after fidling with NFS, samba and netatalk, it seems that currently NFS offers the best subset of support for the following; decent transfer times, long filename suport ( n > 31 chars), mounting .dmg files, ease of access from finder/linux/windows.

while NFS support is kinda wonky between debian(testing) and osX(10.3.2) with default values, its not so hard to improve performance noticeably

server setup

on debian GNU Linux apt-get install the nfs stuff, and use the ubiquitous linuxdoc http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/

edit /etc/exports to include a line something like /home/shared 192.168.254.*(rw,async,insecure)

note: rw(readwrite), async (asyncronous i/o is MUCH faster), insecure (required for BSD level in-seekurity)

optimise…

see: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/performance.html

fidle with /etc/fstab and netinfo

static mounting (at startup) using netinfo manager, setup a new mount (in '/mounts') add

• property: name , value: 192.168.254.10:/home/shared
• property: dir , value: /Network/<mountpoint name>
• property: vfstype ,value: nfs
• property: opts ,value: -w=8192 -r=8192 -l8192 -2 -a=4 -b -U net

for automouting automation using netinfo manager, setup a new mount (in '/mountmaps') see http://sial.org/howto/osx/automount/

other…

• quick notes on using osX as a NFS client http://people.unfoo.net/geekU/Articles/NFS
• howto docs for client and server setup http://astcomm.net/mac/tech/nfs_howto/
• shareware helping hand (nfs server admin) http://www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html