Q: How do I use the OpenAFS PPA on Ubuntu?

Answer

On Ubuntu Linux, the OpenAFS software which provides the /afs filesystem is available in two flavors: provided by Ubuntu itself and provided by the OpenAFS team via an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive (PPA).

The software in the PPA is newer and keeps up to date with Ubuntu Kernel updates better than the Ubuntu-provided version, so we recommend using that when possible.

As of Ubuntu groovy, you also need to install the openafs-krb5 package, it won't automatically be installed as a dependency.

Determine if you need to enable the PPA

If you installed your workstation using the Debathena installer, you should not need to follow this procedure, unless you specifically opted out of using the PPA at the time.

To determine if you need to enable the PPA, run the following command:

apt-cache policy | grep -i openafs/stable

If you see output similar to the following, the PPA is enabled and you do not need to follow this procedure. The word precise below should match your Ubuntu version (e.g. precise, trusty).

 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/openafs/stable/ubuntu/ precise/main Translation-en
 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/openafs/stable/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/openafs/stable/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

If you saw no output from the command, you will likely need to enable the PPA.

Become root

If your workstation has a root password, you can type su, press Enter, and enter the password when prompted. If not, and you are an administrative user (for example, the user and password you created when you initially installed Ubuntu), you can type sudo -i and enter your personal password when prompted.

Enable the PPA

This process is somewhat time-consuming, and interrupting it can render your workstation entirely unusable, so please set aside 30 minutes to complete this procedure. Ensure that nobody else is logged in to your workstation, and ensure that you are not accessing any files in AFS.

1. Type add-apt-repository -y ppa:openafs/stable and press enter.
1. Type apt-get update and press enter.
1. Type apt-get -y install openafs-modules-dkms and press enter.

When the last step completes (it may take some time, and can take as long as 15 or 20 minutes depending on how many old kernels you have installed), you will need to restart openafs as follows:

/etc/init.d/openafs-client restart