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AppleTalk Boot Protocol

robin-fo

Well-known member
Hi AppleTalk enthusiasts,

Does anybody know something about the AppleTalk Boot Protocol (ABP)? It appears to be implemented in the Macintosh ROM, has a DDP type of 10 (0x0A) and does NBP lookups for "BootServer" type.

The IIsi's developer note also references a network boot mode which probably is related to this:
Network booting
The Macintosh IIsi computer is designed to provide future support for network booting (for example, starting up from a file server rather than an internal disk drive). You can use the Control Panel to set a flag in the ADB microcontroller that causes the system to start up over a communications network such as Ethernet or LocalTalk®. This feature is particularly useful in classroom situations where everyone has to start up from the same system image.
Was there any software released that supports this?

I know that some Apple ][ can boot from AppleTalk, but I wasn't aware early Macs could do this, too...
 

Nixontheknight

Well-known member
Hi AppleTalk enthusiasts,

Does anybody know something about the AppleTalk Boot Protocol (ABP)? It appears to be implemented in the Macintosh ROM, has a DDP type of 10 (0x0A) and does NBP lookups for "BootServer" type.

The IIsi's developer note also references a network boot mode which probably is related to this:

Was there any software released that supports this?

I know that some Apple ][ can boot from AppleTalk, but I wasn't aware early Macs could do this, too...
there is a card for the Macintosh II systems that supports netbooting, iirc
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
There was a NuBus (as well as PDS version) card + software combo called "The Diskless Mac" from Sonic Systems. I don't know if it used the in-ROM stuff, though. I think they used their own custom ROM.
 

Nixontheknight

Well-known member
There was a NuBus (as well as PDS version) card + software combo called "The Diskless Mac" from Sonic Systems. I don't know if it used the in-ROM stuff, though. I think they used their own custom ROM.
That's what I was talking about, I think I saw that on a Mini Mail Call by Adrian's Digital Basement
 

mikes-macs

Well-known member
FWIW
I had a cabletron 10 mbit nubus ethernet card years ago in my IIsi. It allowed the "Network" option in Startup Disk control panel to boot from, like a Power Mac does though there was nothing setup for it to connect to as far as booting. If you selected it, a dialog box came up stating "If there's no network disk available the boot process may take significantly longer." I never knew what it was for but with the NIC removed the Network option was no longer available in the Startup Disk control panel. It was much much later that I discover net booting in Mac OS X Server but the oldest Mac OS I have ever seen net booted was Mac OS 9.2.2.
Isn't there an option in AtEase and later Macintosh Manager that allows remote booting? Definitely sound like an early classroom deployment option for educational or collabaorative use . There is also a specific ROM that allows this I believe as the ROM in this IIsi is of early production. I can't say when because I don't know. The Mac IIsi has no onboard ROM and therefore requires a ROM SIMM. I don't have the cabletron card anymore and I haven't been able to reproduce this on any other Mac IIsi.
 
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