Time Machine backups on plug computer

I found a lot of posts on how to configure a TimeMachine to work on USB hard drive over the network. But it wasn't such an easy setup. I didn't work on the first run, and ran quite unreliably.

The basic idea of how to do this is to first create a sparsebundle, where the backup will be stored. Then move this bundle to the machine that will host the backup. Then configure AFP (atalk) to make the sparsebundle accessible to the Mac. That's it. Here are the links I found most useful:

Create sparsebundle: 

• http://www.levelofindirection.com/journal/2009/10/10/using-a-networked-drive-for-time-machine-backups-on-a-mac.html
• Move TimeMachine backup to new sparsebundle: http://www.readynas.com/?p=253

Setup AFP and Avahi:

• http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/#netatalk2
• http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/AFP
• http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Backups#Mac_OS_X

And here are my findings on how to make all this work:

• I tried placing the sparsebundle first in on a hfsplus (Mac formatted) disk. That didn't work well, probably because the Linux box doesn't work well with this format. I then tried using ext3 format, and that worked great;
• In the end, I had to create a backup from scratch. Some some reason, the previous TimeMachine backup I had didn't work so well. Maybe it will work for others.