Can Linux mount a normal Time Machine sparse bundle disk image directory?
You may use a combination of these two:
FUSE filesystem for reading Mac OS sparse-bundle disk images
- https://github.com/torarnv/sparsebundlefs
Apple's Time Machine fuse read only file system
- https://github.com/abique/tmfs
The first takes care of the .sparsebundle format, presenting it as a dmg file, which can then be mounted like normal. The second takes care of the directory hard-links used by Time Machine.
Apple's Time Machine fuse read only file system
https://github.com/abique/tmfs
The above post, from Alexandre Bicque, provides a Linux (?unix) program that will open a Time Machine sparsebundle stored on a Mac-formatted HFS+ disk or disk partition, allowing reading of the files on a Linux server.
Getting it set up isn't for the faint-hearted. It's written in C++ and requires 3 C++ libraries - cmake, FUSE, and Boost, with certain minimum versions (which may not be default latest versions for my Ubuntu Server 10.04.) It also requires finding and installing a g++ compiler and the above libraries.
I use Ubuntu server 10.04 and am not much of a programmer. However, after a fair bit of work and time, I did manage to install all the necessary libraries, compile and link the tmfs package, and use it. It does work, allowing mounting a TimeMachine Time Capsule. HOWEVER, it does require that the disk on which the sparsebundle image is written be an HFS+ disk or partition. It won't work if the image is written on an NTFS or ext2/ext3/ext4 file system on a Linux server.
As of Apple's OS X 10.7 (Lion), Time Machine (sparsebundle) images will no longer work if mounted on a Windows (smb/Samba) Linux share, and it's necessary to run Linux/Unix Netatalk (afpd plus avahi-daemon) services to use Linux as a Time Machine server.
I've done a lot of looking for another solution. I suspect that a Linux/Unix C++ programmer could do better than have I, extending Alexandre Bicque's work to allow the use of ext4 or ntfs file systems. I'm trying to figure out how to do it, but have a long way to go.
I think it will require that I understand much better the fuse (user-space file system) and perhaps the boost::filesystem system development helpers in order to move forward.