Configuring MacIP gate on Debian server

[vldmr]

I wanted to make my debian jessie server that already runs netatalk file server to act as MacIp gate. I had to exclude using MacIPgw as stock kernel comes configured with ipddp module, which prevents macipgw from functioning, and I did not want to maintain custom built kernel on that machine. Instead I tried to utilize that same ipddp module to its intent: decapsulate appletal ip packets, as described in kernel documenation.

I found MacGate source code mentioned in documentation on sourceforge. Compilation and installation was uneventful, configuration using macgateconfig seemed to be straightforward. Here is my /etc/MacGated.conf:

# Configure the IPDDP device in the init script? 1 = yes, 0 = no.
CONFIGIPDDP=1
# Name of the IPDDP device (e.g. ipddp0)
IPDDPDEV=ipddp0
# IP Address of the IPDDP device
IPDDPADDR=192.168.60.1
# Start MacGated in the init script? 1 = yes, 0 = no
STARTMACGATED=1
# Scan for IPADDRs on startup? 1 = yes, 0 = no
STARTSCAN=1
# Extra options (e.g. extra IP addresses with -i) to pass to
# MacGated. See MacGated( for more info.
OPTIONS="-i 192.168.0.76"

The MacGate daemon happily starts up, create its interface, even finds mac connected over localtalk to ethernet bridge, and creates new route for it, as can be seen from system log file:

Jan 15 16:32:33 acero MacGated: Found interface ip: 20752576
Jan 15 16:32:33 acero MacGated: Found interface ip: 1275111616
Jan 15 16:32:33 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: MacGate v1.15 for Linux 3.5.0x
Jan 15 16:32:33 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: Copyright © 1997-2013 Jay Schulist, All rights reserved
Jan 15 16:32:39 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: 192.168.0.76 registered as IPGATEWAY
Jan 15 16:32:39 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: NBPRegIPGATEWAY() succeeded
Jan 15 16:32:45 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: 192.168.0.76 registered as IPADDRESS
Jan 15 16:32:45 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: NBPRegIPADDRESS() succeeded
Jan 15 16:32:51 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: 192.168.60.1 registered as IPGATEWAY
Jan 15 16:32:51 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: NBPRegIPGATEWAY() succeeded
Jan 15 16:32:57 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: 192.168.60.1 registered as IPADDRESS
Jan 15 16:32:57 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: NBPRegIPADDRESS() succeeded
Jan 15 16:32:57 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: MacGateScanIP checking for existing addresses
Jan 15 16:33:03 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: nbp_lookup found 3 addresses
Jan 15 16:33:03 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: Found ip address: 192.168.60.152
Jan 15 16:33:03 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: Added route 65280:1 to 192.168.60.152 on ipddp0
Jan 15 16:33:03 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: Added route 192.168.60.152 to ipddp0 (SIOCADDRT)
Jan 15 16:33:03 acero MacGate v1.15[2175]: Scan added 65280:1 -> 192.168.60.152

But then no communication actually occurs between the two, ping fails in both directions. Looking at wire with wireshark shows no packets coming out from debian when pinging macintosh address, and when pinging from mac there is a bunch of AARP packets is sent to which there no response, as follows:

1    0.000000000    Farallon_1e:45:6f    AppleTalk-broadcast-address    AARP    60    Who has 255.0? Tell 255.0

Any advice how to troubleshot the setup would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[mactjaap]

I will try to answer you tomorrow. I'm very much into TCP over AppleTalk and working on a Linux Übuntu update of my MacIPgw virtual machine.

 

[mactjaap]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I had a look into MacGate and try to fresh up my memory. Some years ago I acquired a FastPath 5 and enjoyed MacIP with all my Macintosh. I started to think about a way to do this more modern way. I also started with Macgate to get an working MacIP router. But I never got it working. Then I found macipgw and made it working on a FreeBSD image. So the MacIPgw Virtual Machine was born. On this virtual machine macipgw does the MacIP routing.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Currently I’m working on a Linux version with NAT in place so you can surf the Internet directly. If you are interested I can provide you a demo (beta) VM. macipgw-beta 3.00.ova[/SIZE]

 

[mactjaap]

Ok. Beta is downloadable on:

http://cdn.macip.net/macipgw-beta-3.00.ova

You set your Mac with MacTCP on f.i. 172.16.2.2, as gateway 172.16.2.1 and DNS 8.8.8.8
Start a TCP/IP kind of program like, Fetch, Telnet or a browser and of you go to the Internet. You can also telnet into the VM. address 172.16.2.1
 
You can login with username macipgw and password macipgw if you want to do more…. You can become su with the password macipgw.

 

[vldmr]

Ok. Beta is downloadable on: http://cdn.macip.net/macipgw-beta-3.00.ova

Thanks for replies. Unfortunately, virtual machine solution would not work for me in my case. The server that I was trying to setup for macip is a low power headless machine that does not even have x windows on it. I am trying to keep active software running on it at bare minimum.

At the moment I've chosen to take a different path, and ordered an orange pi to use with your MacIPpi image. And BTW, thanks for developing and making available both of these solutions.

 

[IPalindromeI]

There exist headless virtual machine tools - KVM makes a lot of sense. My server had ESXi and I quite liked that.

 

[mactjaap]

[SIZE=10.5pt]@vdmr[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Ok great! You will be the third on earth using the MacIPpi! I send one to Bunsen to have a look if we can get a PPP daemon running on the pi, so you could use it to without LocalTalk Bridge for TCP over serial only.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Have a look at this story and my story about getting to the MacIPpi[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/apple/macintosh-plus[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]https://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/932-appletalk-on-an-orange-pi-one/[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The MacIPpi is working fine, but it can be necessary to restart it once in a while because of a not yet well supported driver for its Ethernet card. I’m working on that.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]I is also possible to run in on a C.H.I.P of Next with an USB Ethernet dongle:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/adding-appletalk/2481[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]@[/SIZE] [SIZE=10.5pt]IPalindromeI[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Hmmmm interesting. I never thought about a VM on a device like a pi. Maybe it is do-able….[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Will have a look into that. But an OrangePi has not much resources.[/SIZE]