Installing / Configuring AFS on Linux

The School of Informatics uses OpenAFS for its network filesystem. This page describes how to install and configure OpenAFS on Linux. The simplest instructions for installation differ by distribution, though the basic idea and steps will usually be the same. If your distribution isn't listed, it's worth looking at a similar distribution for the basic outline.

For background reading see connecting from outside the University - an overview.

Client Versions

For security reasons we do not support the use of Single-DES encryption. This means that AFS users must have a version of the client which can use stronger forms of encryption. You must use the latest available version of the openafs software for your system. Unless your distribution has backported the necessary fixes, you must use version 1.8.7-0 or later to avoid being affected by the epoch bug of early 2021. These are the minimum required versions for various Linux distributions:

  • Debian
    • Debian 11 (bullseye) - 1.8.6-5
    • Debian 12 (bookworm) - 1.8.9-1
  • Ubuntu
    • 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) - 1.8.4~pre1-1ubuntu2
    • 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) - 1.8.8.1-3ubuntu2~22.04.1

If your version is older than that listed above you must use the package manager (e.g. yum or apt-get) for your system to apply the necessary update.

Not all Linux distributions provide packages for openafs. If you are using Redhat or Fedora you can download RPMs for the latest version from the OpenAFS website. You must use at least version 1.8.9.

Last reviewed: 
02/05/2023