introducing A2SERVER again, this time with Pi

[Ivan X]

Hello world,

I'm happy to announce a major update to A2SERVER, which is an easy-to-use free file server and network boot host for Apple II computers. (Well, Apple IIgs computers, and Apple IIe computers with a Workstation Card.)

With the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, which A2SERVER now supports, I feel the Apple II platform finally has its perfect NAS drive.

Everything has been signficantly polished and improved, but the major bonuses are:

- supports Raspberry Pi; available as an ready-to-use operating system image file

- all the common bridges (Asante, Dayna, Farallon) now work reliably, even with the IIgs
[many thanks to Steven Hirsch and Geoff Body for their contributions here]

- GS/OS can be downloaded and installed for network boot, without needing the disks

- you can set the GS/OS network boot default in ProDOS 8

- web site documentation has been reviewed, revised, and improved

A2SERVER is also available as a ready-to use virtual machine appliance, or as an installer script for Ubuntu Linux.

Get A2SERVER at: http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server

I hope you enjoy it! Feedback is invited.

Cheers,
Ivan.

[Michael J. Mahon]

Very cool, Ivan!

I'm looking forward to trying it!

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

[Steven Hirsch]

On 04/07/2013 06:53 PM, Ivan X wrote:

> I'm happy to announce a major update to A2SERVER, which is an easy-to-use
> free file server and network boot host for Apple II computers. (Well, Apple
> IIgs computers, and Apple IIe computers with a Workstation Card.)
>
> With the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, which A2SERVER now supports, I
> feel the Apple II platform finally has its perfect NAS drive.

Once again: Nice work on the packaging and integration, Ivan! You've
singlehandedly made this valuable resource into a turnkey setup for the masses.

Not to take anything away from ADT (which is a lovely bit of work in its own
right), but Appletalk networking adds an entirely new dimension.

Steve

[Neo Winston]

Awesome update! Thanks for your hard work and now I have the perfect excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi :-)

Right now i'm using the A2Server with my iMac but I'll definitely try it with Raspberry Pi.

Neo Winston

[lee...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, April 7, 2013 6:53:45 PM UTC-4, Ivan X wrote:
> Hello world,
>
>
>
> I'm happy to announce a major update to A2SERVER, which is an easy-to-use free file server and network boot host for Apple II computers. (Well, Apple IIgs computers, and Apple IIe computers with a Workstation Card.)

[snip]

I'm downloading the VirtualBox image now. I have a IIgs and a Performa 6360 (finally) that can act as a LocalTalk bridge, so this should do quite well as a hard disk replacement. (I have the Rev. C SCSI card, but I seem to remember getting a SCSI hard disk being notoriously fiddly under GS/OS, not to mention that the cabling and drives are even harder to find now than when I was last playing with this in the late 2000s.)

-lee

[Steven Nelson]

I second Steven Hirsch's endorsement. Great work Ivan! Installation
on my RPi was flawless, albeit slow as you warned. (~1 hr for kernel
work, and another hr or so for copying apple|| files.) Localtalk
bridge on my PM6500 (sys9.2), and my ||GS was connected. I now have
to find my IIe with workstation card to relive old memories. Thanks!

--Steve

[oz390gta]

Thanks Ivan, this gave me a great reason to finally get a RPi and dust off the old unix knowledge (it wasn't much to start with). I have A2SERVER up and running. It is only over Ethernet at the moment to a Wallstreet PowerBook. Next step is to fire up the GatorBox and see how it goes. I will report back to the group on how it goes.

[oz390gta]

Ivan,

I can confirm A2SERVER PI works well with my Cayman GatorBox, if, as you suggested, disable appletalk routing on the PI. How do I make this change permanent rather than having to do it after each restart if the PI?

Is there any more detailed information/documentation on how I rename the server, rename the volumes, add new volumes etc to the server. I want to setup another volume for my vintage macs also, then I can retire my troublesome SE/3.

Thanks

oz390gta

[Ivan X]

> I can confirm A2SERVER PI works well with my Cayman GatorBox, if, as you suggested, disable appletalk routing on the PI. How do I make this change permanent rather than having to do it after each restart if the PI?

Hey there. Thanks for the report. It should be permanent; it shouldn't need doing again if you restart the Pi, because the /usr/local/etc/netatalk/atalkd.conf configuration file is changed, and should stay changed (unless you re-image the SD card or something). If you're seeing otherwise, email me and I'll try to figure it out.

> Is there any more detailed information/documentation on how I rename the server, rename the volumes, add new volumes etc to the server. I want to setup another volume for my vintage macs also, then I can retire my troublesome SE/3.

Generally speaking, it's mostly covered at netatalk.sourceforge.net in their docs for version 2.2. All of the relevant configuration files are in /usr/local/etc/netatalk, and the file you probably want to edit is AppleVolumes.default. You can just add additional lines near the bottom (I'd recommend before the A2FILES and GSFILES entries) to serve Linux folders as AppleShare volumes. For vintage Macs, use similar options as for the GSFILES volume.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 04/28/2013 08:55 PM, oz390gta wrote:
> Ivan,
>
> I can confirm A2SERVER PI works well with my Cayman GatorBox, if, as you
> suggested, disable appletalk routing on the PI. How do I make this change
> permanent rather than having to do it after each restart if the PI?

Just curious: Why does the Gatorbox have an issue with routing being active?
Or, am I misunderstanding your comment?

Steve

[Ivan X]

> Just curious: Why does the Gatorbox have an issue with routing being active?
>
> Or, am I misunderstanding your comment?

I don't think you are -- I suspect it came from my note at the bottom of http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/a2server_lan.html, where I suggest disabling Netatalk router mode if a Gatorbox is on the network and things don't seem to work.

I still have a pretty shaky grasp on how AppleTalk operates, and I don't have a Gatorbox to experiment with (my eBay saved search periodically turns up a Cayman Systems mug, but never an actual Gatorbox). But I observed that if you have two Netatalk servers in router mode, they both have to have matching network ranges, or one of them won't start up.

I assumed a Gatorbox, being an AppleTalk router, might cause Netatalk to do the same thing, so that's why I put that comment in; if there's already a router on the network, I figured Netatalk (which, in A2SERVER, is set to use network range 1-1) would possibly not start up.

[oz390gta]

> I assumed a Gatorbox, being an AppleTalk router, might cause Netatalk to do the same thing, so that's >why I put that comment in; if there's already a router on the network, I figured Netatalk (which, in >A2SERVER, is set to use network range 1-1) would possibly not start up.

With Netatalk routing active and my GatorBox also on the network nothing would route between LocalTalk and Ethernet. As soon as I disabled routing on the A2SERVER the routing between the two networks worked fine. On my Gatorbox the LocalTalk network is set to 1 and it is set as a soft seed port.

[Ivan X]

On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 12:50:52 AM UTC-4, oz390gta wrote:
> > I assumed a Gatorbox, being an AppleTalk router, might cause Netatalk to do the same thing, so that's >why I put that comment in; if there's already a router on the network, I figured Netatalk (which, in >A2SERVER, is set to use network range 1-1) would possibly not start up.
>
>
>
> With Netatalk routing active and my GatorBox also on the network nothing would route between LocalTalk and Ethernet. As soon as I disabled routing on the A2SERVER the routing between the two networks worked fine. On my Gatorbox the LocalTalk network is set to 1 and it is set as a soft seed port.

Based on what docs I've been able to find (http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~pcfe/Gatorbox/), it sounds as though it would also work if the Gatorbox were in non-seed mode, or powered on in soft-seed mode with Netatalk already running, and its EtherTalk network range were set from 1 through 1. But I didn't want to make that assumption, and the only reason Netatalk runs in router mode anyway is to make Asante and Dayna bridges work correctly with a IIgs. So I figured it's just as easy to disable Netatalk router mode in A2SERVER if you've got a Gatorbox doing that for you.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 04/30/2013 05:26 AM, Ivan X wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 12:50:52 AM UTC-4, oz390gta wrote:
>>> I assumed a Gatorbox, being an AppleTalk router, might cause Netatalk
>>> to do the same thing, so that's >why I put that comment in; if there's
>>> already a router on the network, I figured Netatalk (which, in
>>> >A2SERVER, is set to use network range 1-1) would possibly not start

>>

>> With Netatalk routing active and my GatorBox also on the network nothing
>> would route between LocalTalk and Ethernet. As soon as I disabled routing
>> on the A2SERVER the routing between the two networks worked fine. On my
>> Gatorbox the LocalTalk network is set to 1 and it is set as a soft seed
>> port.
>
> Based on what docs I've been able to find
> (http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~pcfe/Gatorbox/), it sounds as though it
> would also work if the Gatorbox were in non-seed mode, or powered on in
> soft-seed mode with Netatalk already running, and its EtherTalk network
> range were set from 1 through 1. But I didn't want to make that assumption,
> and the only reason Netatalk runs in router mode anyway is to make Asante
> and Dayna bridges work correctly with a IIgs. So I figured it's just as
> easy to disable Netatalk router mode in A2SERVER if you've got a Gatorbox
> doing that for you.

My Gatorbox was a gift from Marsha Jackson, who I assume set it up to cause
minimal problems before sending it. I never really fooled around with the
configuration.

Wonder whatever happened to Marsha? She did some great work, including
reverse engineering the A2 boot protocol and patching the 2e logon program.

[Ivan X]

On Sunday, April 7, 2013 6:53:45 PM UTC-4, Ivan X wrote:

Recent updates to Raspbian (received via apt-get update; apt-get upgrade) break A2SERVER because they replace the Linux kernel, which in its standard destribution doesn't support AppleTalk.

I've made a new kernel for the current update. If you update Raspbian, and A2SERVER no longer works, log into the Raspberry Pi and type "a2server-setup". At the very end of the process (you can answer "no" to all the questions beforehand if you wish) you'll be given the option to replace the kernel. A2SERVER should work again after you do so.

[Ivan X]

I have updated the A2SERVER web site (http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server) to provide info on using A2SERVER with Wi-Fi, and to provide a new Raspberry Pi disk image based on the recent Raspbian 2013-05-25 release.

Also, on Raspberry Pi, AppleTalk networking is now provided via a kernel module, rather than replacing the whole kernel. This means it should survive the kernel being replaced during "apt-get update" or "rpi-update", as long as the kernel version number remains the same.

If you're already running A2SERVER, you don't need to do anything to your existing installation, though if AppleTalk stops working, or you get "command not found" for any Linux commands listed on the A2SERVER web site, you can type "a2server-setup" to fix things up.