Subject: [netatalk-admins] Netatalk vs CAP and Netatalk vs linux kernel 2.2

From: Andy Jones <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 11:19:09 +1000

Hi

A couple of months ago, I set up a couple of DELL Power Edge servers
running RedHat 5.2 (kernel 2.0.36).  I decided to run CAP rather than
Netatalk, since I'd previously run CAP on Suns for years and it's always
been rock solid stable.  Netatalk on the other hand, seemed to be very
much still under development, which probably will make it a better choice
in the longer run, but for me right now, CAP was the safer solution.

Anyway, CAP 6 pl198 includes support for linux.  However it seems this is
linux circa the 1.2 kernel days.  After various stops and starts, and
after some bugs and debugging, I got it working on my 2.0.x RedHat box.
A while ago I went to upgrade the kernel to 2.2.1, and CAP spat the dummy.
In the kernel I found the following piece of code,  in the file
net/appletalk/ddp.c

>      /* netatalk doesn't implement this check */
>      if(usat->sat_addr.s_node == ATADDR_BCAST && !sk->broadcast)
>                {
>                 printk(KERN_INFO "SO_BROADCAST: Fix your netatalk
as it will break before 2.2\n");

Could anyone (asun ?) offer some advice as to what this means, and what
Netatalk had to do to work around this issue.  Ideally I'd like to get CAP
running on a 2.2 kernel and then made my mods available as patch 199 for
anyone else who wants them.

On a secondary issue, would anyone like to comment about my apprehensions
toward Netatalk?  The version number made it seem like hacks upon hacks,
so perhaps it would be less scary if just renamed to Netatalk v 1.5.
Then again CAP 6 patch level 198 is hardly comforting, though there's
only been one patch in about 4 years.

Is it a case of constant upgrading, ala the Linux kernel in days gone by?
How stable and reliable have people found Netatalk to be?  Have people
found strange or quirky bugs?  Can anyone who has migrated from CAP to
Netatalk offer any testimony about things which are improved or missing?

Note that I'm not trying to pick a fight or denigrate the efforts
which have gone into making Netatalk.  I fully expect that at some time we
will migrate from CAP to Netatalk.  But right now, I'm wondering how it
stacks up against CAP in a typical "business" situation, where Netatalk's
supposed greater speed and efficiency don't matter.  What matters is
stability and reliability under moderate (and occasionally) heavy loads,
and a fairly complete implementation of the AFP, ZIP and so on protocols. 

cheers,
/\ndy

---

From: [email-masked] (William P. McGonigle)
Date: 13 May 99 12:35:21 EDT

I've been running everything but my system folder from netatalk for about six
months now; the only problem I have is when my mac blocks, and netatalk thinks
I'm gone.  It's the mac's fault.

If you really want to run CAP's apps, you could run them on netatalk's
appletalk.  These patches are older, but might still work:

http://threepio.hitchcock.org/cgi-bin/faq/netatalk/fom?_highlightWords=cap&file=
39

-Bill