Experimental Netatalk 2 on macOS with AppleTalk

[robin-fo]

During the last months, I quietly worked on a modified version of the Netatalk package to support userspace AppleTalk stacks by replacing kernel AppleTalk sockets with standard UNIX domain sockets. The stack needs to provide everything ≤ layer 3. Currently, only my own (not yet released) AppleTalk stack is supported, which in turn supports EtherTalk and LToUDP.

Please note this is still experimental. There are still some severe bugs and important TODOs to work on. Resource forks currently don't appear to work and login using passwords is something to think about.

Since my modifications are built into libatalk, other software will profit as well. Of these, currently only timelord has been tested, but other will likely work as well using few or no modifications.

this is not an april fool's joke

 

[Mk.558]

Looks good! Tell me though. What version of Mac OS X/macOS would this have compatibility with? 10.4 Tiger compatibility is probably a long shot, but since many of us still have PPC OS X boxes, it would be nice to have that. Also I have a Intel mac mini that cannot go beyond 10.15, so...it's almost useless.

 

[robin-fo]

It currently runs on the latest versions of macOS, but anything > Snow Leopard should be reasonable to do.. With versions of Mac OS still supporting AppleTalk, it‘s probably more reasonable to use the built-in file server or modify Netatalk to use the native AppleTalk stack.

 

[slipperygrey]

You did it! When can we expect a PR against the netatalk project?

(The answer is obviously: when it works properly. )

Regardless, this is a noteworthy milestone in your project. I’m looking forward to seeing your next update.

 

[slipperygrey]

Looks good! Tell me though. What version of Mac OS X/macOS would this have compatibility with? 10.4 Tiger compatibility is probably a long shot, but since many of us still have PPC OS X boxes, it would be nice to have that. Also I have a Intel mac mini that cannot go beyond 10.15, so...it's almost useless.

AppleTalk support in the Darwin kernel lasted until 10.5. The atalk kernel module source code remained in the Mac OS source tree until 10.8 IIRC.

Netatalk versions of that era could run on Mac OS X Server, if the built-in AFP server wasn’t capable enough for your needs.

 

[Mk.558]

True, but the system connectivity limitations remained the same. 10.4 Tiger and 10.4 Tiger Server still have the same requirement for AFP over TCP, unless it's a printer.

 

[slipperygrey]

True, but the system connectivity limitations remained the same. 10.4 Tiger and 10.4 Tiger Server still have the same requirement for AFP over TCP, unless it's a printer.

Right, but the contemporaneous Darwin atalk kernel module doesn’t have such limitations itself, IINM. So you could potentially link netatalk with it. Which I think was done back in the days.

So if @robin-fo ‘s userland stack can potentially ported to 10.6 and later, and a usable Darwin atalk module in 10.5 and earlier, we have a theoretical complete coverage of historical OS versions. Which is neat. But theoretical.

In reality a lot of heavy lifting is likely required.

 

[cheesestraws]

Very nice, @robin-fo :-D