If you’re like me you have an OSX computer or 3 at home, and a debian file server. If you’re like me you hate samba/nfs on principle and want your debian server to show up in finder.  If you’re like me you arent using debian 3 which is what most of the walkthroughs seem to expect…  This is how I did it… With Debian Lenny.

What we’re using, and why:

• Avahi handles zeroconf (making it show up in finder) (most howtos involve howl which is no longer in apt)
• netatalk has afpd
• afpd is the fileserver

From: http://blog.damontimm.com/how-to-install-netatalk-afp-on-ubuntu-with-encrypted-authentication/

• apt-get update
• mkdir -p ~/src/netatalk
• cd ~/src/netatalk
• apt-get install cracklib2-dev libssl-dev
• apt-get source netatalk
• apt-get build-dep netatalk
• cd netatalk-2.0.3

From: http://www.sharedknowhow.com/2008/05/installing-netatalk-under-centos-5-with-leopard-support/

• vim bin/cnid/cnid_index.c ## replace “ret = db->stat(db, &sp, 0);” with “ret = db->stat(db, NULL, &sp, 0);” line 277
• vim etc/cnid_dbd/dbif.c ## replace “ret = db->stat(db, &sp, 0);” with “ret = db->stat(db, NULL, &sp, 0);” line 517

Mine

• ./configure –prefix=/usr/local/netatalk
• make
• make install
• vim /etc/rc.local ## add “/usr/local/netatalk/sbin/afpd”
• /usr/local/netatalk/sbin/afpd

From: http://www.disgruntled-dutch.com/2007/general/how-to-get-your-linux-based-afp-server-to-show-up-correctly-in-leopards-new-finder

• apt-get install avahi-daemon
• vim /etc/nsswitch.conf ## make the hosts line read “hosts: files dns mdns4”
• cd /etc/avahi/services
• wget http://www.disgruntled-dutch.com/media/afpd.service
• /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

in case that file drops off the face of the net, this is its contents (except “< ?” is “<?” and “< !” is “<!”) :

< ?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?>
< !DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">

%h

_afpovertcp._tcp
548

At this point your server should show up under the network in your finder… and you should be able to connect with any system username/pw combo