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Thain Esh Kelch · Oct 9, 2007, 07:41 AM

One of my good friends is running Gentoo, and he noticed that he has HFS+ support for read and write. But does that also include HFS+ Journaled support?

Big Mac · Oct 9, 2007, 08:27 AM

That's pretty cool. If it has HFS+ support that should be enough.

Tomchu · Oct 9, 2007, 09:21 AM

I wouldn't trust Linux at all when it comes to writing to file systems that are native to other OSes (NTFS, HFS+, UFS, and so forth). Use at your own risk.

besson3c · Oct 9, 2007, 10:30 AM

Yeah, often times support for other file systems is labeled as "experimental" within the kernel.

If you want to write to HFS+, I would suggest running Netatalk.

nonhuman · Oct 9, 2007, 01:23 PM

I've had no problems using HFS+ with Linux in the past. For a while I was running Gentoo on an old iMac G3 using an iMac G4 in target disk mode and Netatalk so that I could share the contents of the iMac G4 to other Macs. Worked absolutely fine despite being a total hack.

The reason for such ridiculousness was that up until that point we had been using that iMac G4 as the file server for the office (it was set up before I started working there). At that point the office had 5 people or less in it so there was no problem, but once the office grew the file sharing limitations in OS X became a factor. They wouldn't let me spend the money to get OS X server (although eventually they did), so I had to find some other way of sharing all those files to more than 5 people simultaneously with AFP without actually spending any money. The only other computer available to me was the iMac G3, but it's hard drive wasn't big enough to hold all the files. So I came up with the Frankenstein system described above.

besson3c · Oct 9, 2007, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

I've had no problems using HFS+ with Linux in the past. For a while I was running Gentoo on an old iMac G3 using an iMac G4 in target disk mode and Netatalk so that I could share the contents of the iMac G4 to other Macs. Worked absolutely fine despite being a total hack.

The reason for such ridiculousness was that up until that point we had been using that iMac G4 as the file server for the office (it was set up before I started working there). At that point the office had 5 people or less in it so there was no problem, but once the office grew the file sharing limitations in OS X became a factor. They wouldn't let me spend the money to get OS X server (although eventually they did), so I had to find some other way of sharing all those files to more than 5 people simultaneously with AFP without actually spending any money. The only other computer available to me was the iMac G3, but it's hard drive wasn't big enough to hold all the files. So I came up with the Frankenstein system described above.

But this is different than what was being asked, I think... Netatalk negotiated the HFS+ writing, it was that layer of abstraction. I think what the original poster was referring to was direct writing to an HFS+ volume managed by the kernel... In other words, plugging in an HFS+ formatted drive and writing to it without Netatalk or any other service running.

nonhuman · Oct 10, 2007, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

But this is different than what was being asked, I think... Netatalk negotiated the HFS+ writing, it was that layer of abstraction. I think what the original poster was referring to was direct writing to an HFS+ volume managed by the kernel... In other words, plugging in an HFS+ formatted drive and writing to it without Netatalk or any other service running.

No, the Gentoo box was mounting the HFS+ drive off the iMac directly via Target Disk Mode. Netatalk was then being used to share the appropriate directory on that mounted HFS+ drive over the network. Reading and writing to the drive was being handled through the kernel which has HFS+ support compiled into it. I could SSH into the Gentoo box and deal with the HFS+ mount just as I would with an ext3 or ReiserFS mount.

ghporter · Oct 10, 2007, 07:10 PM

Gentoo supports Apple's Target Disk Mode? That's interesting...

Tomchu · Oct 10, 2007, 07:27 PM

...

A Mac in FTDM acts as an external Firewire hard drive. *ANY* OS with a Firewire storage stack will "support" a Mac in FTDM at the connectivity layer, including Linux (or Windows, or FreeBSD, etc.)

ghporter · Oct 10, 2007, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by Tomchu

...

A Mac in FTDM acts as an external Firewire hard drive. *ANY* OS with a Firewire storage stack will "support" a Mac in FTDM at the connectivity layer, including Linux (or Windows, or FreeBSD, etc.)

I'd had the mistaken notion that this was a Mac-to-Mac thing. Thanks for setting me straight.

Thain Esh Kelch · Oct 12, 2007, 10:49 AM

Didn't expect so many replies, but thanks for the heads up guys.

We are talking a generic PC running Gentoo, and as far as I can tell from you guys, I should be wary. Fortunately its just my secondary backup disc he is going to write/read to/from, so no big deal if it crashes.

But I will take a look at Netatalk.