AppleTalk and Netatalk redeux

[David Schmenk <dschmenk@sbcglobal.net>]

Dragging this dead horse back to beat it.  I scored a Gatorbox on ePay, 
then found out only has the old-style transceiver connector or BNC on 
the back.  Going to the semi-local hardware recycler and rummaging 
through a bunch of boxes of nasty cables, I found a twisted pair 
ethernet transceiver box.  When asking how much it was, they gave me a 
blank look and said 'Merry Christmas' so I got it for free.  I just 
couldn't take it back if it didn't work.  It did.  So, I have a working 
Gatorbox hooked up between my Linux server and my IIgs and IIe w/ 
workstation card.  Here is what I learned in this process.  First, 
compile netatalk to support clrtxt and randnum uams as per the past 
postings.  The whole AppleTalk scenario has two parts; the Apple Filing 
Protocol and the AppleTalk Protocol.  In the recent past, and with OS X, 
all you needed was AFP, the mechanism to implement reading and writing 
files, kind of like NFS.  AppleTalk is more of a service locator and 
network manager.  Netatalk has these two parts built as atalkd, the 
AppleTalk daemon, and afpd, the Apple Filing Protocol daemon.  There is 
also papd, the Apple Printing somethingorother daemon.  afpd is 
necessary for reading and writing files.  atalkd is the glue that 
connects our old AppleTalk devices together.  On an AppleTalk network, 
there needs to be a device that names the segment, and optionally routes 
between segments.  I think a segment is simply all the devices on the 
same cable.  I don't fully understand but these segments can apparently 
be broken down into smaller nets, but still part of the physical 
segment.  Since our IIs only work on the LocalTalk topology, and 
everything else is ethernet, something has to translate.  The two 
devices I have to connect between LocalTalk and Ethernet are the 
AsanteTalk and the Gatorbox.  These are roughly analogous to an ethernet 
hub for the AsanteTalk, and an ethernet router for the Gatorbox.  The 
AsanteTalk simply passes packets from one net to the other.  It is 
somewhat transparent.  The Gatorbox actually sets up the network segment 
and is more sophisticated.  Because of this, netatalk has to be 
configured differently for each device.  With the AsanteTalk, you want 
the netatalk machine to be the network manager, called a seed router. 
The netatalk machine is responsible for handing this information out 
whenever a new machine on the segment asks.  Past posts have worked out 
the configuration for atalkd.conf to look something like:

eth0 -seed -phase 2 -net 1 -addr 1.6 -zone "MYnet"

When using the Gatorbox, you want the netatalk machine to look to the 
Gatorbox for network configuration, so atalkd.conf looks simply like:

eth0 -phase 2

Now, when atalkd finds out the network configuration, it actually 
rewrites atalkd.conf.  Mine looks like:

eth0 -phase 2 -net 500-599 -addr 552.81 -zone "ISDnet"

after getting network configuration from the Gatorbox.

The next step is figuring out the a2boot sequence.  It may be that the 
AsanteTalk makes this easier, as all the configuration can happen in 
netatalk.  With the Gatorbox, it doesn't put my Linux server in the 
default net name where the Apple II looks for a boot server.  I see 
GATORnet and ISDnet.  I have no way to configure the Gatorbox, so I'm 
sort of stuck.

Well, I don't know if anyone is actually using this stuff anymore, but 
thought I would post it for searchability in the future.

Dave...