00a043].

When connection from Mac OS X 10.7 Developer Preview II is still get the "The version of the server you are trying to connect to is not supported."

Anyone have any ideas?

Best regards,
Stalker

nas:/# ls -al /usr/lib | grep libgc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Apr 11 21:54 libgcrypt.so.11 -> libgcrypt.so.11.5.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 497680 Feb 25 17:29 libgcrypt.so.11.5.3

ls /usr/lib/netatalk
uams_clrtxt.so uams_dhx2_passwd.so uams_dhx_pam.so uams_dhx.so uams_pam.so uams_randnum.so
uams_dhx2_pam.so uams_dhx2.so uams_dhx_passwd.so uams_guest.so uams_passwd.so

I got this working. Sucessfully connected to an AFP-share mounted through Finder.

I changed the startup-options for afpd in /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf and added uams_dhx2.so

- -uamlist uams_clrtxt.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so -nosavepassword -unixcodepage UTF8 -maccodepage MAC_ROMAN -setuplog "default log_info /var/log/netatalk.log"


TimeMachine isn't working.

As I think has been mentioned before Netatalk 2.2 will be required for Time Machine on Lion to work when backing up to a ReadyNAS.

I managed to get PR 2 (updated) version of Lion to connect to an AFP share on my ReadyNAS NV+ OK, simply by enabling LionAFPd_2.1.3-rns-0.1.2.bin extension and restarting AFP, which is great.

But despite this goodness, I can confirm TimeMachine doesn't want to connect to the ReadyNAS.

Fingers crossed for a Netatalk 2.2. update to LionAFPd or something appearing from Netgear... :)

Netatalk 2.2 is still in beta and Lion is still likely months away from release to the general public, so I don't I think there's any urgent need for NetGear to include Netatalk 2.2 in the firmware at the moment. So you could be waiting a while.

mdgm wrote:
I don't I think there's any urgent need for NetGear to include Netatalk 2.2 in the firmware at the moment. So you could be waiting a while.

We use a ReadyNAS to backup a handful of Macs across a network. Has worked pretty well for a couple of years, and nothing much wrong with the box or the disks. So would be disappointing to have to replace it simply to get it to behave nicely with Lion - and I suspect we'll be upgrading to Lion pretty promptly after it arrives. Based on experience, and comments elsewhere in this forum, there appears to be no grounds for certainty that Netgear will upgrade the AFP on the NV+ series of boxes at all, which would leave us in a bit of a bind.

I suppose we'd look to replace the box with whatever equivalent NAS device provides the appropriate level of AFP support soonest: we had a good look at the options a few weeks ago, and currently we think the Synology DS1511+ is the best replacement, with the Ultra 4 plus coming in close behind... but both lots of $$ for not a huge improvement in functionality.

Anyhow - we'll keep our fingers crossed.

I would expect Netatalk to get updated, but you should note that NetGear doesn't support beta OSes or beta software. They will stick with a stable version of Netatalk for now as running a stable version would be better for the vast majority of users. One would hope that a stable Netatalk 2.2 will be released well before Lion goes final which should hopefully give plenty of time for NetGear to incorporate it into the ReadyNAS firmware before Lion's release. Netatalk 2.2 will of course also be of benefit to users of older Mac OSes than Lion.

If you look at Synology, they are running a port of a very old version of Netatalk: http://www.netafp.com/status-of-netatalk-and-afp-support-by-nas-vendor-322/

From reading that article, I have deep concerns with AFP support on Synology. I do think that running such an old version of Netatalk is disgraceful and means they are a poor alternative for Mac users.

mdgm wrote:
I do think that running such an old version of Netatalk is disgraceful and means they are a poor alternative for Mac users.

I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as 'disgraceful', but interesting all the same. I had never really thought that all the NAS vendors would use basically the same AFP code. It looks like many of the OS X NAS issues ReadyNAS has with AFP that show up in other fora too (e.g. poor transfer rates for shipping large numbers of small files) - suggesting that these may well be Netatalk issues rather than specific stuff to do with the NAS vendor.

One pundit suggests part of the Lion issue is due to Apple discontinuing support for an older AFP authentication strategy, in favour of a newer but more processor intensive alternative.

Rumor has it that some NAS vendors intentionally disable DHX2 in netatalk because it’s a lot more CPU intensive. This could lead to longer login times when accessing AFP shares on NAS’ units with slow CPUs.

We haven't done proper tests, but getting a connection to the NV+ with LionAFPd running does appear to take longer than without - but there may be many other factors in play. But maybe enabling support for Lion AFP on the NV+ series may make it run like a dog anyhow... which brings us back to looking for replacement NAS units with powerful processors (and so the Ultra Plus and DS1511+ etc.)

Would be interesting to know what solution Apple use for their Time Capsule box - presumably not Netatalk - and whether there are alternative solutions NAS vendors could use (e.g. not open source). NAS boxes are not cheap, so vendors coughing up for functional commercial software might be economic if such worked better.

glawrie wrote:
Would be interesting to know what solution Apple use for their Time Capsule box - presumably not Netatalk - and whether there are alternative solutions NAS vendors could use (e.g. not open source). NAS boxes are not cheap, so vendors coughing up for functional commercial software might be economic if such worked better.

Apple use a version of OSX with their own closed source AFP implementation, just as they do on all their hardware.

Changed authentication is commonly a cause of incompatibility as companies like Apple (and Microsoft with SMB/CIFS) look to improve security and 3rd party installations then play 'catch up' - which will always be the case given Apple specify AFP and so will always be ahead when it comes to latest feature support.

There is no guarantee that paying for 3rd party commericial software - if it even exists - will mean better support than very widely used open-source implementations, such as netatalk in this instance. In either case NAS vendors will have to keep up to date with the latest available software - the link @mdgm quoted shows clearly that not all NAS vendors are doing this - but will seldom deploy beta software in production firmware to support a 3rd party beta software (ie Lion in this case, which as AFAIK has no formal public release date)

Based on experience, and comments elsewhere in this forum, there appears to be no grounds for certainty that Netgear will upgrade the AFP on the NV+ series of boxes at all, which would leave us in a bit of a bind.

Neither has any other vendor guaranteed every model of NAS they produce will have upgraded AFP support for Lion

Moreover, since Netgear is one of the major sponsors of the Netatalk project, it's likely that Netgear will have a working implementation first ;) Wouldn't make much sense to invest in a project and then not use it.

-Stefan