This is the chapter of the MemberManual that describes how to install and configure OpenAFS Client on Debian based systems. These instructions were adapted from HCoop user bpt's instructions.

OpenAFS Client Installation

aptitude install openafs-client

Answer the configuration questions as follows:

• AFS cell this workstation belongs to: hcoop.net

• The default value for "Size of AFS cache in kB" is okay. You can increase the cache size if you want.
• Dynamically generate the contents of /afs? Yes

• DB server host names for your home cell: afs.hcoop.net

• Run Openafs client now and at boot? Yes

You may need to run dpkg-reconfigure openafs-client to get asked all of these questions.

Kernel Module Installation

OpenAFS requires a kernel module, and Debian does not provide third-party kernel modules as binary packages. Module-assistant can download, compile, and install kernel modules for you. Install that, then install the OpenAFS module:

aptitude install module-assistant
module-assistant prepare
module-assistant auto-install openafs

OpenAFS's cache is located at /var/cache/openafs, and it must be on an ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem. If /var/cache is not on an ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem, you'll need to mount an ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem at /var/cache/openafs. OpenAFS cache does not work well, if at all, on ReiserFS systems.

Restart OpenAFS:

/etc/init.d/openafs-client restart

Now you should be able to see files in /afs/hcoop.net, but you won't have any AFS tokens. So let's install some Kerberos packages.

Kerberos Installation

aptitude install openafs-krb5 krb5-user

• Default Kerberos version 5 realm: HCOOP.NET

• Kerberos servers for your realm: kerberos.hcoop.net

• Administrative server for your Kerberos realm: kerberos.hcoop.net

If you are using Ubuntu Hardy, you might also need to add the following to your /etc/krb5.conf file, in the [domain_realm] section. It gets rid of a pesky warning.

        hcoop.net = HCOOP.NET
        .hcoop.net = HCOOP.NET

What, exactly, is the relevant contents of /etc/krb5.conf? As a Gentoo user I'm not asked the configuration questions at install, but instead need to edit this file manually.

Using AFS

Typically, to gain access to your HCoop AFS share, do the following on your local system:

kinit user@HCOOP.NET
aklog -c hcoop.net

Be sure that the openafs module is loaded or there will be errors. The tickets gained will last up to 10 hours but can be renewed with krenew for up to 8 days. Here's a common use:

krenew -K 30 -t

See the krenew man page to learn what these options are doing.

Troubleshooting

ReiserFS

First, if you are using ReiserFS, the AFS daemon will simply refuse to work because it cannot use that filesystem for its cache. If the daemon doesn't run, you'll get a puzzling error message that might make you think you have a firewall problem.

To get the daemon to work, edit the /etc/openafs/afs.conf to make it use the memory cache. It is said to be less stable than the hard disk cache. The README.Debian file also suggests creating a loopback ext2 filesystem for the cache.

Konqueror

Konqueror simply hangs when trying to browse /afs with the default CellServerDB. This happens because it is trying to access AFS volumes it doesn't have access to or that are not accessible, and hangs indefinitely. There is a lot of cells pre-configured in the Debian package, and probably some of them are not valid or not accessible. Once the content of /etc/openafs/CellServerDB has been erased of everything except for the hcoop.net entry, browsing /afs with Konqueror should work.