As most of the posts out there are horribly outdated, or provide incorrect information for the current versions in use, here are my quick notes on setting up a time machine share.

First up –

apt-get install netatalk

Check /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf has something similarish to this:

# This line goes in /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf
- -tcp -noddp -uamlist uams_guest.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so -nosavepassword


Add a line for your required shares into /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default

# Time machine share
/nas/backup/timemachine "TimeMachine" cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,upriv,tm allow:lawrence,eugene,janice

Change the folder / names / users to your own ones obviously!
If its not going to be a time machine share, remove the “,tm”

Restart Netatalk

/etc/init.d/netatalk restart

You should be able to see the share in Time Machine Preferences.
See if you can backup. If you get a failure eg “Error 2”, make sure that the folder you use has write privileges for your user, then try again.

All in all pretty painless.

Proof it works –