Linux Time Machine Backup with netatalk 3.0

There are quite a few lengthy guides on how to back up your Mac to a Linux box with Time Machine and netatalk 2.x.

You don’t need any of that. With netatalk 3.0, it is a single line in your config file, time machine = yes, and you don’t even need to set TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes.

On Arch Linux, all you need to do is

pacman -S netatalk
Append dbus avahi-daemon netatalk to your DAEMONS in /etc/rc.conf.

Add your backup folder to /etc/afp.conf like so:

[ShareName]
path = /path/to/backup/drive
time machine = yes

Now start the daemons and you’re good to go. Even Bonjour is taken care of automatically.

On Ubuntu, netatalk is still at version 2, so you’ll need to compile it from source. Make sure you install Avahi.