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I think starting with Lucid, Ubuntu ships netatalk 2.0.5 which makes setting up Linux as a TimeMachine server much easier. You no longer have to compile on you own nor do you have to create the sparsebundle.

Just install netatalk and avahi-daemon if you want to, add options:tm to AppleVolumes.default and you’re done.

aptitude install netatalk
echo /home/shared/timemachine  "TM" options:tm >> /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default

If you want the service to be advertised on your LAN also install avahi-daemon and create /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
<port>548</port>
</service>
</service-group>

Now you have to point TimeMachine to the TM share and that’s it. As long as you have a server with enough free space running at you LAN that saved you a lot of bucks compared to buying a TimeCapsule.