History_SE30_Dude
Well-known member
I found drivers for Linux and MacOS and the plan was to just share using cups once I could establish a connection. I'll come back to it at some point, I'm currently upgrading/cleaning up my home network.
The MacIPpi Rpi. The MacIPpi concept for Raspberry Pi.
- Thread starter mactjaap
- Start date
The papd included with netatalk is broken with older LaserWriter drivers (and doesn't work with the GS/OS driver at all). You need to use LaserWriter 8 on the client side. The CUPS integration needs to be updated to compile against newer versions of CUPS as well. Once its "working", papd will automatically share any CUPS printer queues you have and cups-filters will convert the PostScript output from the Mac automatically.
reukiodo
Well-known member
I'm wondering if this could be adapted to a RPi0W, using the GPIO to interface with the Mac serial over AppleTalk, and NAT to the network using WiFi... Would the Mac serial port be able to provide the 5V power the RPi0W needs?
This would likely be the cheapest physical adaptation to get a classic Mac onto a WiFi network, while possibly providing more services also.
This would likely be the cheapest physical adaptation to get a classic Mac onto a WiFi network, while possibly providing more services also.
Wi-Fi and DDP AppleTalk is problematic. Apparently the issue is with access points not properly translating the packets. All Apple Airport units should work (naturally), but everything else is hit or miss.
www.cnet.com
Guide to Mac-friendly wireless routers: AppleTalk support
Guide to Mac-friendly wireless routers: AppleTalk support
www.cnet.com
reukiodo
Well-known member
Hrm, according to https://whitefiles.org/tec/pgs/h10b.htm the 5V power is only on pin 9, which my Classic and SE/30 don't have, so it would mean pulling power from a different port like ADB, SCSI, or floppy.
Which Macs have 9 pin mini din?
Which Macs have 9 pin mini din?
mactjaap
Well-known member
I like to give some attention to a very interesting development in Hacks & Development. The making of a totally new LocalTalk bridge. Read all about it.
68kmla.org
TashTalk: Single-Chip LocalTalk Interface
While I've been mostly talking about this project in the IRC channel, it occurred to me that 68kmla has (or, by some definitions, is) a forum, so I thought I'd better make a thread about it to document it and see what folks think. Introducing... TashTalk! Elevator Pitch It's a LocalTalk...
68kmla.org
mactjaap
Well-known member
And while I'm at it.... TimeLord is now working on the MacIPRpi, thanks to our fellow member cheesestraws. The Big Forum Crash took away the conversation about this subject.
Read all about it.
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...ived-appletalk-time-server.38553/#post-421870
Read all about it.
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...ived-appletalk-time-server.38553/#post-421870
Fizzbinn
Well-known member
I just setup MacIPpi Rpi on a new Raspberry Pi 4 (Model B 2GB RAM) and I'm really liking it! I used a 64GB SD card as I want to use it as an "appliance like" server/achieve for my home network retro Macs. I'd previously tried to use a G4 Mac mini running 10.4 for this but it doesn't support the older AppleTalk/AFP clients and I would then have to break out another bridge OS 9 machine for. Made for a tedious process for transferring files over a network from a modern download machine to my oldest boxes. I'll put it through its paces but for now I've tested successfully from a Performa 575 7.1p6, LC III 7.5.3, Mac mini G4 10.4.11 and MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) 12.0.1.
I have a Farallon EtherMac iPrint adapter LT for bridging Ethernet to LocalTalk for Macs without Ethernet cards but also for my LaserWriter 4/600 which hasn't seen much use since Apple dropped AppleTalk/Pap from OS X 10.6. While its fun to occasionally print to it from the older Macs directly (recently made some reproduction floppy disk labels in Pagemaker 5
I thought I'd try to setup the CUPS PAP print server on the MacIPpi Rpi so I could maybe print to it from modern machines.
Used Info from these sites to set it up:
Getting the CUPS "PAP backend" /usr/lib/cups/backend/pap was the main thing that had to be added. I got an error about not being able to find the netatalk utilities on the first manual test run which was fixed by editing the pap file (a BASH script actually) to set NetatalkBinDir to /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin:
I also got CUPS errors with some of the CUPS config file lines they suggested for /etc/cups/cupsd.conf I commented out those and added some others I found in a doc suggesting the config format is different in newer CUPS setups:
To add the printer you need the printer pap URL which is easiest to get by manually running the CUPS "PAP backend":
Using the CUPS web interface http://<RPi-ip-address>:631/admin I was able to "Add Printer" via the "AppleTalk Devices via pap" option. At first I got stuck when it errored out with bad pap URL but realized I was copying the whole line when "pap://%2a/4%2f600%20PS/LaserWriter" (the URL, duh) was all it needed.
You can probably use the Generic PostScript PPD but I also copied over a 7.5.3 printer PPD for the LaserWriter 4/600 PS from the LC III and used that.
On my brand new MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) 12.0.1 I'm now printing wirelessly to a LaserWriter that only has a LocalTalk Interface and only speaks AppleTalk! ...and works from my iPad too. Trivial client setup as the printer is Bonjour discovered "Apple LaserWriter 4-600 PS @ macippi". So cool!
It seems like most of this could be included with future MacIPpi Rpi builds. The setup for old postscript laser printers wouldn't exactly be out of the box but finding the name with the pap script and using the CUPS web interface is not that bad...
I have a Farallon EtherMac iPrint adapter LT for bridging Ethernet to LocalTalk for Macs without Ethernet cards but also for my LaserWriter 4/600 which hasn't seen much use since Apple dropped AppleTalk/Pap from OS X 10.6. While its fun to occasionally print to it from the older Macs directly (recently made some reproduction floppy disk labels in Pagemaker 5
I thought I'd try to setup the CUPS PAP print server on the MacIPpi Rpi so I could maybe print to it from modern machines.Used Info from these sites to set it up:
Getting the CUPS "PAP backend" /usr/lib/cups/backend/pap was the main thing that had to be added. I got an error about not being able to find the netatalk utilities on the first manual test run which was fixed by editing the pap file (a BASH script actually) to set NetatalkBinDir to /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin:
#NetatalkBinDir=/usr/local/bin
NetatalkBinDir=/usr/binI also got CUPS errors with some of the CUPS config file lines they suggested for /etc/cups/cupsd.conf I commented out those and added some others I found in a doc suggesting the config format is different in newer CUPS setups:
#BrowseOrder allow,deny
#BrowseAllow all
#BrowseRemoteProtocols CUPS dnssd pap
#BrowseAddress @LOCAL
#BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS dnssd pap
#
Browsing Yes
BrowseWebIF Yes
BrowseLocalProtocols All
#To add the printer you need the printer pap URL which is easiest to get by manually running the CUPS "PAP backend":
macipgw@macippi:~ $ sudo /usr/lib/cups/backend/pap
network pap "Unknown" "AppleTalk Devices via pap"
atp_rresp: Connection timed out
%%[ status: idle ]%%
%%[ status: idle ]%%
%%[ status: idle ]%%
%%[ status: idle ]%%
%%[ status: busy; source: LocalTalk ]%%
%%[ status: busy; source: LocalTalk ]%%
%%[ status: busy; source: LocalTalk ]%%
%%[ status: busy; source: LocalTalk ]%%
network pap://%2a/4%2f600%20PS/LaserWriter "LaserWriter 4/600 PS" "4/600 PS@* (pap)"Using the CUPS web interface http://<RPi-ip-address>:631/admin I was able to "Add Printer" via the "AppleTalk Devices via pap" option. At first I got stuck when it errored out with bad pap URL but realized I was copying the whole line when "pap://%2a/4%2f600%20PS/LaserWriter" (the URL, duh) was all it needed.
You can probably use the Generic PostScript PPD but I also copied over a 7.5.3 printer PPD for the LaserWriter 4/600 PS from the LC III and used that.
On my brand new MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) 12.0.1 I'm now printing wirelessly to a LaserWriter that only has a LocalTalk Interface and only speaks AppleTalk! ...and works from my iPad too. Trivial client setup as the printer is Bonjour discovered "Apple LaserWriter 4-600 PS @ macippi". So cool!
It seems like most of this could be included with future MacIPpi Rpi builds. The setup for old postscript laser printers wouldn't exactly be out of the box but finding the name with the pap script and using the CUPS web interface is not that bad...
Last edited:
mactjaap
Well-known member
Wowwww what a great write up about printing! I never worked with it before so I have to read your post carefully. I’m not sure if printing is possible to make ‘generic’ enough to include in the MacIPRpi, but with your ‘how to’ it must be doable for everybody. I will be back on this! Thank you very much for your efforts!
slipperygrey
Well-known member
Out of curiosity, and since I've been working in the Netatalk codebase recently: In what fashion is Netatalk's papd not working with older LaserWriters, and do you have idea how it can be improved? Also, is your experience with Netatalk 3.x, 2.x, or both?
slipperygrey
Well-known member
@mactjaap What file system are you using on these images? I don't have a spare SD card around to write to, but I wanted to explore the contents of MacIPpi. However ImDisk seems to identify the main partition as a "Xenix" file system, which can't be right! And it's not recognized as an Ext variant after mounting.
Netatalk 2.2.6. 3.x drops all Appletalk support and is strictly a TCP/IP AFP server. I fixed the problems with papd a while back. It works on modern Linux distros and current versions of CUPS and can talk to the GS/OS LaserWriter driver (along with LaserWriter 7 on the Mac side).
Fizzbinn
Well-known member
I just redid the setup to help another member and be sure I got the minimum that that needed to be done:
Connecting Laserwriter II (& others) to modern network?
If you want full page Postscript you need the extra RAM.
68kmla.org
Not sure if its possible to bundle the pap backend in your next release or not (and maybe a directory of old Apple printer ppd files) but that would mean folks would only need to use the Cups web interface to get an old AppleTalk printer working for new machines using your image...
Also still LOVING MacIPRpi, looking forward to trying out the Timelord/Tardis stuff soon!
Last edited:
The current CUPS web interface is pretty broken with "add-in" printing backends. You used to be able to browse and select detected pap printers. This is likely due to the CUPS project moving to pure IPP printing only. A shame because its a nice way to link printers of various protocols on one centralized spooler.
Scribe
Active member
FYI re. WiFi:
I have a few TP-link Deco mesh units which each have 2 Ethernet ports. The main Deco is connected to the router via Ethernet. The other Decos are connected to each other via Ethernet but use WiFi to talk to the main Deco (and router).
If I use an Ethernet cable to connect either my MacIPRpi or my Mac SE to any of the mesh units -- even the ones that don't have a wired connection to the router -- the Pi and SE can still connect to each other with AppleTalk.
I have a few TP-link Deco mesh units which each have 2 Ethernet ports. The main Deco is connected to the router via Ethernet. The other Decos are connected to each other via Ethernet but use WiFi to talk to the main Deco (and router).
If I use an Ethernet cable to connect either my MacIPRpi or my Mac SE to any of the mesh units -- even the ones that don't have a wired connection to the router -- the Pi and SE can still connect to each other with AppleTalk.
Scribe
Active member
Is there an easy way to get DropBox on a MacIPpi? Would Maestral be a good option?
I have a "Notes" folder in DropBox with several hundred text files. I can access it from my various modern Macs (mostly running Maestral) and iOS devices through DropBox. AFAIK, there is no good way to access DropBox on PPC or 6800 Macs.
If I could put the "Notes" folder on my MacIPpi, I assume I would be able to read and write to it from any vintage Mac on my local network.
FWIW, I am a total Raspberry Pi newbie, but I was able to set up the MacIPpi, so I guess I am proficient enough to follow clear instructions.
I have a "Notes" folder in DropBox with several hundred text files. I can access it from my various modern Macs (mostly running Maestral) and iOS devices through DropBox. AFAIK, there is no good way to access DropBox on PPC or 6800 Macs.
If I could put the "Notes" folder on my MacIPpi, I assume I would be able to read and write to it from any vintage Mac on my local network.
FWIW, I am a total Raspberry Pi newbie, but I was able to set up the MacIPpi, so I guess I am proficient enough to follow clear instructions.
Scribe
Active member
Alternatively, is there any other easy way -- not using DropBox -- to reliably and efficiently have 2-way syncing between a folder in DropBox on my main Mac and a folder on the MacIPpi? I know sync is hard.
Similar threads
