This is just some general notes on success with serving Appletalk shares with a UNIX server. Skip it if you aren't interested in that sort of thing.
I've been testing Netatalk as a file server for about two weeks now, and it is working out great. For any of you who want a file server for Mac systems, I highly recommend it. I find the software much better than it was when I last used it many years ago, and it's relatively easy to configure. It's faster than using a MacOS system because UNIX is a better OS for server duty, and you can get plenty of workstation/server horsepower for the job at low used prices. Obviously new systems are fine too. The system I use for Netatalk is a Sun SPARCstation 5/110 with 256MB RAM and spinning 4 drives. It runs NetBSD 1.6, but other alternatives are Solaris, SunOS (not really recommended), or OpenBSD. I would not recommend Linux on SPARC systems. This same system serves files for NFS, SMB (Windows), and Appletalk now, and I've had no troubles with file serving. Netatalk stores files in AppleDouble format, with the resource forks stored in hidden directories. Sharing the files with UNIX processes works out good this way, because the UNIX programs leave the data fork alone. Obviously some Mac applications create files which the UNIX side cannot use, but pictures, sounds, textfiles... that's all working out well. Then Windows machine (for games only, I swear) has no trouble using the files either. If I come up with specific problems, I'll post them. Netatalk comes with several utilities for moving Apple files around properly, preserving their extra information. When looking at files on a Netatalk volume for the first time, missing resource forks are usually created, and I've had no trouble using various text and image utilities on the files. The file attributes are stored in the hidden Netatalk folders, and are largely transparent to the UNIX and Windows users, though the UNIX side has plenty of tools of accessing Mac data. I really don't know about Windows tools for this. Obviously there will be many times when you move files around on the UNIX side and you cannot or don't want to use the Netatalk utilities. This has so far been pretty benign. I share a large number of archives files, images, text files, and documents on my file server, and frequently manipulate those files from UNIX with no ill effects. Obviously you could lose some extra resource fork information, so this is NOT recommended for Mac data files and applications. Move them with the Mac, or use the Netatalk tools. All in all, this works out great. As an added bonus, UNIX backup utilities will back up all the data, including all the resource forks, databases, etc. My only wish right now is to stop the Mac systems from creating resource forks in my image, document, and non-Mac file archives. It might be an option in Netatalk that I've not found yet. I have printing set up as well. It works great for my PowerMac, but my Mac IIci doesn't like it, hanging up after submitting the print job. I have to force-quit the printing application to regain control. If anyone has ideas on why a Netatalk printer would work for a PowerMac and not a Mac IIci, lemme know. The IIci runs System 7.1.1 and the PowerMac runs 7.5.5. I don't find 7.5 to be slower than 7.1 myself, in fact it seems a little faster, so I might upgrade. My IIci has 128MB of RAM, so I don't care about memory use that much. Hopefully I'll get this working and post a brief note about printing. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Vintage Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Vintage Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/vintage.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
