Automount AFS on Ventura

First: I have spent two days with Google trying to find a workable solution or a manual for OSX that's not a "man" page on this.

I have a QNAP server that provides SMB, NFS, or AFP services. I can verify that I can manually mount to various mount points for these services. The issue is related to permissions somehow. The share requests a username/password. It will work if I use the mount_afp -i (password) and -u (username). I also know that you can embed this string.

I understand the auto_mount and auto_fs files as well as using /etc/synthetic.conf to provide a mapping to the internal /System/Volumes/data (mnt or Volumes) directory.

However; there must be some trickery in here that is not documented like a %u or something.

file: auto_master

/-			auto_afp	-nobrowse,nosuid

file: auto_afp

 /../Volumes/MYVOL    -fstype=afp,rw afp://serverhostname.local:/MYVOL

I have tried implicit mounts

The issue is related to some user/password interaction. I have a similar issue with NFS if anonymous access is turned off.

The questions are:

1. What is the correct mount point for having this show up in /Volumes/MYVOL or /System/Volumes/data/mnt with a synthetic mount point to root (or variable induced ~/Desktop)
2. Is there some specific mount option to defer authentication?
3. Where are the autofs logs on a MAC? I enabled them in /etc/autofs.conf (but idk where they go)
4. Do I need to include a %u or something in the server mount like:

   /../Volumes/MYVOL    -fstype=afp,rw afp://%u:%p@serverhostname.local:/MYVOL

The automount: /System/Volumes/Data/mnt/MYVOL updated response lacks luster. It's mounted but you get an access denied or similarly weird error.

bash: cd: MYVOL/: Permission denied
Also even if it mounts and shows in Finder you get the red cicle with a line and permission denied.


Something like this should be well documented and the OSX User guide does not have anything technical. The apple.com support site does not have an autofs manual that I can find.

This issue can't be unique as most people have SMB, AFP or NFS network attached storage. What led to using an automounter (vice login options on finder) is that the finder connection randomly goes away.