@snowdusk I had previously done this using Netatalk on a Linux machine as the server so that the old Macs can access files on it via AppleTalk. You can also do this from a BSD machine as the Netatalk server.
@claudiom cool advice!! Thatβs exactly what I need β- something that will make Appletalk connect to regular modern network bec right now I cannot see my old Mac on the local network! πππ
@snowdusk Here's more information on #Netatalk.
https://netatalk.sourceforge.io/
There might be some front-ends you can use, but if I remember correctly, it's not too hard to configure the server files for the classic Macs to see.
@claudiom good moaning claudiom! π I tried installing netatalk but I gave up in the end LOL I was doing it for a long time last night and compiling just kept failing everywhere. I installed all kinds of dependencies without a clue of what they actually do LOL It's OK. It was a good learning curve but thank you for all your tips. π€
@snowdusk Hey bud! Well, you shouldn't have had to build it from source. If it's an older version of Mac OS X, then it should still have support for classic AppleTalk. I don't remember when Apple removed it from macOS. Which version of macOS are you running on the Mac that you're using as a server?
@claudiom well, first i tried installing it thru MacPorts because the package is available there but it kept giving me error message at the end. It's not available on brew. I then downloaded the source from the web and tried compiling it from there. Then it kept telling me I did not have berkeley-db so i tried installing db4 from macports. still telling me i dont have it. installed berkeley-db from brew it installed. it was still telling me i dont have it. I even did some config changes
@claudiom to my system to point to the berkeley-db. Then in the end i ended up with so many pkgs on brew that i rlly did not want. i always try to avoid brew and stick to macports. I have an older OS that's probably why. Mojave. I read that Mac OS has its own berkeley-db. But I did not want to go further it was just getting too complicated. It's OK. in the end i ended up uninstalling brew and removing all packages it installed. LOL thank you though!
@claudiom I wanted to make the Mac Pro with Mojave to act as a server to my older Macs - that was the original plan anyway. ... but it's OK. I'd like to ditch that plan now and probably just isolate my older Macs from the wild world of the web!!! haha
@snowdusk OK, so Mojave. Which classic Mac are you trying to share with and what version of Mac OS is that running?
@snowdusk @claudiom Back in the day, 2000, (I think) I did a clever file sharing solution for my old Apple computers and PCs running Windows and GNU/Linux.
What I did was install FreeBSD on a PC with a large hard drive, create a directory for sharing with all the machines, and configure/enable AppleTalk and Samba on this directory.
If you would like, I can write up a tutorial, or feel free give me a call on my SDF phone extension for more details.
@gemlog @snowdusk @claudiom Awesome! I think it's a really cool thing, using a machine as a kind of translator and sharer of data. It was just what I needed, especially to get files from the Internet to my ancient Apple machines. I'd just download the file to the shared directory from a fast machine and voila, there it was for the old Apple.
also back then, I remember repurposing and old cash register as a router/fw in that tiny office. I removed the p/s fan (for noise) and installed this on a floppy http://www.freesco.org/
So secure when write protected. Rebooted on power cyclying. Painless! :-)
@scm @snowdusk @claudiom
@scm That's kind of what I've done using Linux, but I've kept Netatalk sharing a particular folder to the older Macs which was a subfolder of another folder being shared via other means for the non-Mac systems. Since that folder was just for dropping in applications and installers so that the older Macs could access it, I didn't need the other systems putting files in there that might cause issues with the older Mac systems. @snowdusk @gemlog
@scm
I did exactly this in the 90's for a client with an OS9 box who married an msw person :-) I put linux in the middle.
@snowdusk @claudiom