Purpose


This supplemental addition to the Guide is here for more information about other vintage Mac activities and details that can be of use to almost any Mac user. We start by going over the procedures to install the System software, then this page moves on to other topics of interest.


Installing the System Software


Note that if any software has an Installer, use it -- otherwise there is an increased risk of bombs and crashes. For instance, if you just drop AppleShare Client 3.7.4 right into the Extensions folder and reboot, it'll bomb before it loads the control panels while booting. The reason is certain installers make additions or changes to the System file which are required for the requisite software to work correctly.


System 6 and System 7 until Mac OS 9 cannot certain install system software upgrades (like NSI 1.5.1, AppleShare WS 3.5, et cetera) on to the startup volume where the install media is located in the same place as the destination, although there are certain exceptions to the rule. There are a couple of ways around this: use a RAM disk either as the boot volume or to store the installation content; copy the media onto a floppy disk; use mounted disk images (System 7+); or install it over the network by using the server computer as another installation source. Software doesn't necessarily require "genuine media" like floppy disks in the case of most the software mentioned here, so it can be freely installed from folders instead of disks, as long as the sources are the same as the Installer expects: for instance, AppleShare Workstation 3.5 expects a source directory of "AppleShare Workstation" not "untitled folder". System 6 and earlier can hot-swap the boot volumes by Cmd+Opt+double-clicking the Finder in the desired System Folder: System 7 and later quit the Finder leaving the Installer the only running application. RAMDisk+ 2.01 only really works with System 6 (and earlier systems, it will work with S1.1, F1.1g and a 512K, but only about 339KiB of RAM is available to play with) and requires MultiFinder to be disabled, although it can be restarted afterwards by Cmd+Opt+double-clicking the MultiFinder module. System 7 and later can use the Memory control panel RAM disk (if permitted), App Disk 1.6.1, RamBunctious, RAMDisk+ 3.24a, or the like.


MacTCP v.2.1 can be found here. Do not configure MacTCP or open it if you plan to upgrade to MacTCP 2.1. If it has been opened, then trash the MacTCP control panel, the MacTCP DNR and Prep files in the System Folder and reinstall. MacTCP 2.1 is not required over 2.0.6 but is recommended. Update a unopened, unaltered copy of MacTCP with the 2.1 updater, then toss it in the System Folder (Control Panels for System 7 and 7.5). Duplicate the control panel first before updating it, in case the update process fails.


A recommended practice is to backup the System Folders in case they get unexpectedly corrupted. Compact Pro is a very good tool for this (source) since it offers high compression and does so speedily, and also offers segmenting, so that the whole System Folder can be split across multiple floppy disks, if need be: alternatively, an Emergency Network Access Disk can pull it off the network. It does require System 4.2 or higher and a 512Ke or greater though.


The older Macs, like the Plus, can have issues with SCSI hard drives unless a certain change is implemented. What happens is the SCSI hard drive can push data to the Plus faster than the Plus can handle it. To circumvent this, an interleave is used. For instance, a 3:1 interleave means that it reads every third sector for each file. The easiest way to set the interleave with HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (patched) is to press Command + I when the program is open, and Lido 7.56 can also easily do it. 3:1 should be fine, while the SE might need 2:1 or may be just fine with 1:1 depending on the unit. Results may vary.


Pre-System 6

Older versions of Mac OS are the most spartan and limited systems available to these computers yet still retain networking capabilities. Principally this section covers the 512K, 512Ke, Plus, SE, and the Macintosh II. All these computers can boot Mac OS system versions earlier than System 6.


Installation on these systems is plainly simple. Obtain the disk images, which some may be 400KiB but most are 800KiB. This requires a Mac with an internal floppy drive (usually Old World ROM aka pre-G3 processors) that can write 800KiBs. If the disk images are imaged via DART, then either DART or Disk Copy 6.3.3 can handle them; if they are Disk Copy 4.2 then they can be written with DC 4.2 or 6.3.3.



System 2.0 (S4.1, F5.5) on a
SE FDHD with 1MiB RAM

Once the disks are ready, boot into the floppy disk and install onto the target media; this can either be another floppy disk or a hard drive. A hard drive is recommended, but it is possible to run natively on one floppy disk. The Installer is so plain and basic it won't get much discussion other than to make sure that the software is built for the intended machine, otherwise it won't boot it.


The AppleShare Workstation disks allow the additional option of installing the AppleShare Workstation software. This can either be done alone or along with a fresh installation of the software. There is no other software to install in most cases, as LocalTalk is usually the only communication protocol available. However, if one has a SCSI to Ethernet converter or something else like a NuBus Ethernet card, then an upgrade to System 6 may be warranted because of its better support for Ethernet hardware.


Once this task has been completed, head to this section. One thing to note is that some of the older versions as here included the MiniFinder app -- it works with System 6. Copy it out of the System Folder into System 6 to use it. Contrary to what Apple says, a SE (without the FDHD upgrade, just plain 800KiB drive or drives only) will boot S1.1/F1.1g and should have no problem with System .97. Because it can handle two internal FDDs plus an internal HDD at the same time, assuming a special bracket is made for the HDD, can handle up to 4MiB of RAM, takes well to 68020 and 68030 accelerators, is the only Mac that can handle three floppy drives (two are usually more than enough) and has SCSI sorted, the SE is ideal for pre-System 6 experimentation. The accelerator will probably have to be removed, but it is still a nice flexible system platform. Some hard-to-find

SE accelerators have RAM SIMM expansion slots or daughter boards for putting more RAM onboard.


The Macintosh File System (MFS) 400KiB disks, traditionally used with systems earlier than System 3.0 do not use the later style of "blessing" to indicate that the disk is bootable. Instead, this kind of information is held in the boot blocks of the diskette. Sometimes, when custom installation disks are made in the 400KiB MFS format, these blocks are not updated correctly, or at all. An example of this is creating a System 4.1/Finder 5.4 bootable MFS disk for a 512K: the System has to be installed first on a 800KiB disk, stripped down as needed and then copied to a MFS disk. Use a program like BootConfigure or for Expert Grade users, Fedit to edit the boot blocks. Fedit will not run on a 128K. (Use Open Volume from the File menu to select the MFS disk.)


Mac SE Singularity: Three FDDs
attached (SE FDHD, 2/20)

System 6.0.8

System 6 enjoys a special status among Mac enthusiasts for its plain spartan interface, and binaries compiled in assembly language which allows speedy operations. It also works the best on floppies, as System 7.0 takes up too much space and is too slow. For the 680x0 Macintoshes that can boot it, it is a good system to have in reserve, and it is blitzing fast on a Macintosh IIfx (the last 68K to support it, even faster when it's ran entirely

in RAM) and will run at lightning speeds if a compatible 68040 accelerator is installed.


A special version of System 6, known as 6.0.8L, was intended for the Classic II and the PowerBook 100, but it also works on the LC, LCII and Classic (a "universal" 6.0.8L disk will not work with non-6.0.8L Macs). The version allows for the additional binaries required for those systems (different platforms have different binaries) and support for a maximum of 10MiB of RAM. Because of the hardware similarity of the PowerBook 100 and the Mac Portable, the Portable will also boot 6.0.8L (but there is no screen contrast adjustment in the Portable CDEV, and seems somewhat unstable). Awhile back, some enterprising individuals ported System 6.0.7.1J in Japanese to work with the PowerBook 140 and 170 in (mostly) English. A treat when only 8MiB of RAM is available. (6.0.8L may offer some useful tidbits for doing that process.) As shown, 6.0.8 will run on a 512Ke (Minimal install for the Macintosh Plus), but memory is very limited. Some reports indicate that System 6.0.3 will run, but not earlier System 6 versions.
System 6 Power: IIci with Radius
Rocket 33MHz 68040 accelerator

If a helper Mac is available that can boot OS 9, then Disk Copy 6.3.3 can write the disk images from Apple onto floppy disks, as Apple's download source and the Legacy Recovery CD's images are of the .smi or NDIF .img variety which requires System 7 or higher to mount them. Some disk images are Disk Copy 6.1.2+ Read-Only Compressed format, which can only be written out with DC 6.1.2 or later.


Once the install floppies are ready, they can be booted into and the software installed as desired. If a "universal" build is not required (takes up more space on disk) then a "System software for ..." can be selected, or a Minimal install, as appropriate. Next, start installing Network Software Installer 1.4.5, which can also be found on the Legacy Recovery disc, if it is available. Follow up with any required Ethernet card drivers, such as the Asante drivers for Asante cards. The next step is to install AppleShare Workstation 3.5. Finally, MacTCP can be simply copied directly into the System Folder. Note that for the NSI 1.4.5 software and the Macintosh LC platform, the CommSlot Ethernet is not an exactly "valid" selection because all the Macs with CommSlot Ethernet slots required System 7 or higher, and NSI 1.5.1 is the latest version of NSI for System 7 and 7.1.



System 6.0.8 (SE/30)
6.0.8L on a PowerBook 100
with laptop goodies
6.0.8 with a 512Ke
6.0.8 on a Macintosh Portable
Mac Portable with 6.0.8L (note dimmed area)

Regular switching back and forth between System 7 and System 6 can be a bit of a hassle with the constant desktop rebuilding process in System 7. To get around this, obtain a copy of AppleShare File Server 2, then fetch the Desktop Manager INIT out of the Administration disk. Drop it into the System 6 System Folder (not the System 7 folder) and reboot. The same INIT is a required extension to inhibit the Mac OS from trying to rebuild the desktop file on a CD, which isn't possible because CDs are read-only media.


A side mention is that System 6 is a 24-bit OS - but there are ways of enabling 32-bit memory access. (System 7 can either be run in 24-bit or 32-bit mode. This is an interesting KB article. System 7.5.5 is the last to allow memory switching to 24-bit addressing, as 7.6 doesn't support 24-bit memory addressing. Certain Macs can't switch to 24-bit mode regardless, like the PB190cs and PowerPC Macs.) Also, the Now Utilities package can offer useful additions, like hierarchical menus (or the HierDA extension), desktop picture backgrounds with the DeskPicture control panel, and so on. (Background image utilities exist elsewhere, such as Backdrop and BackSplash II. Later OSs with more powerful Mac hosts can use the Decor utility to do the same thing.) There's all kinds of cool widgets for System 6 and 7/7.1 that were around back in the day, like Mac Lights which could flash the Num Lock, Caps Lock or Scroll Lock LEDs on an "Extended" keyboard according to disk activity; DiskInfo (sort of a file-browser DA); MockWrite (basic word processor) but a good portion of them, like MultiCache (a disk and floppy caching utility), cease to exist.


The presence of MultiFinder running changes the About the Macintosh dialog box to include the "Largest Unused Block" entry. Programs that run without MultiFinder quit the Finder as they load up. Because RAMDisk+ 2.01 can't create a RAM disk while MultiFinder is active, just start up with it off (Set Startup... from the Special menu changes the setting for the selected volume), create the RAM disk, then hold down Command + Option/alt and double-click the MultiFinder program in the System Folder. Also, the Easy Access ... INIT doesn't have a presence in the Control Panel like System 7 does. Use Command + Shift + Clear (on the numeric keypad) to enable Mouse Keys, in case your mouse is absent or inoperative; obviously a keyboard with a numpad is a requirement. Speaking of memory, two utilities that are good for System 6 are MemINIT 2.0.5 and MemoryThermometer, also known as MemroMeter. Memory Mapper will only work in System 7+, but it is dramatically better than the former two CDEVs. MemINIT can draw a 1 pixel high meter on the top of the display, so instead of 640x480, it becomes 640x481, counting the effect of the INIT.


Also concerning DAs, DiskTop was a popular Finder-in-a-DA back in the day. Version 1.2 (and the previously mentioned memory applets) are all on University of Michigan's Mac archive. A complete listing of everything they have is here. (DiskTop will show network volumes, at least version 4.0.2 does. A copy is included with the disks that come as part of the Macintosh SECRETS 2nd Edition book.)


System 7.0.1

System 7.0.1 is a good default system for most practical vintage Mac uses. It will run a tad sluggish on a Plus or SE, but on a SE/30, IIx or similar it's just candy on the cake. System 7.1 is fairly similar to 7.0, although it can be considered "enhanced 7.0", as it can support additional extensions that can bring it up to a close spec to 7.5.


Early versions of Open Transport are supported by 7.1, although MacTCP works just fine. Some Mac models list special 7.1 versions as minimum versions (i.e. Duo 230, Macintosh TV, et cetera). System 7 was not originally distributed on 800KiB disks (but the Legacy Recovery CD has 7.1 on 800KiBs). System 7 on a single 1.44MB disk is not recommended, although it can sometimes be the only practical option. 800KiB disks do not have sufficient room for System 7 to operate without some very exotic operations to permit this.
System 7.0.1 (SE/30)

In addition, there will not be enough remaining disk space to make any reasonable applications fit, and ejecting the boot disk to insert another floppy means that the disks may have to be swapped quite a few times. Once again, a hard disk is a boon to the usability of System 7. As noted on the Main

Page, 68000 and 68020 Macs are not designed to run OpenTransport.


Installation of System 7 is usually facilitated by either NDIF images written to floppies or installation folders with the proper names of the "disks". For computers with only 800KiB disk drives, one method is to remove fat from the installation directory. The second is to use a hard drive and copy the contents over multiple 800KiB disks. Another is LocalTalk, as System 6 has sufficient support built-in to use this method. Finally, using a segmenting and compression utility like Compact Pro can create self-extracting archives. A capable bridge Mac with an internal floppy drive is a must for all these methods. See this section for more information about disk images.
IIci with 7.1 and Rocket 33

Certain Macs may require a System Enabler to start the operating system. Some Enablers are rather hard to find. Read the previous Apple KB article for clues, plus have a look at this page. The Disk Tools disks for System Software installation packages may have stripped down Enablers which may be beneficial for Emergency Network Access Disk purposes.


Once the base operating system has been installed, the next step is to install NSI 1.5.1 from Apple's directory. Next, install AppleShare Workstation 3.5 and follow up with MacTCP, which can be found on the Legacy Recovery Disk if you have it. Copy MacTCP into the Control Panels folder. (Apple's former older software list cleverly omits MacTCP aside from the Updaters and skips on ZM-AppleShare WS 3.5 even though they have a KB article on it). Some individuals recommend installing 7.0 Tuneup 1.1.1, as it corrects some bugs. Add the File Sharing Extension from System 7.5.3-7.5.5 (version 7.6.2, about 190KiB) into the Extensions folder if you plan on using Panther as a client for AFP; otherwise, there is no need to upgrade the FSE. FSE 7.6.2 can be either extracted from a 7.5.3 Installation Tome using TomeViewer 1.3D3, or from a regular plain install of 7.5.3.


System 7.5.3

System 7.5.5 is an update to 7.5.3, both of which are still available free from Apple. 7.5 should really only be used the older Macs when it is required, such as when OpenTransport is desired (8MiB RAM or greater recommended). 7.0.1 can open most of the applications that mandate OS 7 or higher, and occupies a smaller memory footprint. With various addons like SuperClock it is possible to bring 7.0.1 or 7.1 close to the feature set of 7.5 without the memory draw or the disk hungry folder size (a SE/30's tallies up to about 30MiB, color Macs will demand a bit more; compared to 7.0.1, which is about 6.5MiB).
System 7.5.5 (SE/30)

The Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx and the SE/30 use 24-bit memory addressing, which works fine up to 8MiB. Any memory installed in excess of this limit requires 32-bit addressing, which is activated with the MODE32 extension. MODE32 1.2 is for 7.0/7.1, and MODE32 7.5 is for 7.5 and above. (7.6 does not require this extension, as 7.6 requires 32-bit clean ROMs. These two links may be of further interest.) If MODE32 1.2 was installed over 7.5, then a reinstall of the System software is recommended by Apple. 32-bit System Enabler is depreciated for stability reasons: use MODE32 instead.


7.5.3 was available on floppy disks (16) of the 1.44MB size but back in the day CDs were more common; or as from Apple's download page, a self-mounting image. The image can be either copied over a network, shared over a network, the parts copied over floppy disks and recombined, or other methods. 7.5.3 requires System 7 as a base to "upgrade" for earlier computers, although the later computers that required 7.5.3 as a minimum (usually PPC 603e platforms) can work fine with a bootable CD. A minimal install of System 7 can work as a suitable base for 7.5.


If only a couple of floppy disks are used to install all 16 disk images (from the Legacy Recovery Disc) , then keep Install Disk 1 separate until the last step. The Installer will ask for that specific disk back and if it is not available or has been altered, the installation will not be completed. The other floppies can be freely erased or contents deleted and replaced with the next one in sequence, so the minimum for this method is two disks (but floppy disks are rather slow and unreliable).


The 7.5.3 installer from Apple's download page deserves special mention. First it comes in a form of 17 parts which have to be individually decoded. Next, the all the parts have to combined to form a single .smi (Self Mounting Image). This is done by opening the .smi which will recreate the original full image. As the image is about 40MiB in size, it should probably be shuffled over the network or a suitable SneakerNet method. Note that .smi images cannot be opened in System 6. Use a minimal install of 7.0.1 or 7.1 and then use the network to access the image file, then open it and it will mount on the desktop. It does not need to be copied over the network, but it can be accessed over the network.


Try to install only elements that are required. An SE/30 has a 1 bit display, and unless a secondary monitor is available, Monitors and Color aren't required. A desktop cannot use PowerBook utilities, residents of the USA don't really need Numbers, Text, Keyboard, Easy Access, CloseView (only worthwhile on larger displays with 640x480 or larger resolution), Control Strip takes up too much screen space and isn't really beneficial, Energy Saver is only compatible with a certain range of Macs, and so on. Serial Switch is for certain Macs (IIfx, Quadra 900, 950) that can toggle the serial port between two modes. Make sure to install all the Networking Software except A/ROSE (some one-off NuBus card is required, few people have such a setup), either TokenRing which perished in the hiatus back in the day.


Sometimes the Installer can fail to complete if all the desired elements are selected at once: thus, then install in portions. For example, start with the Base System, restart, then the Apple Menu Items, reboot and follow up with the Control Panels, and so on.


The last steps consist of the following: installing the 7.5.5 Update (which also will ask for Install Disk 1 back exactly as it was before); any required Ethernet drivers; MacTCP for Classic Networking, if desired, alternatively install OpenTransport 1.3 and AppleShare Client 3.7.4. Classic Networking (with MacTCP) cannot use AppleShare Client 3.7.4. 68K computers only need OT 1.3 Install Disk 1 and 2, however PPC machines require all four; once again, 68000 and 68020 computers cannot run OT and will be defaulted to Classic Networking.


There has been some concern that Chooser 7.6.1 is required for this work, it is installed along with OT 1.3; but Chooser 7.5.3 can work fine regardless. If your 7.5.5 installation acts unusual at any point, just re-update it with 7.5.5 (this also works for all Mac OS versions 7.5.3 on up, including OS X).


System Picker is a utility that can allows booting from multiple System Folders in the same root volume without partitioning. A lightweight, reliable, useful utility for Macs that need to boot from more than one version of System Software. It does not interfere with any one system version because of the way it works; by unblessing the current boot folder and blessing the target boot folder on the shutdown sequence. The use of descriptive System folder


System Picker 1.0b10

names (like as shown) is a good idea because it doesn't tell you what version is the target version; and limiting the search depth is a good idea. Version 1.0b10 will not work with Mac OS 8; use 1.1a3 instead. 1.1a3 also added an indicator of what System version the target folder contains.


System 7.6 and up

As the complexity and capabilities of Mac OS expanded beyond System 7, the distribution format also changed. While 7.6 could be obtained on floppies, the primary distribution media was via a CD-ROM, as most systems which came with 7.6 had built-in CD-ROM drives. All other versions of Mac OS used CDs until Tiger, which used DVDs for machine specific media and CDs for retail 10.4.0 distros; 10.5 and 10.6 are via dual layer DVDs and 10.7 is not sold on physical media (unless USB flash drives count). If a CD drive is not available, then the installation media will have to be shared over the network, installed over the network, or pulled off via FTP. Alternatively, install it on an emulator (most likely Basilisk II) with the same machine specs, or an install for any Mac, then copy it out of the emulator and push it over the network with AFP or FTP.


7.6.1 on a PowerBook Duo 230/100

Another method that is supported by certain PowerBooks is Target Disk Mode over SCSI, called SCSI Disk Mode. (Macs with FireWire use Target Disk Mode over FireWire.) Apparently the PowerBook 140, 145B, 150 and 170 do not support SDM in ROM. Some PowerBook HDI-30 SCSI adapters have a little switch to toggle between TDM and regular SCSI mode, which is better than hunting down the HDI-30 HDM cable and a terminator. In certain circumstances a PowerBook can boot another Mac's System, if it is compatible and "share the HDD" with the host machine, but only if its own HDD is down. The FDD on the host computer will not be shared.


The default install of 7.6+ will usually update the current System Folder to the one presently being installed. A Clean Install can override this process. Then, System Picker 1.1a3 can be used to switch between them without the need to partition the hard drive. Certain Macs like the PowerBook 1400 series had special versions of 7.5.3, some users will find the slight speed increase worthwhile. But because 7.5.3 doesn't have a Clean Install option like 7.6 does, just create a 60-70MiB disk image with DC 6.3.3 and install onto that, then copy the content back over again. Keeping 7.6.1, or better, 8.1 on had just in case is a good idea.


During the installation process, manually picking out what is desired rather than a default install can save hard disk space and speed up the boot time (see here and here). Once you have installed the System of choice, updating to any subversions (i.e. 7.6 upgrade to 7.6.1, 8.0 to 8.1...) should be the next step. Then install Open Transport 1.3 for all systems up to 8.1, then AppleShare 3.8.3; AppleShare 3.8.8 is for higher systems, head here to see what is the most suitable choice.


For platforms that dual-boot Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, the Desktop Folder in OS 9 is sometimes not accessible from within OS X. To get around this, open Terminal and type the following (change the name of the OS 9 volume to suit the case at hand, in this instance it is named Classic):

open /Volumes/Classic/Desktop\ Folder

(It could also be cd / && open /Desktop\ Folder, as 10.2 doesn't seem to list / within the /Volumes/ directory.) Advanced users may want to create an AppleScript or a symbolic link within the Terminal app. This also works when Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 are installed on the same partition. (OS 9 and OS X can get along on the same partition, but multiple OS X versions on the same partition is a no-no.) In the Finder, the alias (symbolic link for *NIX people, or shortcut for Windows folks) named Desktop (Mac OS 9) is just a link to the same source folder that we opened manually, but it doesn't always work...


A long time ago, the author discovered a rather obtuse trick for OS 9. The case was that the original install discs for OS 9 failed to install the operating system completely and would thus fail (9.0.4 machine specific restore discs for iMac G3; the discs were too heavily scratched to allow the process to complete). The solution was to boot into the restore discs into the Finder. Copy the whole System Folder of the CD onto the hard drive. It won't be bootable but that is not a concern. Next, run a Mac OS 9 Update on the newly copied System Folder on the hard drive -- i.e. run Mac OS 9.1 Update on a 9.0.4 System Folder copied from the CD's boot folder. By the time 9.2 Update is finished the end result will be the same as a regular install with all the extensions and control panels as usual. (This dates back to a time when OS 9 was not as ... available on "alternative sources" and back in the days of dialup when the maximum download speed was about 36KiB/sec, or about 250Kbps a 450MiB disc image could take all night. This is why magazines like MacUser had shareware CDs included from time to time because Internet time was metered by the minute and was quite slow.)


Additional AppleShare Discussion


This section contains extended details concerning EasyShare, AppleShare WS 1.1, AppleShare File Server 2.0.1, Server 3, Server 4, along with AppleShare IP 5 and 6.


EasyShare

As far as it appears, no amount of Internet dredging can bring up the full version of this utility by ShirtPocket Software, so the demonstration version will have to suffice. It only lasts ten minutes and then it shuts down the connection to outside clients; only one folder or volume can be shared; only one user can access it at a time; and automatic sharing is disabled. The last three issues shouldn't be a major problem: thankfully, there is knowledge of a way to work around the first issue by using a carefully crafted AppleScript script to automate the process, assuming a Mac OS 8.6 bridge Mac.


Because this software will most likely be used on the earliest Macs, which cannot run System 7 with its light-duty built-in server element, the focus of this subtopic will be on the 512K and 512Ke. For starters, EasyShare requires


EasyShare with 512Ke client,
IIci server

System 3.2, Finder 5.1 (System Software 1.1 is technically S3.2, F5.3 though) according to the manual but in testing (and discussion with napabar), System 4.1/Finder 5.5 is the only OS version it will work on: it will bomb on System 6. This software does NOT work on a 512K: it needs the 128KiB ROMs of the 512Ke and it will bomb a 512K. A System 4.1/Finder 5.5 400KiB MFS disk has been concocted by the author, should you want to experiment. Warning: This disk image will bomb a 512K just before the Finder desktop is readied. A 512Ke is fine.


There is a very slim possibility it could run on a 128Ke but as usual with the 128K series, memory could be a real pinch indeed. 400K MFS disks cannot be shared on AppleShare networks, and because the 128K cannot load the HD20 INIT, it will have to be present in ROM, thus the 128Ke. But the documentation says that the INIT requires about 53KiB and the application (the full version uses a desk accessory instead, DAs typically use far less memory, as evidenced by the myriad of amazingly crafted DAs that were present back in the days of the 128K/512K) wants 32KiB: this totals to 85KiB, which may be too much for a 128Ke. Still, we won't know for sure until we actually try -- nobody has come forward with a 128Ke to indicate so. Users who intend to experiment with this program should keep a sharp eye on the INIT loading sequence because a crossed out EasyShare INIT Demo icon indicates trouble.


Continuing on the subject, the manual demonstrates the entire procedure of using EasyShare. It's a painless program to use. Drag the INIT into the System Folder and the application can go in the root volume or somewhere convenient. Restart the Mac, and make sure the INIT loads: if it gets crossed out, then there is a problem; then open the EasyShare Demo application. Click the "New..." button to create a new share -- as a reminder, only one folder or volume can be shared in the demo version. From the dialog box that opens, navigate and select a folder to be shared, then click the Select Folder button to share that folder: alternatively, select a volume and click the Select Volume button. Finally click the Publish button to make it ready to access by client computers, which mount it through the Chooser desk accessory. Later Macs with Mac OS 8 and 9...let's just say, speed is "optional"...There have been warnings that the share folder may be deleted if accessed by a client: click the Locked button to inhibit this anomaly.


Other findings include: Assuming there is no password set on the server side, authentication is pretty loosy-loosy. Even the username field of the logon dialog doesn't need to be filled out. Backwards compatibility? Who knows. The server computer might have to be restarted to allow a different Mac to connect properly (a file transfer wouldn't complete, restarting the machine and starting up the server again worked). The program must be started up each time to start the server: technically, the machine will show up in the other Mac's Chooser but it won't present any shares, so nothing will be mounted.


AppleShare Workstation 1.1

This kit can only hook up to other machines, it cannot work with any other computers trying to connect to it, as it is one-way client access only.


The 512K uses a 400KiB MFS installer disk with System 3.3 and Finder 5.4 that came with AppleShare and the HD20 INIT. The disk itself is quite full (8K free space) and contains the bare minimums: System, Finder, AppleShare, AppleShare Prep, Hard Disk 20, Clipboard File and Scrapbook File.


For the 512Ke, a recommended path is to use System Software 2.01 and install the AS 1.1 WS software, as System 2.01 has more features than the variant for the 512K.


As for the Plus, II (not IIx) and SE, the primary distribution of AppleShare 1.1 WS was via a 800KiB disk that came with Finder 4.1, System 5.5. The Installer allows a choice of which platform to install for, as the System binaries are unique to each model, although just the AppleShare software can be installed onto the hard drive's System Folder or a 800KiB boot disk as normal. On a test installation onto an SE, the default install package as such was 387KiB on disk, so you do have some room left to play with a Plus or the like on an 800KiB disk as such. An external hard drive or floppy drive is a real boon to usability.
Watch out for low memory

To use the software once it has installed, simply turn on AppleTalk (could be in the Control Panel for the 512K version) in the Chooser and then click AppleShare to see the list of computers available. Low memory conditions can be a problem on the 512K and 512Ke (the image was for an SE FDHD with 1MiB memory and AS 2.0 WS on System 6).


There have been rumors of AppleShare File Server 1 (the Server Pro 1 is for A/UX) but information and details are scarce. Any specifications or capabilities are unknown, let alone any disk images of the software. The AppleShare PC Workstation software mentions it only briefly: "The AppleShare PC client software requires AppleShare file server software version 1.1 or higher." The Computer History Museum does list the software in its inventory, though. (It used to be sold for $799 US, according to a University of Michigan Computing News article dated January 5th, 1987. Volume 2, Number 1 is the publication.) As with the next version discussed below, AppleShare Server 1.1 will not run on a 128K, 512K or Macintosh XL.


AppleShare 2.0.1

This time we can get a little more advanced. First there is the 512Ke version comes on its own 800KiB disk and is an installer for AppleShare Workstation 2.0.1 (System 3.4, Finder 6.1); the remainder Macs are lumped together on other 800KiB disks which are the Server, Administration, Workstation and Apple II Setup disks; none of which are compatible with the 512Ke. The 512Ke version applies much like as per AppleShare 1.1 WS, and much of the same verbiage applies.


The other Macs which would use this software need the Server and Admin disks for running a dedicated server. The Workstation disk isn't needed because System 6.0.8 already has AppleShare Workstation on it. The Apple II Setup disk is for netbooting the Apple IIGS along with ProDOS compatible sharing extensions, and this disk comes after the Server suite has already been installed and set up.
Installing (all identical)

Let's start with the SE, II and Mac Plus. Using the default installer, which installs System 6.0, Finder 6.1 and the Server suite, the Finder will be made inaccessible and MultiFinder cannot be used (anybody want to have StuxNet have a go at breaking into this thing?). Start with the Server disk, then follow up with the Administration disk: simply drag the Administration application into the System Folder of the target volume. The Administration program is required to initialize the server and set it up because the AShare File Srv program itself can't do a whole lot. The first time that the volume with the Server suite installed is booted, the Finder will be available. This allows the user to make any modifications necessary to the hosting server. When those tasks are finished, start the Administration application, which makes a number of changes, such as renaming the boot folder from "System Folder" to "Server Folder", makes AShare File Srv start up instead of Finder on a reboot, makes the Server Folder invisible to other clients, and other changes as specified by the user, such as share folders and user accounts. The primary way to hop back into the Finder is to start up with a floppy disk, and then hot-swap primary volumes after the tasks are finished. (INITs and CDEVs which were not loaded on boot up will not work. The floppy disk can be made to have the same INITs and CDEVs, then it will work. INIT is an old name for "extension" and CDEV is old slang for "control panel".)


Although floppy disks can be used to run the server suite, they cannot be shared. Only hard disks or other non-removable media (Zip disks are up in the air concerning this) can be used as share directories. A default install of the Server with a complimentary operating system is about 936KiB on a Mac SE, so that is too much for a 800KiB only model. Most of the SE FDHD computers had hard drives, although not all of them work at this age.


Continuing with our setup phase, once you are finished with the Administration program, which is for adjusting user permissions, shareable folders or volumes, tweaking users and groups, exit and go into the Server Folder boot folder. Open the AShare File Srv program to start up the server. The use of a screensaver like After Dark 2.0 is a strongly recommended practice because the main screen won't change much and thus is a really good opportunity to get some high-quality burn-in. Desk Accessories are still accessible though, so using DiskTop for basic tasks that would otherwise require the Finder will work. Use FaberFinder to launch programs that DiskTop can't, such as the Finder. Make sure that CE ToolBox is installed in the System Folder otherwise DiskTop can't launch applications.


Speaking of escaping out of the server program, here are some discoveries: MultiFinder cannot be loaded. Almost all the free memory is used up (the About the Finder window showed that the System was using all of its allocation, and this was with 8MiB of memory) making the opportunity to launch other programs dicey. Small ones like TeachText should be okay but it's probably better to use DAs like MockWrite instead. But it can be done. Once the user is finished with the program in question, quitting doesn't lead back to the Finder, but instead back to AShare File Srv, which is the main server application. While the Finder is active, the Server program is still running and can be accessed by clients.


The Installer has a choice of installing the EtherTalk software. It is likely to only have driver support for a few official Apple Ethernet cards, such as the Ethernet NB card, furthermore it is EtherTalk Phase 1. (EtherTalk Phase 2 foreground window, EtherTalk Phase 1 background window. Note the single-headed versus double-headed arrows.) Otherwise the default interface protocol is LocalTalk, ostensibly intended for LocalTalk only networks or for use with GatorBoxes. The best way to get Ethernet out is to boot up with a network access disk and load up an OS in RAM. Then use the appropriate NIC driver disk to install the correct driver. Afterwards, boot into the server as usual and switch the interface to EtherTalk in the Network control panel.


Other observations: Attempting to start up the server manually by taking the Server application out of the Server Folder and starting it up manually may not always work right since it likes to be the startup application; screenshots don't work; the Server can't be quit without shutting down the system; and installing the AS 2.0 Workstation software won't do much good because there is no way to browse the other server without some file-browser DA like DiskTop. One attempt to install onto a IIci was met with a massive brick wall, where neither AShare File Srv or the Administration program could run. The solution was to do a low-level hard disk format with Lido 7.56 and then try again. Macs other than the SE, II or Plus just install System 6 first, then the Server install, and finally copy over the Administration program. In a strange twist, there appeared to be a doubling-up of every standard DA, yet the ones listed in the Apple menu wouldn't work. Use Font/DA Mover to remove the offenders because it maxes out the room for DAs (15 maximum). For users who intended to play with Apple II machines, it is simply better to use AppleShare Server 3 which can also work with Apple II machines (IIe Enhanced with Workstation Card and the IIGS only) and have regular access to the Finder, plus AS Server 3.0 is compatible with OS X. Both of these Server versions can netboot the Apple IIGS: AppleShare Server 4 and above cannot. (The Apple IIe can be netbooted, but not with this software.)



Main Server view (SE FDHD)
Server Admin App
Server Admin App
Mac 512K as a client to Mac II sever

Using MacDraw served from the II
Server Folder contents
Server volume as seen from
another Mac
Will not work!

AppleShare Server 3 and 4

AppleShare Server 3 breaks the hard limit of AppleShare File Server 2.0.1 and grants a regular Finder along with a nicer interface to the Server.


Both of these versions look nearly identical. The Server and Admin programs are stuffed into the System Folder for AppleShare Server 3. But AppleShare Server 4 adds links to the Apple menu, but this can be easily done with AS Server 3 too with just aliases of each added to the Apple Menu Items folder. The big point about AppleShare Server 4 is that it requires a 68040 or PPC, although a IIci with a Radius Rocket 33MHz 68040 in accelerator mode seemed to satisfy it. It won't start up unless Shared Library Manager (ASLM) is installed, and the License Manager, simply remember to enable those for a custom installation.



AppleShare Server 3
AppleShare Server 4 first run
Configuring the server (AS 4.0.1)
Drag a user or group to add them

Both Server versions will not have any support for AFP over TCP, for that you'll need AppleShare IP. Only AppleShare Server 4.2.1 is compatible with OpenTransport; the earlier versions are stuck with classic networking. Server 4.0.1/4.0.2 complains about running in 7.0.1 but it will run anyways. All AppleShare Server products disable the built-in Mac OS 7+ File Sharing feature in the Sharing Setup (File Sharing for Mac OS 8+) control panel, and for this reason it is better to start with a new install of the operating system rather than uninstall AppleShare Server, meaning that AS Server makes certain changes which are hard to reverse.


After the program is installed, the first thing to do is to configure all the fields in the Sharing Setup control panel with a username, password and machine name. For registering the product with the name and serial number, make sure the Organization field is filled out with something because it won't let it remain blank like nearly every other program does. As with AppleShare File Server 2.0.1, first fire up the Admin program to initialize it, add users, groups, set privileges, and designate the share directories or volumes. It's not really that difficult to use and figure out, so this section and the next will break the detailed how-to method of this Guide. Both of these are capable of being mounted by OS X 10.3 Panther, which is the last OS X version to be compatible.


AppleShare IP 5 and 6

By the time of the mid-1990s, the TCP world was really starting to mature and expand to new frontiers. This called for a new server suite that could natively work with IP protocols and thus AppleShare IP was born. Both of these suites are rather picky when it comes to software and hardware specifications, so a cursory examination of the specification chart for all AppleShare products is a good idea.


Let's start with AppleShare IP 5. First off, make sure OpenDoc is installed (comes as part of the System Install CDs. Good riddance -- nobody else bothered with it and it was a flop just like PowerTalk) or it won't run. As with AppleShare 3 and 4, it will demand the File Sharing control panel fields get filled out: and remember the password because it is used for the Administrator. Then configure the TCP/IP control panel because it won't play nice without it. For now, just assign it to manual addressing because if it's set to DHCP, and it's not actively connected (the test machine, a Power Macintosh G3/266, wouldn't enable the Ethernet port unless the cable was hooked up to something) and assigned an IP address, then it will hold up the computer for about two minutes while it figures out how to make sense of it. AppleShare IP cannot share out to a LocalTalk network: it must be over Ethernet. But installing LocalTalk Bridge mirrors the shares out to the Printer Port, or Modem/Printer serial port, depending on the machine: or using a hardware AFP bridge does the same thing.



Easy Setup program
The central manager application
Disks, share points and privileges
Users & Groups area

Now, there's a convenient Easy Setup program in the root level of the hard drive under the directory called AppleShare IP 5. It is pretty painless to get through that program so we'll move on promptly. The Web & File Admin program handles the usual share directory, group and user configuration, along with priveleges, and it also starts the Server. The "Show Disks & Share Points" selection from the Server menu is how a disk is shared: just open the volume by double clicking it, click the "Make this a share point and set priveleges" radio button. It's all pretty easy to use, can't get things wrong. Set a user, set his priveleges, add a share, start the server -- pretty foolproof. To add a user or group to the privileges window, just drag the entity from the users and groups list to the little User/Group field of the share properties window. Use the AppleShare IP Manager program as a central status and "main operating panel" for the server.


Extra tidbits: The AppleShare IP 5.0 Companion CD has AppleShare Client for Windows 3.1 and Workgroups on it. It references COPSTalk for Windows 95 users. Also it has VICOM Internet Gateway 3.8.3, which is like IPNetRouter or Apple Internet Router 3. AppleShare IP 5 has a web server, mail server, print server and file server (AFP and FTP). Attempting to share a Zip100 disk failed. Running multiple OSs on the same computer, even as partitions, can result in issues with starting File Sharing for the other operating systems. Try to just have one computer with nothing but AppleShare on it. This issue was also noted with AppleShare Server 3 and 4, but not AppleShare File Server 2.0.1. It's a good idea to copy the Electronic Library PDF files to a local volume off the install CD because the Installer doesn't install them.


Now for AppleShare IP 6. This does pretty much the same thing as the previous version, although it works a little bit differently, but in principle they're not all that apart from each other. It does tack on a SMB file server, although testing this feature against a Windows XP box failed (as did the FTP server element, in both OS X and Windows). It has the same Setup Assistant like AppleShare IP 5, and in the same fashion it will ask if it should share via AppleTalk, AppleTalk and TCP, or with IP 6, TCP only. A later prompt in the same program asks for the Administrator details: it appears that this is by default tied to the Owner of the computer listed in the Multiple Users control panel. It could probably be assigned to someone else though.


Use the Server Admin program as the central application to adjust the usual parameters concerning share directories and users. It was noticed that in the privileges window for a share, the "middle field" with User/Group, even if it is blank, should have all the checkboxes ticked, otherwise it wouldn't work exactly right. Could be a bug. Try to have a designated full-privileges user created rather than signing in all the time as the administrator. It's all pretty plain and simple to use, not very complicated at all, so this section won't put down too much detail.



AFP over AppleTalk, AppleTalk & TCP or TCP only
AFP Server properties
SMB Server details
Manager program

Little tidbits: Sharing a Zip100 disk was read only to System 3.3/Finder 5.4; taking a 40MiB disk image and mounting it, then sharing it bombed S3.3/F5.4; AppleShare IP cannot "share a share": as in, re-share a mounted network volume (that's a bit obtuse in server speak), it must be a logical volume like a CD, Zip, hard drive, et cetera; the AppleShare IP Advanced Preferences is pretty much only for setting connection timeouts and port configuration; as with earlier versions of AppleShare Server, the File Sharing feature in the File Sharing control panel is disabled and volume share settings cannot be tweaked in the Get Info window; full-time deployment of this server to older systems would probably be best used with a 2GiB "share partition" separate from the main partition; and there could be slight variations here and there because only IP 6.3.3 was tested under OS 9.1. 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 were not evaluated. As with AppleShare IP 5, use LocalTalk Bridge to make the machine accessible via LocalTalk because Server IP 6 does not function over LocalTalk. By the way, you cannot use MacTCP to make a TCP connection to an AppleShare IP Server; also it is possible to force a connection over AppleTalk versus the usual TCP method by holding down the Option/alt key and double-clicking the server as usual in the Chooser.


Obviously, for running a central network of a bunch of Macs, AppleShare Server is fine, but for small networks, there isn't much point. Mac OS 9 can already do most of what AppleShare Server does, and Jaguar can still be plenty useful for SMB networks, or a Linux box with Netatalk and Samba on it.


Working with Disk Images

Disk images are raw sector dumps of the contents of the entire disk, including header and catalogue information, file metadata, icon positioning, and everything else entirely in binary form. They are often used in "crammed" disks like Apple's System 7.5 Network Access Disk which have very little free space left. Disk images are a good way to archive critical floppy disks or for emergency restore or access disks, being that they can be copied to a compatible floppy disk from virtually any compatible platform (1.44MB only). 800KiB and 400KiB disk images must be handled from a Mac that has a internal floppy drive or compatible non-USB external drive (such as a PowerBook Duo with a external floppy drive MicroDock) and must be done under Classic OS.


Emergency restore or repair disks are best created in a virtual fashion by creating a disk image with ShrinkWrap
Detail of OS X FDD behavior (10.5)

(can create DC 4.2 disk images and mount them) or Disk Copy 6.3.3, and copying over any material needed for such an application. 400KiB MFS disks will not work this way because no disk tool can create 400KiB MFS disk images, as they all run under System 7, which changed the way 400KiB MFS disks are handled (according to ShrinkWrap documentation). The only way to create a 400KiB MFS disk image is to format a disk (or write out a blank disk image) on the real thing, copy any data over, then image it.


Note that Mac OS X writes additional data to a freshly formatted disk which can reduce the free space from an optimal 1.3MiB to 1.1MiB or even 1MiB. See the image to the right for this. Spotlight data and other data is written which is invisible; note that the Finder shows the disk as empty, but a ls -al shows that there are some invisible files. This can be a real hand-biter, because they aren't easily removed excepting sudo rm -R and other work. This won't affect locked disks or writing to disk images but is something to be aware of. Mac OS X versions without Spotlight, like Jaguar, will be okay and won't do this, so this concerns 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard.


Note: Do not use 1.44MB disks with tape over the right hole in place of a 800KiB disk. Also: Word is that Disk Copy 4.2 should be used instead of 6.3.3 for 400KiB and 800KiB disks; it appears DC 6.3.3 disregards tags for disk sectors (1.44MB disks don't use tags). So basically the disks require the tags, but don't use them.


Under System 3 up to System 6, a window from a Macintosh File System (MFS) disk will be lacking a single pixel in the title bar, whereas the Hierachial File System (HFS) has the pixel (only visible in Icon or Small Icon view). See the image at the right: the area just ahead of the pointer, and compare it to the area with the other red rectangle. The foreground window with the pointer is MFS, and the windows in the background are HFS. This "MFS detection feature" was removed in System 7 and probably the only way of detecting a 400KiB MFS from a 400KiB HFS disk is to drag an item from the disk to the desktop and see if it pops a dialog "Items from 400KiB disks..." as seen in the next image to the right (with 7.6.1), and note the Disk Copy 6.3.3 -43 error (it still mounts though). There's also another prompt that pops up if a folder is copied to a MFS volume; it says "Folders cannot be copied onto 400K disks. To copy the contents of a folder, open the folder and drag the items inside it to the disk."
MFS versus HFS (Mini vMac)


An Apple II ProDOS disk (IIGS)
A FAT-12 diskette with DOS-type
files (Win98SE boot disk)
400KiB MFS in background, 400KiB HFS foreground (512Ke, S1.1/F1.1g)
800KiB MFS disk in foreground,
400KiB MFS in background (512Ke, S1.1, F1.1g)
A 400KiB MFS disk in 7.6.1

Here are the properties concerning Mac floppy disks, aka The Bottom Line:



Unlike 5.25" floppy drives, the heads for 3.5" are held in position by a pre-bent and pre-aligned metal material; once it is bent by touching the heads, even very lightly, the heads will no longer be in alignment and the drive will fail to read disks and thusly will have to be re-adjusted (requires expertise, good equipment and know-how) or replaced. Also the nylon gears inside the eject motor assembly get stripped out eventually. Clean out grime and solidified grease before the problem manifests itself at the worst moment. 400KiB drives as used in the 128K and 512K, and the manual-inject used in the later Macs are a bit different (word is that the Sony manual-inject drives were better than the Mitsubishi models)


Disassembled auto-inject FDD
and cleaning disk (1.44MB)
  • 1.44MB HFS: 1404KiB, 1.38MiB (Nominal size: 1,474,560 bytes unformatted)
  • 1.44MB HFS, tainted by OS X: 1106KiB, 1.1MiB (331KiB in six files)
  • 800KiB HFS: 785KiB (Nominal size: 819,200 bytes unformatted)
  • 800KiB MFS: 782KiB, though System 1.1/Finder 1.1g reports "800K" free
  • 720KiB FAT12: 711KiB (Nominal size: 737,280 bytes unformatted)
  • 400KiB MFS: 390KiB (Nominal size: 409,600 bytes unformatted)
  • 400KiB HFS: 388KiB
The Dialog of Doom

Technically NDIF and DC 4.2 images don't really have resource forks, as the image content itself is stored in the data fork. Despite this, there can be some data stored in the resource fork like the image, type and creator, creation and modification dates, and so forth. For this reason, stuffing with Stuffit (which don't have resource forks, although metadata is still present, namely the type and creator, image, and so on) or Compact Pro, then BinHex or MacBinary II encoding is the ideal practice; Stuffit archives have the benefit of built-in compression and resource fork protection (as does Compact Pro, but Zip archives do not fit in this category), but suffers from version incompatibilities (an archive created with Stuffit Deluxe 8 has a very good chance of not working with Stuffit 4). Double check the archive integrity before long-term backups are initiated.


Classic Mac OS

Disk Copy 4.2

Use Disk Copy 4.2 to write disk images from or to a disk or to duplicate a disk. It only supports Disk Copy 4.2 disk images and is the only commonly distributed disk handler that will work under System 6. It cannot mount disk images to the desktop. To duplicate a floppy, insert the master disk, click "Read Master Floppy" and allow it to copy the disk image to memory (may be difficult if you have less than 2MiB memory and are working with a 1.44MB disk). The master disk will then eject. Then click "Make A Copy", and then insert the target disk.


To save the loaded disk image to a file, head to the File menu and select "Save Disk image...". To write a disk image to a floppy disk, select "Load Image File..." and navigate to the directory where it is located, and open it. It will then prompt for a target floppy disk.
Disk Copy 4.2 in use

For a lot of disk work with DC 4.2, you may want to edit out the beep sound in ResEdit or replace it with a sound resource with dead noise. (Whoever put that in...needs treatment. It's also in DC 6.3.3, and it is made worse by the CPU interrupt while it plays the tones)


Both Disk Copy 4.2 and 6.3.3 can be found around the web, or from this semi-official source here. DART 1.5.3 can also run under System 6, and it can open DC 4.2 disk images.


Disk Copy 6.3.3

Use Disk Copy 6.3.3 to mount floppy disks to the desktop, to create disk images, duplicate disks, convert disk images (not all types supported), verify disks or execute disk scripts (certain scripts used to automate or accelerate the floppy creation process of something like the 7.5.3 install disks). DC 6.3.3 only works with System 7 or higher. Only machines with a 68020 or greater can convert or create DC 6.3.3 format compressed images: a IIci took about seven minutes to convert a read-write disk image to a compressed version.


Warning: Only Disk Copy 6.1.2 or greater can properly decompress and write Read-Only Compressed disk images. No other program can work with them. Use an emulator or some other Mac to convert them into Read-Only or Disk Copy 4.2 format.


DC 6.3.3 should be able to handle most common disk images, but it may not handle all as there are at about a dozen different formats (.dsk, .ima, .img, ImageMaster, the lot). Try using ShrinkWrap as it can handle other types. It doesn't take a good liking to MFS 400KiB disk images, but it will mount them if the file system supports them. While DC 6.3.3 can image hard drives and other volumes, it can't write them back out again.


Note: Disk Copy 6.3.3 will not permit the "Make A Floppy" (write disk image out to disk) selection if your machine did not come with a built-in floppy drive (i.e. iBook, iMac): use Disk Copy 6.4 or 6.5b13, Disk Copy 4.2, or ShrinkWrap (latter two can't write NDIF images) to get around this. It is possible to write disks to an image file, however. DC 4.2 will not start up unless a floppy drive is present, for example USB drives must be plugged in before commencing work.


To create a self-mounting image (.smi), AppleScript must be installed, plus Mac OS 8.1 or later. Download the Disk Copy 6.3 Scripts, like from this place. This permits any System 7.0.1 or higher Mac to mount these to the desktop without requiring Disk Copy to mount them. (Disk Copy 6.4 and 6.5b13 can also use these scripts.) To use them, create a folder named Scripts in the same folder as Disk Copy 6.3.3+ and copy the AppleScript files into that folder. Then when the application is opened, there will be a new menu named Scripts which can then perform the self-mounting image feature, along with a segment option and a widget to decide what to do when a floppy is inserted. The self-mounting image script merely converts a standard NDIF .img disk image into a self-mounting variant, rather than performing a standard imaging operation of a real floppy disk, CD or disk volume. These tools can also work under the Classic Emulation environment in OS X or within an emulator.


Scripts menu (iMac G4, 9.2.2)

In case the type and creator information is lost for a segmented image, the first one has a type of rohd and a creator of ddsk; the remaining parts have a type of dseg with the same creator code. Each has a segment number while also indicating the total parts (like Easy Grade Pro CD.img 3of5). Shortcuts: Hold down the Command key while dragging a disk image, or multiple disk images, to start the Convert process; hold down the Option/alt key whilst dragging and dropping to initiate a Make A Floppy operation.


Other utilities

DART 1.5.3 is the choice of tool for Lisa 3.5" floppies (not 5.25" Twiggy disks, either the 128K Twiggy Mac format) and was originally an internal Apple disk utility application. Because the disk images are specific to this application and are compressed, the images will most likely not work correctly with $ dd in OS X. Some users have reported that this utility works well with 400KiB MFS disks. It also runs under System 6 systems.


Other programs include Disk Dup+ (not in common use) and ShrinkWrap 2.1. The latter allows batch disk imaging, batch disk image writing, and other useful features like creating MS-DOS or ProDOS images (requires PC Exchange 2.0, it comes with 7.5.3 by default: it will run inside 7.0.1 or 7.1). All of the above programs are fairly simple to use and thusly won't get much mention here. Do be advised that ShrinkWrap won't always add the checksum data to the file -- run a Verify and make sure the computed result in the log matches the one in the file, if not present, just run a Convert operation on the original. As with Disk Copy 4.2, it will work with USB floppy drives but they must be plugged in and ready before launching the application. It also has an option for compression, enabled in the Preferences window.


Norton Floppier (OS 9.2.2)

For archival purposes, the best method is to image the disk with DC 4.2, verify it, then verify it in the Finder by mounting it with DC 6.3.3, then BinHex it. A second copy made with DC 6.3.3 and also verified twice and BinHexed is a good idea as well; but try to use DC 4.2 for 400KiB and 800KiB disks.


Mac OS X

To write a disk image to a floppy (or, any other volume/partition) you can use the $ dd command in Terminal. 400KiB and 800KiB disks are not supported with dd.


Open Terminal under Utilities folder, if in Tiger or higher just press Command + space bar and type Terminal, hit the down arrow and press Enter. Make sure the USB floppy disk drive is present, plugged in and has a good disk inside it.


Caution: The dd command can damage or erase data if used improperly or in error. As it is a low-level binary copying method, any data overwritten cannot be recovered. (They have a nickname for it: the Data Destroyer)


Entire process in Terminal (10.4)

The dd command works like this when writing a Disk Copy 4.2 HFS disk image to a floppy for our purposes here (although dd can be used many other ways) in this example:

dd if=/Users/icecube/Desktop/DownloadF/SSW6NAD.image of=/dev/disk2 bs=84 skip=1

For a NDIF disk image, such as images produced by Disk Copy 6.3.3 (except the Read-only Compressed format), Disk Copy OS X, or WinImage, use the following command (for example):

dd if=/Users/icecube/Desktop/DownloadF/MacPPP\ 2.5.3.img of=/dev/disk2

Note how the block size and skip commands are omitted, and observe the use of the escape character \ for the space character in the file name; or use single quotes ' ' or double quotes " " around the file name (or the whole path, although single quotes are preferable, because there is a difference), like this:

dd if='/Users/icecube/Desktop/DownloadF/MacPPP 2.5.3.img' of=/dev/disk2

(This is why using strange characters and spaces in filenames is frowned upon in some circles, because they can create havoc.) If the skip option was used on an NDIF type image, the resulting disk would be unreadable.


Some basic level descriptions of the commands is here below:



First make sure the disk is unlocked, otherwise it will kick a "Permission denied" error, then type...

diskutil list

...to show a list of all volumes and partitions on the system. In the image shown above, the floppy disk has an identifier of "disk2" but the path is going to be "/dev/disk2" for the entire disk (note the /dev/disk0 on the numbered column for how a partitioned hard drive works). If it doesn't show up, that is because a diskette has to be inserted into it first before the operating system can recognize it and assign it a drive path.


We now must unmount the disk, since disk images cannot be written onto disks that are mounted. To do this, type...

diskutil unmount disk_

...replacing the _ mark with the appropriate disk identifier. Next, locate the disk image in the Finder. The easiest way to copy the file path of the disk image is to select the file in Finder and drag & drop it onto the Terminal window, which is what we shall do. Type the following...

dd if=

...and then drag & drop the file onto the Terminal window, which inserts its path for you. Then continue with...

of=/dev/disk_

...making sure to place the proper disk identifier in place of the blank underscore. Double check that the proper path is referenced otherwise irrepairable damage can result: accidentally writing the disk image over a hard drive or getting the if= and of= paths backwards is easy to do. Add bs=84 skip=1 for Disk Copy 4.2 images, (for first-timers, verify that the command is analogous to the examples shown at the beginning of this section) then press Enter. The system will begin copying onto the disk. To halt the process, use the Control + C key sequence. Once it has finished its work, it can be freely ejected from the drive, or it can be remounted with the following command...

diskutil mount disk_

And that is all there is to it. To image a disk in Terminal, which produces a NDIF format image (compatible with DC 6.3.3, but not DC 4.2), use something similar to the next line below:

dd if=/dev/disk2 of=/Users/icecube/Desktop/SystemAdditions.img

If you use this feature in this fashion, change the type and creator of the file to dimg and ddsk, respectively, to use it with Disk Copy 6.3.3+.


Special OS X features

In Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2, the Advanced User Mode can be enabled to obtain access to additional options with the Disk Copy application in the Utilities folder. With Terminal, type:

defaults write com.apple.diskcopy expert-mode 1
Disk Copy OS X Expert mode
before, and after (10.2 Jaguar)

To reverse the feature, change the 1 to a 0 (zero). There's also some useful tidbits in the Preferences window, although it is different with 10.2 versus 10.4, such as the ability to format as FAT16 within 10.4. (The image to the right doesn't show this, but it also adds an "HFS Extended, Journaled" formatting option) For 10.4 on upwards with DiskUtility, try this:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options 1

Additionally, the debug mode:
Advanced Image Options (10.5)
before, and after
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

To create a blank disk image, open Terminal and type (blank.img may be altered to suit the desired filename):

dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024 count=1440 > blank.img

Next, open Disk Utility. The blank image should be in the Home directory (~/) -- simply drag the disk image into the left pane where all the logical disks (or disk images) are shown. (You can also choose Open Disk Image... from the File menu.) Then double click the new disk image - a mounting error will be shown. Then click the Erase tab and either format it as Mac OS Extended (HFS+), Mac OS Standard (HFS) or FAT12 (MS-DOS). The resulting product will be mounted on the desktop and is ready to be used.


A slightly different command is below:

dd if=/dev/zero of=~/newimage.dsk bs=1048576 count=10

This creates a 10MiB size file, where 10 is how many blocks to copy and 1048576 means that the block size is in 1MiB chunks. If you want to use MB instead of MiB, then set the block size to 1000000. Then drag the image to Mini vMac, which can then format it as Mac OS Standard, if need be. The description here is a bit confusing. When count=14336, the system deals with this in 512KiB blocks * 4, or 2KiB. So it becomes 14336 / 2048 = 7MiB. To do it "his way", multiply 2048 by how many mebibytes are desired, which the result then goes into the count= entry. Example: 2048 * 18 = 36864, so then the final answer becomes count=36864. One other thing: Sometimes devices like micro-SD cards, hard drives or other kinds of volumes need to be have the block size set to 1 mebibyte blocks (1M, 1024 * 1024 bytes) when writing the image out to the physical volume, else the end result is invalid. It may be slower but it works. (Example: dd if=~/Desktop/NookFactory.img of=/dev/disk3 bs=1M) Set the block size to 1M as well when you're imaging the media too.


To image a volume in Disk Utility, click the volume on the left panel with the volumes listed. Then click the New Image button near the toolbar.


Preliminary checks with the DC 4.2 disk imaging option in 10.5 Leopard were not successful. Don't forget the man page for hdiutil via Terminal: type man hdiutil to view it. (Preliminary testing to convert NDIF to DC 4.2 was not successful with hdiutil.) There's also a way to create OS 9 type .img files in OS X using the Terminal.


Linux

It is impossible to cover all Linux distros in a single section, so Ubuntu will be covered since that is what the author used. Note that this is for Ubuntu 9.10 (an unsupported distro at this time). Our test machine has an internal floppy drive but it is not accessible in Ubuntu for some reason, so an external USB drive was used instead. (10.04LTS seemed to have hiccups with this method. Technical "Expert Grade" users may be able to identify the culprit(s).)


Head to the System menu, then Administration, and select Disk Utility. Select the floppy drive mounted from the left pane (as in the image, click the SSW6NAD mounted volume, not the drive itself named "Floppy Drive"). Unmount it by selecting the unmount icon on the title bar. Click "Floppy Drive" and note the device path. Or, type sudo fdisk -l into a Terminal window to get a listing of all the device paths on the system. Then open Terminal under the Applications/Accessories menu. The $ dd command works pretty much the same way as OS X, in principle. If the root user is not the active user, then "Permission Denied" will be returned unless the sudo command is used.


In the image shown, the first attempt failed from a bad disk. This is why floppy disks were both numerous and cheap in the day. Eject the disk from the title bar button in Disk Utility after the image process has finished, and the task is then complete. Example code for DC 4.2 images:
Entire process view in Ubuntu
sudo dd if='/home/icecube/Desktop/SSW6NAD.image' of=/dev/sdc bs=84 skip=1

For a NDIF disk image, use something like the following:

sudo dd if='/home/icecube/Desktop/win98seboot.img' of=/dev/sdc

It is possible to do it all in Terminal, like so (the df -h line is an alternate for sudo fdisk -l):

df -h umount /dev/sdc sudo dd if='/home/icecube/Desktop/AppleShareWS35.image' of=/dev/sdc bs=84 skip=1

In some cases, the situation may be such that no networking drivers or data can be transferred because of a chicken & egg problem. On possible route involves making disk images (ShrinkWrap for DC 4.2, DC 6.3.3 for NDIF) inside an emulator and then copying out the product, then using dd or other tools to write the disk image out.


Microsoft Windows

Windows 95, 98, 2K, ME and XP can use RawWrite (alternate source); it is incompatible with Vista and above. HFV Explorer is yet another option. OmniFlop can be used as well (which requires a registration process for some types); installing the included floppy controller can enable support for a large number of (mostly obscure) disk formats which requires an internal floppy drive to work (USB FDDs have their own controller which can't be overridden). WinImage has obtained good reports in the the past, but it is shareware and $30 for the full version.


Neither OmniFlop or RawWrite support Disk Copy 4.2 disk images, only NDIF type images (such as images created by $ dd, Disk Copy 6.3.3, or Disk Utility) of the 1.44MB variety. However, in the event of a chicken & egg problem, an emulator like Basilisk II could step in and "translate" the DC 4.2 images into NDIF via DC 6.3.3 for 1.44MB images.
Utilities for Windows (XP shown)

In regards to WinImage, imaging a disk with the output format of .IMA was tested in OS X's $ dd command (as if it were a NDIF image) and the results appeared to be successful. It will not work with Disk Copy 4.2 disk images either, and testing a NDIF .img image produced on a Mac was not successful (couldn't be read). Unless you need Vista/7 support or a feature which it provides, it is probably better to use RawWrite or OmniFlop. HFV Explorer is a little interesting, because it images a disk, then process the disk inside the file browser, then the result is imaged back out to the floppy; this has to do with the fact that Windows cannot read HFS or HFS+ volumes. Because the crop of emulators like Basilisk II can also virtually "edit" a disk image before it is written (build 142 can read Mac floppies, the current release is not so), plus the output from an emulator can be directly written with Rawrite, the emulator route is probably better and safer than HFV Explorer.


Otherwise if the only platform is a Windows 7 PC for instance, then the best option if you can't get any other option to work would be to build a Linux distro that boots off a USB flash drive. In this manner, HFS support is available (to a degree, possibly more with hfsutils and hfsprogs), $ dd, and for even more power, install and build Netatalk.


HFS Explorer runs in a Java emulation environment and can read .dsk, .img, and .dmg disk images or volumes (like an external HFS+ formatted hard drive or CompactFlash card), but not floppy drives or DC 4.2 images. It can be useful for certain circumstances.


Another handy widget for mostly Apple II disks is CiderPress.


Data Encoding Techniques


In the old days with analog modems acting as the principle computer transmission and communication device, file encoding was essential to protect file integrity over the phone lines (large industries and mainframes had different setups). Today, such steps are usually transparent or handled in a different manner by default, so manual encoding and decoding is not as prevalent as it used to be. Still, there is a place for it in a variety of circumstances, and is a good idea when archiving old Macintosh programs and software on modern media.


Although Mac OS X can sometimes use multi-forked files, Apple has been encouraging a move away from this type of file configuration. Basically, pre-Mac OS X files typically have two forks and some file metadata, depending on the file type and design. A Mac OS Finder 5.5 file for instance, has a resource fork which stores some data, a data fork which stores additional data, and a type of FNDR and creator of MACS, along with creation/modification dates, Finder icon data (can be restored by rebuilding the desktop, or re-assigning an image in the Get Info window, may be limited based on System version, as custom icons didn't really start to make their presence until System 7) and so on. Now the Windows platform along with other OSes such as *nix, Amiga OS, et cetera do not use or recognize Macintosh resource forks and can (and most often do) strip away the resource fork leaving nothing but a data fork, or they will destroy file metadata like type and creator. The result is a corrupted husk of a file -- which even compressing in .zip will not help. Assuming the Mac file is compressed into a .sit file, the very instant the file is decompressed it is usually corrupted by the host file system. Encoding is used to inhibit this behavior while transmitting a file until it reaches its destination whereby it can then be "safe" on the Mac system.


MacBinary II came out in 1987 and was one of the two major encoding types for Mac OS platforms (MacBinary III was established around the time of Mac OS 8). BinHex 4.0 is the other main type. MacBinary II produces a binary file and BinHex 4.0 is ASCII with some shuffling to enable compatibility with email programs (encoding a file, opening it in a text editor, copying all the encoded text and placing it an email message body was common back in the day). BinHex 5.0 is a completely different application than BinHex 4.0 -- and it's not worth the upgrade. In the former days, an interesting chicken & egg problem presented itself: BinHex 4.0 was distributed as a binhexed file itself -- so the solution to this was to download the MSBASIC (BINHEX4.BAS) or MacPascal (BINHEX4.PAS) source code and compile it manually (apparently there's also "BINHEX4-SOURCE-ASSEMBLY.HQX").


BinHex originally came from the TRS-80 platform written in BASIC. The program was ported to the Macintosh and after a couple of releases (.hex and .hcx being the original extensions, .hqx for BinHex 4.0), the default pretty much became the BinHex 4.0 format. Because older Macs can open the program and is lightweight (about 8KiB on disk, wants 192KiB RAM max, will work under System 1.1, Finder 1.1g) and is fairly well supported on the other platforms, it is hereby recommended for these reasons over MacBinary. Furthermore, ASCII is less likely to be corrupted over binary transfer methods, although the risk of such an occurrence is rather low, at least these days. The Handbook of Data Compression (page 43; David Salomon et. al, Springer: 2010. ISBN-13 9781848829039) explains:


Before delving into the details of the format, the reader should understand why such a format is used. ASCII is a 7-bit code. Each character is coded as a 7-bit number, which allows for 128 characters in the ASCII table. The ASCII standard recommends adding an eighth bit as parity to every character for increased reliability. However, the standard does not specify odd or even parity, and many computers simply ignore the extra bit or even set it to 0. As a result, when files are transferred in a computer network, some transfer programs may ignore the eighth bit and transfer just seven bits per character. This isn't so bad when a text file is being transferred but when the file is binary, no bits should be ignored. This is why it is safer to transfer text files, rather than binary files, over computer networks. The idea of BinHex is to translate any file to a text file.

Both File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and serial comm methods like ZTerm over serial ports require this procedure. The various configuration for each will vary slightly, but both have the ability to send files via either Binary, or via ASCII (sometimes called "Text") transmission methods. Archiving files for future purposes or storage on "Mac-foreign" file system types like ext3 (Linux), NTFS (Windows 2000+, Windows NT series), ZFS, HPFS (OS/2) and the like should also use this kind of protection.


Before archiving or backing up "for the long term" make well sure that the file itself is valid and isn't corrupted.


Bottom line: BinHex and MacBinary protects the host or source file from corruption by reason of the loss of the resource fork or type/creator data. When a BinHex or MacBinary (or resource-fork protected archives like .SIT or Compact Pro archives) file is transmitted or received, the product may have to have its type and creator information updated to be read by the Mac. So the BinHex and MacBinary protocols are merely a wrapper for the source file so that it is not corrupted -- but you'll still need to change the BinHex or MacBinary file to enable it to be read by the client operating system, because without that information, it doesn't know what to do with a file with no descriptors, neither does it know how to process it.


BinHex or MacBinary encoding cannot be applied to a folder with a multitude of files -- instead, pack the contents into Stuffit or Compact Pro for a single archive, then encode the resulting archive. Let's take a look at some of the programs appropriate for various software platforms for these purposes.


Classic Mac OS

For all systems from System 0.97 (tested in Mini vMac) to 9.2.2, the BinHex 4.0 app works acceptably. It does not like input file names longer than 29 characters, is clearly not suited to System 7 environments and big displays, is not drag and drop enabled and is slower than other BinHex encoders and decoders like Stuffit Deluxe 5.5, so avoid it for later PPC G3 and G4 Macs. To use it, the file must have a type of TEXT and a creator that is compatible with it -- by default, the application produces a creator of BNHQ, so try that (the output extension for this app is .Hqx rather than the usual .hqx); it won't list any files it can't process in the appropriate window. From there, if the file needs to be decoded, head to the File menu and choose "Upload -> Application"; alternatively to encode, choose "Application -> Upload". The File menu also has a "TEXT Filter" toggle that lets the user skip having to change the file type to TEXT for it to be recognized in the Open dialog. Also, the once-popular Compact Pro application has BinHex 4.0 encoding and decoding capabilities. (Hold down the Option/alt key when selecting "Convert FROM BinHex4..." to see all files.)


Stuffit Deluxe 4.0 runs under about 1536KiB RAM and thus should run on every Mac (assuming memory upgrades, 512K and 512Ke is unlikely; the DropStuff and Expander apps specify 512KiB in the Get Info window) under System 6+ and can also encode/decode BinHex files, along with other types like MacBinary, uuencode (Unix) and .zip, although not all .zip headers are supported because it is an older program that won't recognize newer header formats. (Stuffit Deluxe 5.5 says it wants a ludicrous 5750KiB of RAM.) For MacBinary II encoding, there is a MacBinary II+ app in circulation (requires System 7, as it is a drag and drop only app) which is slightly modified from the core MacBinary II principles (and thusly MacBinary II+ is the only app that can decode them, or perhaps a later version of Stuffit, Stuffit Deluxe 4.0 decoded it successfully). Stuffit 1.5.1 can encode BinHex files as well, and decode, but the Unstuffit app cannot. There is this candidate for MacBinary encoded files -- but it requires a minimum of System 6 to operate.


Self-extracting archives pack a minimalist extraction program in the resource fork. Protecting the self-extracting archive with BinHex 4.0 or MacBinary encoding is essential to inhibit the loss of the resource fork, because once the resource fork is lost, the archive cannot be extracted. Conventional compressed archives do not need any such protection but it is still a good idea.


PackIt 1.0 can run under very early Mac OS systems and is a binary encoding/decoding application. It is ideal for early systems as it is lightweight (9KiB) and does the job. Mac OS X's Unarchiver can decode them but Stuffit cannot. Make sure the application is on both ends because they are not self-extracting. The documentation says it will work with the file as long as it has .pit extension.


Again, if the file fails to be recognized, here is a short list of commonly used file type and creators, based on the output of the applications in question:



In System 7, you can use Creator Changer: drag a whole bunch of files to change them all in batch mode or can make pre-defined "types", ResEdit (use the Get File/Folder Info from the File menu) or the like. Earlier systems like System 6 which cannot run those apps can use Finder Info 1.1.1, which will work all the way down to System 1.1, Finder 1.1g, plus there are early releases of ResEdit like version 1.0D7 which can run on a 512K, but it requires System 4.1 or higher. For more information, try a look at this page here which provides further details. Finder Info 1.1.1 will not run on a 512K.


Mac OS X

This appears to be a somewhat curious creation, it will work with PPC Classic OS and PPC OS X. It works okay under Rosetta OS X (PPC emulation on Intel x86 processors), although it can crash from time to time. The documentation explains how to use it, but basically the user drags a folder or file onto the application alias or icon in Finder. Mac OS X and Linux can run uuencode from the console but uuencode will not process resource forks properly. Mac OS X 10.5 thru 10.8 have BinHex and MacBinary utilities accessible from the command line as well (...they really should have been included with 10.1 on up...) with a simple usage of something like binhex encode launcher.sit. (Should the previous link fail, just try man applesingle in the command line.) Stuffit Deluxe 8 or similar should run under OS X fine (may need a higher version for x86 Intel processors without Rosetta) or just use the Stuffit Expander if decoding is all that is needed, but the DropStuff app can encode into BinHex and create self-extracting archives, if need be.


The popular multi-extractor application Unarchiver can decode BinHex encoded files. Support for MacBinary files is lacking.


Linux

For Linux, uudeview (xdeview has a X11 GUI thingy for uudeview) should work fine, like uudeview -i resedit213.hqx; or macutils for Debian based distros is another option (search for the man pages online, or better, this page). From a Debian command prompt in the Terminal, you can run sudo apt-get install uudeview xdeview to install uudeview and xdeview: simply type xdeview in the command line to start up the X11 app. Also there are emulators that are compatible with Linux, although you'll most likely have to compile the program from source code manually. Mini vMac should work fine; as most computers who run Linux can also run Windows natively, the Windows Mac emulators may offer more stability. Do be advised that uudeview cannot encode as BinHex, so something else will have to be used to encode, like an emulator.
uudeview and xdeview in operation

megatron is a package that comes with a Netatalk install. It's mostly for encoding or converting from the BinHex 4.0, AppleSingle or MacBinary into either AppleDouble or MacBinary. It can't encode a BinHex file like macutils can.


Microsoft Windows

For regular file encoding and decoding on a Windows platform specifically for Mac purposes, the most sane method is to use an emulator. Mini vMac, Basilisk II or SheepShaver are all suitable and should work without any significant issues. Furthermore, the emulator can be used for other purposes as well.


Otherwise, there are various applications for Windows that can encode and decode BinHex files, such as this port of uudeview from the UNIX world (can't encode as BinHex though), Stuffit Expander can decode BinHex and should work with MacBinary files; word is that Stuffit Deluxe (according to this page) can encode and decode MacBinary along with BinHex, plus WinZip says it can decode BinHex. Generally speaking, an emulator is simply more convenient and won't corrupt any metadata or resource forks. Some caution is suggested with the Windows world on this subject because some programs could be less than savory...Anyways most of the software for this task is going to be somewhat dated because in modern times BinHex or MacBinary encoding isn't really needed to the same degree anymore as it once was.


Emergency Network Access Disks


The NAD is a bootable floppy disk that contains the essential elements to network via AFP or FTP services in case of hard drive or operating system failure. The real star of this show is System 6, because its compact footprint makes it just the perfect solution for bootable floppies. However this is not possible with all systems of this era. Technically, the System 6.0.8 System Startup disk already is a Network Access disk, as it has AppleShare 2.0 on it and can hookup to a LocalTalk server. However it doesn't support EtherTalk or have any other essentials like a screensaver, MacPPP, ZTerm, or the like. Certain Mac OS Install CDs such as the Mac OS 8 Install CD already have AppleShare on them and have bundled Ethernet drivers in the boot CD's System Folder.


Pre-System 6

Unless a hard drive is available, i.e. HD20 or a SCSI HDD, or a Zip drive, floppy disks are the only storage method, so these are naturally network access disks. Still, it's a good idea to make one specifically for networking with all the requisite tools on hand in case of need. An example is shown to the right, with System 3.3/Finder 5.4 loaded on a 800KiB HFS disk, but a 512K could just as easily use an external drive to accomplish the same thing. Make a number of duplicates and image the disk on a compatible machine in case of failures.

System 6

The procedure to create a System 6 NAD is best conducted in a System 7 system by using either a RAM disk directory or a virtual floppy disk (Disk Copy 6.3.3, ShrinkWrap 2.1, et al) and installing a minimal install for the Mac in question. Universal builds of System 6 can also work, though it just depends on whether the target machine has a 800KiB or a 1.44MB drive.


After the basic System software has been installed, the remainder is AppleShare WS 3.5 (76KiB versus 44KiB of WS 2.0 installed from System 6's installer) and the relevant Ethernet drivers. A basic screensaver is a recommended addition. 6.0.8L consumes slightly more space on disk than 6.0.8 but all the Macs that could boot 6.0.8L had 1.44MB drives so that is not a problem. For 1.44MB drives, copying RAMDisk+ 2.01 and a self-extracting archive of Fetch 2.1.2 is a good idea, and there should be enough space for a Universal build of System 6. For Macs with 800KiB drives, a minimal install and a screensaver is enough to fit on a 800KiB disk, and a companion disk with RAMDisk+ 2.01 and Fetch should be sufficient. Use the RAM disk (2MiB capacity should be plenty) to free up the floppy drive for other tasks and speed up the whole process.
An example 6.0.8 NAD

A full-featured Universal build of System 6 on 800KiB disks is also possible (but a minimal install for the target Mac is a better idea). In this configuration, a regular install of System 6 is used, but a minifinder is a requirement, such as FaberFinder. First the primary disk is loaded and the minifinder is loaded (System 5 and earlier had a minifinder that could be plucked out of the System Folder). The minifinder loads RAMDisk+ 2.01 from a second floppy, wherein the second floppy has just System and the regular Finder on it to make it bootable. RAMDisk+ then copies the entire contents of the second floppy into RAM, and finally returns to the minifinder. Then opening the Finder on the RAM disk hot-swaps the boot volume to a regular Finder. The final step is to copy all the networking and relevant CDEVs and INITs from the first floppy disk (if a INIT or CDEV wasn't present when the machine was booted, it won't load) to the RAM disk's System Folder. Use MacPPP for systems that don't have Ethernet support.



RAM disk as primary volume with a 1.44MB boot floppy
Minimal builds for AFP and FTP (for LCII)
Accessing 10.2.8 from 800KiB with FaberFinder
Full-blown from two 800KiB disks with RAM disk on primary
Macintosh Classic reserve network access volume in RAM

Both the Macintosh Classic and Classic II have a hidden reserve OS in ROM. Hold down Command + Option/alt + X + O (not zero) and then turn the power on. As it has the AppleShare client data loaded, it will be able to access AppleShare networks over the serial port. There is no space inside the RAM disk to copy anything, but at least it allows some network access and as such, it is possible to run DC 4.2 off a network volume and write out any floppy disks as needed, then hot-swapped into a proper volume. (The image shown is with the OS hot-swapped to the internal hard drive, since screenshots cannot be packed into the RAM disk. The network volume was mounted before the hot-swap process was executed. The Brightness CDEV looks different than the one shown.) There are no other programs or data on the RAM disk other than the contents of the System Folder, as shown.


Why every computer since 1993 or so hasn't had this similar feature built in is a complete mystery, since it is fully possible to run a Linux install off a single floppy disk, so how much harder could it be to pack a simple GUI mini OS with an FTP server and client, RS232 terminal shell and some other basic necessities inside 8MB of ROM?


System 7 and 7.1

System 7.1 consumes slightly more space on disk than 7.0, but is still possible. Basic testing revealed that 7.0 (on a SE/30 and LCII) works without any tweaking required, though the free space on the disk is quite limited. 7.1 required the use of this utility to strip the System files to a size that allowed it to fit with like 4KiB free on the disk. System 7.0 with a minimal install as used here had about 7KiB free. There are a few minifinders that can help free up space if need be, though they may have limitations that may or may not be acceptable.


The Disk Tools disks can be of use in the search for lightweight binaries. For instance, a regular Finder might be 450K, but the Lite Finder might be 230K. Every single KiB counts. For a start, Finder and System are the obvious requirements, which eat up about 1MiB total. AppleShare, EtherTalk Phase 2, and the Network control panel are the necessary components for AFP over Ethernet.


SE/30 with 7.0.1 NAD to 7.6.1

On machines with 800KiB disk drives, it might be possible to build a System 7 NAD, but it is very unlikely: Gamba has done this compact version of 7.0 that fits on a 800KiB floppy (at 642KiB System) with some free space, but there is most likely zero networking accessibility of any kind. The problem is that the disk image is corrupted, but an alternative can also work (but it only works on an SE, Plus or Classic). The limitations of such a system can be rather extreme -- this avenue should only be explored for a challenge (amusement?) or for very specialized purposes. But the real pincher is that a minifinder is required, you can't hotswap boot volumes like System 6 and one floppy drive alone with 7.0/7.1 is a rather distasteful concept for this subject. Certain Macs like the Color Classic require a System Enabler to use 7.1 -- this can be a slight problem. But there is also a Minimal System Enabler on some of the 7.1 Disk Tools disks. For a minifinder, try looking at Substitute 1.5 or 1.6, available from umich.edu's Macintosh archive, or use FaberFinder with the ResEdit hack described in the ReadMe. Gamba does describe a few minifinders on a page that should offer some ideas.


System 7.5 and higher

Apple's 7.5NAD is a model for this section but the problem is that there is no 7.5.3 PPC version available. Most of the 603e Macs wanted 7.5.3 minimum and the 7.5NAD will not work. The other problem is that most of the Macs that can boot this disk can use something else which doesn't take so long to load up. But it can work fine regardless and is a good disk image to have on hand, provided it is applicable to the machines in question.


Otherwise, building a custom 7.5.3NAD is pretty much a high-level exercise requiring arcane knowledge of the System resources, although it could be compared back-to-back with the 7.5NAD using ResCompare and ResEdit. The first major problem with this endeavor is that 7.5.3 introduced a lot of changes, the second is that the 7.5NAD uses resource compression, which is uncompressed into RAM when the disk is loaded. The LZRes utility can sort of do this as well but this is a fairly involved subject which will require loads of time and experimentation.


7.6NAD-RAM on a 2300cTB

Certain Macs can use RAM disks through the Memory control panel which unlike other RAM disk programs is persistent through reboots (but not Shut Downs, unless the checkbox to save the contents to disk is marked). Thus, the first step is to make a minimal install of 7.5.3 through the Installer for a floppy disk (or use the Disk Tools disks, which is even easier, just trash the unneeded apps, there might be enough room to add System Picker as well), adding Memory and Startup Disk control panels. Then create a new installation folder with the minimal 7.5.3 installation folder with the bare minimum networking (use MacTCP), which should take up less than 10MiB on disk. Earlier Macs which have the RAM disk feature that will run 7.1 should use 7.1 instead. For 7.6, there is no option for "Minimal install for this Macintosh", only "Minimal install for any Macintosh" which gobbles up a healthy 6.5MiB on disk by itself, not to mention you are stuck with OT. Use the Disk Tools disks for 7.6 and up, then modify the contents so the Memory and Startup Disk control panels are included.


Create the RAM disk, reboot, copy the minimal networking startup disk folder (from either a CD or segmented compressed floppy disk parts: may need to copy the modified Disk Tools disk to the RAM disk and reboot that way first so the floppy drive is freed up, then use System Picker to select between them) and then use Startup Disk to boot into the RAM disk. Macs with less than 20MiB of memory may have major problems with this technique (see the image above, as the System eats up about 8MiB) and building a custom bootable HFS CD is a better idea for CD-ROM drive equipped Macs. In this manner, a CD-ROM disk could hold loads of recovery tools and a full System Folder (AppleShare cannot operate on locked disks: try experimenting with the Mac OS Install CDs that do have AppleShare working on a locked disc, such as the Mac OS 8 Install CD with its ASC 3.7.4 and OT 1.3. 7.6's CD doesn't have an equivalent networking suite built in) with a minimal networking System Folder on the disk that just has to be copied onto the RAM disk. 7.6 and above require OpenTransport for TCP/IP services and cannot work with MacTCP: if disk space is limited, then you might have to settle for LocalTalk only; alternatively, use ZTerm or pseudo-PPP dialup. Gamba has cooked up an interesting SuperBooter 7.5 disk which has JCRemote on it but JCRemote can only talk to other JCRemote-enabled computers, not AppleShare servers.


Using Mac OS X's Personal Web Server


Mac OS X includes a version of Apache Web Server software, which is open source and freeware, which makes it popular for light duty server purposes and also means that Apache is a frequent target of hackers. This will be just a quick word toss-up to get you going on a simple web page (Hello World! references aside, which could be done with an Arduino microcontroller and an Ethernet solution) to serve as a simple file server for a local area network.


A more modern HTML language would be based on XHTML or HTML5, but HTML 2.0 and 3.2 were common back in the the days of classic Macs. (Email lists, too.) Because we want to keep the load speed down and are just tossing up a file list, we don't need JavaScript, because...we don't need that. Or CSS, interpreted as Cascading Style Sheet, which basically describes common elements in the document like the background color or picture, the primary font, font size, table proportions and so on. The CSS for this page can be read by downloading the entire page, which should include the images folder, index.html (main document) and style.css. Open style.css in a text editor like WordPad, gedit or TextEdit to see all the lovely details. It is also perfectly possible to open index.html in TextEdit and see all the HTML code that generates tables, headings, line breaks, designates code boxes, images, hyperlinks, and so on (this is actually a very simple webpage, with no cookies, scripting, Flash or other embedded elements).


Personal website accessed locally
(still slow to load on this Duo 230/100)

BBCode works pretty much the same thing as HTML code, and WikiCode isn't that far off, either.


First time prospective web developers should first look at simple web page sources (like this one) or other HTML4 sites and get a decent WYSIWYG HTML editor, like Kompozer; there are more free options for Windows than Mac OS X. (Safari 5 has a handy set of web dev tools and inspector, but it's no replacement for a full on professional suite like Adobe Dreamweaver CS). But because we're going to just toss up a simple example, we'll just code it all by hand.


One way of using something like this is to keep a "hidden" page on a home server, such as a Linux box that is serving a home web server, although this section would be quite redundant if that was the case (not to mention the possibility of a security weakness). After some time and experience under the collar you can then just edit it raw in a text editor and keep a browser page open. Save the changes in the editor, then reload the page in the browser.


Full operation displayed

Open TextEdit. Head to the TextEdit menu and choose Preferences. Select the Plain Text radio button. Deselect the Wrap to Page button, if it is checked. Disable the toggle that adds ".txt" to text files (which is what this one will be, but not of the same type as a text file). In 10.4, for instance, the document can be saved as HTML 4.0 Strict for instance, if that is desired. Tick the "Ignore rich text commands in HTML files" box. Enter the following text into the editor, except the comment text that starts with "//" and is red aka C style:

<!DOCTYPE html> // Declares the document type to be of HTML <html> // Creates the HTML main body <body> // Creates the main text body <h2>Local File Server</h2><br> // First heading <a href="files/example.txt">file1</a><br> // Begin file list. Use "<br>" as a carriage return <a href="files/coolsong.mp3">file2</a> </body> // Begin closing up the division tags </html>

Save the file into the home folder, in the the Sites directory as "index.html". Create a new folder in the Sites folder, called "files". Dump the files into that folder, or if you just want to test the concept, then try tossing some random text files in there, just edit the code correctly. For additional directories and subdirectories, simply edit the path for the file in the index.html source file. For instance, a file named "bolo.sit" located in the directory path of ~/icecube/Sites/files/Backup/Classic\ Mac/, the line in the HTML source would look like this:

<a href="files/Backup/Classic%20Mac/bolo.sit">Bolo.sit</a>

Here is a list of the various ways characters are expressed in HTML code. There are many ways to tweak this and adjust it, but as this is just a proof of concept demonstration and not a full on HTML book, it should suffice.


Open System Preferences. Click Sharing, then enable the Personal Web Sharing function. Observe the address it states for accessing the server, then head to the other computer(s). Open a browser and type in the address it states for the Personal Website, as shown in image below, it is http://www.192.168.2.101/~icecube/. In our test case of iCab, the rendered page is visible, so the only thing left to do is click and hold onto the link to bring up a menu to download the item. (The address displayed in System Preferences is the connection method that has valid Internet access, but because the Duo 230/100 is accessing the host computer via Ethernet, the internal IP address for Ethernet was used. The Duo is not on the same router as the Internet gateway.)



Downloading in iCab 2.9.9

Obviously this could be expanded to a full server page accessible from the the WWW, but that is beyond the scope of this Guide as it is primarily

concerned with LAN networks.


Now that the method for manual page generation has been explained, we can try the easy route. Assuming that Personal Web Sharing is on, head to the ~/[your username]/Sites folder. Remove "index.html" from the folder. Now whenever a user types out, for instance, http://192.168.2.101/~icecube/, the Directory Listing is produced. This is automatically updated each time the page is reloaded, so the administrator can drop files in there and pull it out the other end without having to edit any HTML source code. The Directory Listing is on by default in the Apache Web Server. On our test machine, the page took about ten seconds to load in iCab; slower than a manually generated page, but easier to use. (Speed isn't why we're using these machines are we?) As long as there isn't a webpage document called "index.html", "index.htm" (or index.php if PHP is used, or just plain "index.*", * meaning anything; it can be renamed to something else like mainindex.html), the Directory Listing will be presented.


Using the Directory Listing

This method can also be used to import photos into iOS based devices without using iTunes.


Data Transfer Rates


These figures are from actual usage. Individual numbers may vary slightly. Nearly all numbers are calculated by using a known file size and a stopwatch, started from the moment the mouse button was released or the Enter key was pressed until the point where the file was obviously "done", or the file appears on the target computer, including time to update the folder contents (only really counts with LocalTalk). 10BASE-T is supposed to provide a 10Mbps (1250KiB/sec) throughput, but 100BASE-T blows it out of the water in comparison. This calculator was used to crunch the numbers. This table is only meant to serve as a representation of possible average transfer rates and it doesn't mean that equivalent results will apply to all situations. For the floppy disk speed tests, the sizes in KiB were divided by 1024 (i.e. 720/1024 = 0.703125MiB). Definition of 400KiB: 0.390625MiB; 720KiB: 0.703125MiB; 800KiB: 0.78125MiB. Figures were rounded up, so 0.3969812Mbps would become 0.397Mbps for clarity purposes.


For the tests here, all the tests are with typically a single binary file, called sequential write or read operations. Writing a bunch of small files (like 4KiB and less) may end up taking longer because the unit has to jump to different sectors all over the disk.


The "downlink" is equivalent of a FTP get download and the "uplink" is the equivalent of the FTP put upload command. The basic hardware specifications follow below:



Host / Server Client / Peer Protocol / Method Downlink: Client from Host Uplink: Client to Host
LCII 7.0.1 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP over Ethernet 10BASE-T 100.8KiB/sec, 0.806Mbps 48.6KiB/sec, 0.389Mbps
Mac mini 10.4.11 SE/30 7.5.5 AFP over Ethernet 10BASE-T 201.2KiB/sec, 1.61Mbps 266.6KiB/sec, 2.13Mbps
Mac mini 10.4.11 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP over Ethernet 10BASE-T 398.8KiB/sec, 3.19Mbps 463.4KiB/sec, 3.71Mbps
E500 Win 2K Server Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP over Ethernet 10BASE-T 434.0KiB/sec, 3.47Mbps 456.7KiB/sec, 3.65Mbps
Mac mini Netatalk 2.1.6 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP over Ethernet 10BASE-T 437.7KiB/sec, 3.50Mbps 37.8KiB/sec, 0.302Mbps Slow!
iMac G4 9.2.2 IIci 6.0.8, 7.1

Rocket #1: 7.1 w/Rocket
Rocket #2: 6.0.8 w/Rocket		 AFP over Ethernet 100BASE-T 635.1KiB/s, 5.08Mbps SSW 6
207.5KiB/sec, 1.66Mbps SSW 7.1
332.7KiB/s, 2.66Mbps Rocket #1
866.5KiB/sec, 6.93Mbps Rocket #2		 401.4KiB/s, 3.21Mbps SSW 6
170.7KiB/sec, 1.37Mbps SSW 7.1
256.7KiB/s, 2.05Mbps Rocket #1
605.6KiB/sec, 4.84Mbps Rocket #2
E500 Win 2K Server Mac mini 10.4.11 AFP over Ethernet 100BASE-T 10882.5KiB/sec, 10.63MiB/sec, 87.1Mbps 10317.4KiB/sec, 10.08MiB/sec, 82.5Mbps
Mac mini Netatalk 2.1.6 iMac G4 10.2.8 AFP over Ethernet 100BASE-T 8033.9KiB/sec, 7.85MiB/sec, 64.3Mbps 9143.2KiB/sec, 8.93MiB/sec, 73.1Mbps
iMac G4 10.4.11 Mac mini 10.5.8 AFP over Ethernet 100BASE-T 10516.0KiB/sec, 10.27MiB/sec, 84.1Mbps 10005.6KiB/sec, 9.77MiB/sec, 80.0Mbps
X200 Ubuntu 10.04.4LTS Mac mini 10.5.8 AFP over a cross-over cable, Gigabit Ethernet 1000BASE-T 29054.0KiB/sec, 28.4MiB/sec, 232Mbps (varies)
RAM Disk: 84509.2KiB/sec, 82.5MiB/sec, 676.1Mbps		 26362.2KiB/sec, 25.7MiB/sec, 210Mbps
RAM Disk: 91151.5KiB/sec, 89.0MiB/sec, 729.2Mbps
X200 Windows XP SP3 Mac mini 10.5.8 SMB over a cross-over cable, Gigabit Ethernet 1000BASE-T 35271.5KiB/sec, 34.4MiB/sec, 282Mbps 21490.5KiB/sec, 21.0MiB/sec, 172Mbps
iMac G4 10.4.11 IIci with Rocket 33 7.1 Built-in FTP Server/Fetch 2.1.2 100BASE-T 47.1KiB/sec, 0.377Mbps 32.1KiB/sec, 0.256Mbps
iMac G4 10.4.11 Mac mini 10.5.8 Built-in FTP Server/Terminal 100BASE-T 10893.4KiB/sec, 10.64MiB/sec, 87.1Mbps 8754.9KiB/sec, 8.55MiB/sec, 70.0Mbps
E500 Win 2K Server Mac mini 10.5.8 Built-in FTP Server/FileZilla 100BASE-T 8529.3KiB/sec, 8.33MiB/sec, 68.2Mbps 11070.0KiB/sec, 10.81MiB/sec, 88.6Mbps
Mac mini 10.5.8 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 Built-in FTP Server/Fetch 2.1.2 10BASE-T 85.2KiB/sec, 0.681Mbps 128.3KiB/sec, 1.03Mbps
E500 Win 2K Server Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 Built-in FTP Server/Fetch 2.1.2 10BASE-T 89.7KiB/sec, 0.717Mbps 130.1KiB/sec, 1.04Mbps
Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 Mac mini 10.5.8 NetPresenz 4.1/FileZilla Client 10BASE-T 99.1KiB/sec, 0.792Mbps 75.9KiB/sec, 0.607Mbps
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu FTP server Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 Fetch 2.1.2/1.5Mbps DSL 10BASE-T 48.4KiB/sec, 0.387Mbps Unknown (cannot be determined)
The Internet SE/30, Duo 2300cTB iCab 2.9.9, 10Mbps Comcast Cable 10BASE-T 66KiB/sec, 0.52Mbps maximum, 50KiB/sec average Cannot be calculated
Mac mini Netatalk 2.1.6 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP Bridge 230Kbps 20.11KiB/sec, 0.161Mbps 17.24KiB/sec, 0.138Mbps
E500 Win 2K Server Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP Bridge 230Kbps 20.25KiB/sec, 0.162Mbps 18.10KiB/sec, 0.144Mbps
Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 iMac G4 10.2.8 AFP Bridge 230Kbps 10.20KiB/sec, 0.082Mbps 17.60KiB/sec, 0.141Mbps
iMac G4 9.2.2 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 AFP Bridge 230Kbps 20.21KiB/sec, 0.162Mbps 18.06KiB/sec, 0.144Mbps
IIci 7.1 512K (via RAMDisk) S3.3/F5.4 LocalTalk Direct 230Kbps 7.5KiB/sec, 0.060Mbps 6.1KiB/sec, 0.049Mbps
LCII 7.0.1 Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 LocalTalk Direct 230Kbps 9.16KiB/sec, 0.073Mbps 14.5KiB/sec, 0.116Mbps
iMac G410.2.8 PowerBook 170 7.1 Farallon EtherWave Mac/PB adapter via AFP 44.5KiB/sec, 0.356Mbps 42.5KiB/sec, 0.340Mbps
E500Ubuntu 9.10 Quadra 700 7.1
(results close to IIci)		 Farallon EtherWave Mac/PB adapter via AFP 65.5KiB/sec, 0.524Mbps 65.8KiB/sec, 0.526Mbps
iMac G410.2.8 IIci 6.0.8 Farallon EtherWave Mac/PB adapter via local FTP 29.7KiB/sec, 0.238Mbps 29.5KiB/sec, 0.236Mbps
Mac mini 10.5.8 E500 Windows 2000 SP4 ZTerm 1.2 / HyperTerminal at 115200bps 11.08KiB/sec, 0.089Mbps 10.91KiB/sec, 0.087Mbps
iMac G410.4.11 LC 7.0.1 Pseudo-PPP Dialup, 38400bps
(Built-in FTP Server, Fetch 2.1.2)		 2.73KiB/sec, 0.0218Mbps 2.05KiB/sec, 0.0164Mbps
IIci7.0.1 512Ke S1.1, F1.1g MacTerminal 1.1 at 19200bps with XModem, XOn/XOff; ZTerm 0.9 0.488KiB/sec, 0.004Mbps 0.875KiB/sec, 0.007Mbps
E500 Windows 2000 SP4 ThinkPad R31 Win 2000 Direct Parallel Port (4-bit) with FTP 4Mbps 52.5KiB/sec, 0.420Mbps 70.6KiB/sec, 0.564Mbps
Host Method Read data from media Write data to media
512K SSW 2.01 (S4.1, F5.5)
Macintosh IIci 6.0.8
iMac G410.4.11
iMac G4 10.4.11
PowerMac G3/266 9.0.4
Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1
iMac C2D 2.66GHz 10.6
IIci 6.0.8
iMac G4 10.4.11
X200 Ubuntu 10.04.4LTS
X200 Windows XP SP3
T420 Linux Mint 17.1 x64
iMac G4 10.4.11
Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1
iMac G4 9.2.2
X200 Ubuntu 10.04.4LTS
 HD20 Hard Drive (floppy port) (1)
Internal SCSI Hard Drive (2)
Internal IDE Hard Drive (3)
Internal CD-ROM/DVD-RW Drive, Pioneer DVR-104 (4)
Internal Zip100 Drive Module (5)
Compact Flash IDE Adapter (6)
Imitation LS-120 SuperDISK (7)
SCSI Zip 100 Drive (8)
USB 2.0 Flash Drive, USB 1.1 host (9)
USB 2.0 Flash Drive (typical) (10)
USB 2.0 Hard Drive (11)
mSATA 80GB SSD (12)
FireWire 800 Hard Drive on FireWire 400 interface (13)
RAM Disk: Duplicate file on RAM disk (3.9MiB) (14)
RAM Disk: Duplicate file on RAM disk (113.4MiB) (14)
RAM Disk: Duplicate file on RAM disk (2.2GiB) (14)
 25.1KiB/sec, 0.201Mbps
635.1KiB/sec, 5.08Mbps
13791.2KiB/sec, 13.5MiB/s, 110.3Mbps
2288.6KiB/sec, 2.23MiB/sec, 18.3Mbps
1043.6KiB/sec, 1.02MiB/sec, 8.35Mbps
937.9KiB/sec, 7.5Mbps
465KiB/sec, 3.72Mbps
637.1KiB/sec, 5.10Mbps
832.5KiB/sec, 6.66Mbps
21730KiB/sec, 21.2MiB/sec, 173.8Mbps
28284KiB/sec, 27.6MiB/sec, 226Mbps
322475.2KiB/sec, 314.9MiB/s, 2579Mbps
35467KiB/sec, 34.6MiB/sec, 284Mbps
2170.4KiB/sec, 2.11MiB/sec, 17.4Mbps
45537.9KiB/sec, 44.5MiB/s, 364.3Mbps
885641KiB/sec, 864.9MiB/s, 7085Mbps
 17.1KiB/sec, 0.137Mbps
306.0KiB/sec, 2.45Mbps
14849.3KiB/sec, 14.5MiB/s, 118.8Mbps
1112.1KiB/sec, 1.09MiB/sec, 8.9Mbps
545.3KiB/sec, 4.36Mbps
918KiB/sec, 7.34Mbps
180KiB/sec, 1.44Mbps
239.2KiB/sec, 1.91Mbps
655.4KiB/sec, 5.24Mbps
9826.9KiB/sec, 9.60MiB/sec, 78.6Mbps
24824KiB/sec, 24.2MiB/sec, 199Mbps
139380.9KiB/s, 136.1MiB/s, 1115Mbps
29434KiB/sec, 28.7MiB/sec, 235.5Mbps
Host Method Imaging (Reading disk to image file) Writing (Writing image file to disk)
Mac mini 10.5.8 Samsung SFD-321U/EP USB floppy drive with $ dd 1.44MB HFS: 13.0KiB/sec, 0.104Mbps, 1:53.29s
720KiB FAT12: 8.86KiB/sec, 0.071Mbps, 1:21.23s		 1.44MB HFS: 7.56KiB/sec, 0.061Mbps, 3:14.98s
720KiB FAT12: 5.00KiB/sec, 0.040Mbps, 2:23.79s
E500 Win 2000 Pro SP4 Standard internal floppy drive using RawWrite (1.44MB) and OmniFlop (for 720KiB) 1.44MB HFS: 33.3KiB/sec, 0.267Mbps, 0:44.23s
720KiB FAT12: 14.4KiB/sec, 0.116Mbps, 0:49.85s		 1.44MB HFS: 33.8KiB/sec, 0.271Mbps, 0:43.59s
720KiB FAT12: 14.4KiB/sec, 0.116Mbps, 0:49.87s
Duo 2300cTB 7.6.1 Standard external floppy drive using Disk Copy 4.2 1.44MB HFS: 29.5KiB/sec, 0.236Mbps, 0:50.06s
800KiB HFS: 15.9KiB/sec, 0.127Mbps, 0:50.46s
720KiB FAT12: 22.7KiB/sec, 0.182Mbps, 0:31.71s
400KiB MFS: 12.8KiB/sec, 0.103Mbps, 0:31.14s		 1.44MB HFS: 18.0KiB/sec, 0.144Mbps, 1:21.87s
800KiB HFS: 15.0KiB/sec, 0.120Mbps, 0:53.50s
720KiB FAT12: 17.0KiB/sec, 0.136Mbps, 0:42.26s
400KiB MFS: 13.0KiB/sec, 0.104Mbps, 0:30.84s
512K System Software 2.0
OS was hosted on the opposing drive to isolate it from the copying process		 Internal 400KiB drive, 800KiB external, 35KiB file via RAM disk 400KiB MFS: 5.93KiB/sec, 0.047Mbps, 0:05.9s
800KiB HFS: 6.73KiB/sec, 0.054Mbps, 0:05.2s		 400KiB MFS: 3.37KiB/sec, 0.027Mbps, 0:10.4s
800KiB HFS: 4.73KiB/sec, 0.038Mbps, 0:07.4s

Footnotes:


Amiga Networking


The curious Amiga platform does not support AFP based networking. A vintage card was produced called the PPS DoubleTalk which supported AFP and LocalTalk with RJ-11 PhoneNET style ports; but it is a fair chance those would be fairly hard to find these days and would command a hefty premium if it was available for market.


Thus, the most pragmatic option is via Ethernet, or over serial ports. Ethernet was not available on all Amiga computers, thusly a bridge Amiga with onboard Ethernet is the best option. For a serial port, you will have to build your own or find one that is compatible, likely to a DE-9 configuration. As the author lacks any Amiga hardware of any sort, the easiest plan for this case is to inquire further at a forum portal.


If a connection can be established via Ethernet (which has its own peculiarities relating to the TCP stacks and drivers), then the options are FTP networking or TCP/IP based file transfer, such as creating a personal LAN web server (as demonstrated earlier with Mac OS X's built in web server) and pulling files down. Even better would be to provide an upload method for bi-directional file access. Initial inquires did not reveal any particular FTP options available. One such avenue is SneakerNet, aka physical media like CDs with CDFS, Zip disks, CompactFlash media, and so forth.


One route is to use a Mac emulator like Basilisk II (requires AmigaOS 3.x) and use SLIRP over the Amiga's TCP stack. Different TCP stacks are available depending on what is compiled for the system platform. Another method is Novell's Netware, as apparently there is a 680x0 native software binary available for cross-platform options. In any case, networking outside of the Amiga framework can be a pretty rough experience. There may also be application to application level file transfer, but any specifics or details are outside the scope of this Guide.


Apple II Networking


As far as Ethernet goes for the II platform, the Uther card is practically the only card available. Originally there was supposed to be an official Ethernet card but the plan was unfortunately scrapped. Sad, really.


Owners of a Uther card should have all the materials to make it work available, including the Contiki OS. Otherwise, there are no publicly available Ethernet options available. The only options remaining are SneakerNet and serial data.


As far as SneakerNet goes, a LC-class machine with a IIe card and a 5.25" disk drive can solve that problem. The IIGS and the IIc+ have 3.5" drives, so that eases the difficulty somewhat. There are driver cards for running 3.5" drives on other machines. The Mac will have to have a 1.44MB drive and PC Exchange to handle ProDOS format disks.


For AppleTalk, only the IIe Enhanced and the IIGS are compatible. The IIe Enhanced uses the IIe Workstation Card to provide a pair of mini-DIN 8 ports while the IIGS comes with these built in on the back of the machine. From there, PhoneNET to AppleShare Server 2, 3 or Netatalk enabled Linux computers running as servers is possible. A SE/30 could be useful in this case as a bridge machine, running AppleShare Server 3 and an Ethernet card: there are provisions in AppleShare 2 and 3 for netbooting a IIGS (use the updated Apple II setup disks here for Server 3, the name to look for is Apple_II_Setup_Disk_2.2.sea.bin) plus a properly compiled version of Netatalk can do this as well. The II+, IIc and other models are not compatible with AppleTalk networking protocols or software -- thus, SneakerNet or terminal (i.e. VT100 terminal shell) transfer software is practically the only method. Be advised that the Apple IIGS uses AppleTalk Phase 1, not Phase 2.


Most of this information was gleaned this link and should be able to offer more information. A LocalTalk to Ethernet AFP bridge like a Farallon iPrint LT or similar might work okay with a IIe or IIGS. Don't miss out on this software -- though it is only for Windows machines. It can handle Apple II disk images outside of an Apple II. Also there is the A2SERVER project for the Raspberry Pi that runs a minimized version of Linux which has Netatalk 2.2.4 on it. Some hobbyists have made custom serial data transfer hardware using microcontrollers or other logic chips, so that is one avenue. There is of course, the well-known ADTPro software, too.


To netboot the IIGS with a Linux machine, the Netatalk package must be compiled (or recompiled and reinstalled) with the --enable-a2boot flag. This article on this page talks about how to do it in general terms. One change the author noted was the path of the a2boot daemon was not as the page indicated, but it was rather /usr/local/sbin/a2boot, so the paths will have to be changed to suite (search for the file location on your end) in the /etc/init.d/netatalk config file; also the author didn't need to copy the a2boot daemon, either, as it was already installed and copied. (See the author's version: however, it has not been tested.) There's also an options:prodos for AppleVolumes.default: see the man page. Also this interesting discussion concerning Mac OS X running a Netatalk server is quite informative.


A Word About Emulators


There are three nominal emulators of Mac OS "Classic" available: Mini vMac, Basilisk II, and SheepShaver.


Mini vMac by its default distribution emulates a Macintosh Plus. It's fairly workable and flexible for running System 6 for dealing with MFS on computers that don't speak MFS at all. The home page is easy enough to understand and follow. Try to install on to a 80MiB or 120MiB volume to allow for expansion.


You can get other versions of Mini vMac, such as the 512Ke or Macintosh II but the Plus is standard -- the only real problem is the 4MiB RAM ceiling, followed by zero networking of any kind, but there has been some progress on LocalTalk support. There's also a binary of Mini vMac for OS 8/9 and a slew of binaries for other platforms like the PocketPC.
Mini vMac in use (10.5, Intel Mac mini)

Those who wish to compile Mini vMac in Linux may have to install the build-essential, libx11-dev, and libxext-dev libraries from the respective repositories (at least for Ubuntu). Sound doesn't work in Linux because the developer has too much difficulty getting it to work reliably across the wide span of Linux distros.


No emulator is able to perfectly match the original hardware and Mini vMac is no exception. However, it does work acceptably and the speed control is a very useful tool. It is a good emulator to keep on hand, even if it's not really needed. For transfer in and out of the emulated environment, one method (assuming OS X) is to use a blank disk image (the .dsk images can also have their type changed to dimg and creator to ddsk to mount with DC 6.3.3). Extract the image, rename the extension to .dmg, mount on the desktop. Copy the files over, unmount it, then drag the .dmg into Mini vMac. Because of this simple transfer method it is ideal for preparing DC 4.2 disk images ready to be $ dd'd under OS X, but caution must be exercised to unmount the transfer volume before it is mounted on the other system because it will get corrupted or damaged. Otherwise, you'll need ExportFl and ImportFl: ExportFl calls out a Save prompt which requests the destination to "save the file", while ImportFl makes used of Mini vMac's
OS 9.2.2 with Mini vMac (3.2.3)

drag and drop interface to import a file. Raw binary files and BinHex 4.0 encoded files are both workable. It is not possible to drag & drop DC 6.1.2+ NDIF "Read-Only Compressed" images. For some reason, it was observed that DC 6.3.3 wouldn't start in 7.0.1 with Tune-Up 1.1.1, 7.1 or 7.1 with Update 3.0. It complained about the inability to start the disk image driver. Plain jane 7.0.1 works though, or apparently DC 6.1.2 (from another internet report).


To reduce headaches caused by chicken and egg problems, make sure to install Stuffit Deluxe 4.0, BinHex 4.0, PackIt, Compact Pro, ResEdit 2.1.3, ShrinkWrap 2.1 and Disk Copy 6.3.3 to handle any inputs. (Disk Copy 4.2 won't be of much use, however.) A dual-bootable System 6 and System 7 platform allows for additional flexibility.


Basilisk II and SheepShaver are fairly similar. Neither has the speed control function of Mini vMac, so they run at full-tilt off the host system, but they can run in the background, unlike Mini vMac and have color support (although there is a beta version of Mini vMac as a 68020 Mac II, but it's not under active development). Basilisk II has a rather poorly (X11 look) designed preferences editor, but it works nonetheless. SheepShaver is a more reliable alternative unless there is something specific that Basilisk II suits the best. Most games will work fine in either


Basilisk II under Windows 7

emulator but there are always going to be games like Oxyd which will not work in any emulator. The management of disk images, decompressing .sit archives, binhexing and so forth is great in SheepShaver but Mini vMac can do that too, up to a point (that 4MiB RAM thing again) although Basilisk II is fine. Both Basilisk II and SheepShaver can connect out to the Internet through SLIRP and apparently it is possible to network out with it via AppleTalk, although this has not been personally tested. Make sure to add the ROM file into the path field for the ROM file before setting the system type drop-down menu, lest it will crash.


Based on this, an emulator of some kind could be useful in emergency purposes or just reliving the antiquated experience without the bother of maintaining the hardware, if all the components work without crashing or corrupting on a regular basis. Make sure to keep backups of the emulator boot disk images. (All testing was done on a 2.16GHz Core Duo (T2600) Mac mini with 2GiB RAM. PowerPC machines running SheepShaver or Basilisk II may suffer performance problems, especially the former.)


In OS X 10.0 through 10.4, PowerPC processors can use the Classic Environment. It is more of a integrated virtual machine because it is tied to the OS X kernel. When it boots up, it looks like the image to the right but once it has started up then it ties in to the standard menu bar and becomes more like an application rather than the more popular image of a virtual machine. There are many applications for which it ought to work fine but generally


Classic starting up (iMac G4 800MHz)

speaking there are also a lot that don't work well in it and are simply better served by a real OS 9 capable machine.


In the image to the lower right, HyperCard is one example of a program that works well in Classic, but GopherGolf is ... it can work but when the player hits the ball, the motion isn't drawn very well and is kind of kludgy. Other games like Age of Empires: Rise of Rome are also "workable" but only just. Most of the full-screen games like Factory or Ultimate Pool will be okay, but games like Bolo or Frog Xing which run in a dedicated window usually work better. Try to use Carbon compatible applications (such as EV Nova, Bushfire, and so on) which are compatible with OS X natively, or reboot into OS 9 for most cases. Early System 6-era programs (such as Microsoft Works 2.0, Word 1.0, ...) and games like Airborne! and Banzai! are not compatible with the Classic Environment and can crash the virtual machine; but the host operating system is usually fine after such an event.



Classic Environment demo

For Intel based CPU Macs, the Rosetta emulation interface is included from Mac OS X 10.4.4 (the first public Intel release, for the iMac 1.83GHz T2400 17" display: but have a look at this prototype) to 10.6 for running PPC applications: Macs that started showing up with first generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors cannot boot 10.6 and thus this area relates to the older Core Solo (yawn), Core Duo and Core 2 Duo series machines. It works alright in most cases and like Classic Emulation, there can be hiccups here and there but generally speaking most application binaries for OS X work fine as such. Apple did a fairly reasonable effort with Classic Emulation and Rosetta, although eventually the sun sets on those kinds of implementations. Intel Macs cannot run the Classic Emulation mode. (Guess all that work porting Mac OS to Intel machines was in vain. Sad, really. Then again, if they had only made the Mac mini G4 bootable with OS 9.2.2 and early versions of OS X like Jaguar, it would be the perfect PPC Mac to keep around for gaming and things like that.) Unlike the Classic Environment on PPC machines, the Rosetta emulation is transparent to the user and there is no "booting of the emulated machine". Applications simply open as if they were Intel native and just work -- or they crash horribly and unpredictably. Usually really old OS X apps that date back to the Puma (10.1) or Jaguar (10.2) days are the most troublesome, or have the highest risk of unexpected behavior. Back up data often. Odd tidbits: 10.5 Leopard was the first Universal OS X installer (10.4 had PPC and x86 versions); all the G3s topped out at 10.4.11. The G4 and G5 machines max out at 10.4.11 or 10.5.8 -- although there are ways around these limitations, to a degree.


Download Town


All disk images are binhexed for transport security against corruption and loss of type/creator data and are Disk Copy 4.2 disk images, unless otherwise described. See the previous sections about data encoding and disk images for processing. Choose "Save as..." if your browser doesn't work with download links directly. It appears that System 3.2/Finder 5.3 is the minimum to open CompactPro self-extracting archives. All have been triple-checked for integrity and inspected with Disinfectant. Note: Some disks may have blank or generic icons for the content therein. This is a function of the way the Desktop file is handled when working with disk images created virtually. Because the risk of bad media, most disk images provided here (such as the SSW6 NAD disk images) were created virtually. Rebuild the desktop file if needed to rectify this issue.


A text file with a MD5 checksum of every file is provided here. The checksums of that file are (copied directly from Terminal.app):

iglooLF4:~/Desktop igloo$ md5 ChecksumDownloadTown.txt MD5 (ChecksumDownloadTown.txt) = c7059a1332f746233ae35152b31e67cf iglooLF4:~/Desktop igloo$ openssl sha1 ChecksumDownloadTown.txt SHA1(ChecksumDownloadTown.txt)= 17e5406181c0b5c971b742e66695678ffdce09f9

To compute the MD5 checksums, older Macs can use this utility. Mac OS X can use the command line, like md5 'AS Client 3.7.4.image.hqx', and Linux does it similarly with md5sum 'AS Client 3.7.4.image.hqx'. Windows boxes can use FCIV from Microsoft, or other utilities around the web. Run the MD5 tool against the raw download, as demonstrated, rather than the decoded or decompressed output.


Item Comments
AppleShare WS 1.1 for the 512K and 512Ke 400KiB MFS AppleShare 1.1 WS installer and System 3.3/Finder 5.4 with the HD20 INIT
AppleShare WS 1.1 for the SE, II and Plus 800KiB AppleShare 1.1 WS installer and a basic System 4.1/Finder 5.5 system folder
AppleShare WS 2.0.1 for the 512Ke only 800KiB AppleShare 2.0.1 WS installer and a basic System 3.4/Finder 6.1 boot folder
AppleShare WS 2.0.1 for the SE, II and Plus 800KiB AppleShare 2.0.1 WS installer and a basic System 6.0, Finder 6.1 boot folder
AppleShare Workstation 3.5 1.44MB AppleShare Workstation 3.5 installer, no boot folder. System 6 to System 7.5.1. 7.5.2 ought to use WS 3.6.5
AppleShare Client 3.7.4 1.44MB AppleShare Client 3.7.4 for English only (no International options). 7.5.3 to 7.5.5 compatible
AppleShare Client 3.8.3 1.44MB AppleShare Client 3.8.3 installer for 7.6 and higher. English only version
Network Software Installer 1.4.5 1.44MB NSI 1.4.5 for System 6 only
Network Software Installer 1.5.1 1.44MB NSI 1.5.1 for System 7/7.1. Not used for 7.5+
OpenTransport 1.3 Installer disks: 1, 2, 3 and 4 1.44MB OT 1.3 installers: Disk 1 and 2 for 68K only, all four for PPC. 7.5.3 or higher up to 8.1 (8.5 uses OT 2.0)
Farallon driver disks for Farallon cards or adapters:

Version 2.2.1: 800KiB original, 1.44MB adapted
Version 2.2.2: 800KiB original, 1.44MB adapted
Ethernet installers with some testing/diagnostic software. Not bootable. Not for CommSlot Ethernet cards. May not work in 7.5.3+ or with OT software. Mainly for System 6, 7 and 7.1
AsanteTalk Driver Installer disk 1.44MB Driver version 5.6.1 for Asante EtherTalk products
Newer Technologies UltraDock and MicroDock Ethernet driver 1.44MB Ethernet installers with some testing/diagnostic software. Not bootable
GatorBox Software 800KiB, DiskDoubler Archives
GatorBox User's Guide
Cayman Systems Network Reference
Setting up your GatorBox		 For the Cayman Systems GatorBox (original and CS model). Software sourced from Scott Alfter's blog. First two PDF manuals supplied by BPR of vintage-computer.com forums, and converted to legacy Acrobat format with OCR processing using Acrobat X Pro by markyb of thinkclassic.org. Setting up your GatorBox provided by roughana of the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup and processed by markyb
Mac OS 8/9 FTDI and Prolific RS232 drivers
Keyspan Serial Drivers		 Prolific PL2303H/X driver (v. 1.3.6b1); FTDI "FT8U232" (v. 1.0f4)
Keyspan drivers: v.2.4 and 2.5 for OS X, v.1.9, 2.1 and 2.1b4 for OS 8/9. Last set in a MacBinary archive (because .hqx wasn't working)
Anubis SCSI Utility Software1.44MB Version 3.04f
CD-ROM Toolkit1.44MB FWB CD-ROM software. Version 3.0.2c
StarCommand 2.2.1800KiB For a Farallon StarConnector AUI to RJ45 Ethernet adapter. StarCommand control program, ReadMe, basic System 6.0.5 boot folder
Samsung SFD-321U/EP USB floppy driver for Windows 98 and up. Alternate driver Use the "wxpinitialsfd-321" driver for Windows XP and up
System 6 Zip Diskette1.44MB Minimal install of System 6.0.8 for any Mac, RAMDisk+ 2.01, Iomega Zip 4.2 Driver. For just the driver alone, use this instead. If you need Lido 7.56, scroll down for one of the SSW6 HDD disks. Meant to be used with a RAM disk of about 3MiB. 4MiB of RAM highly recommended
MacTerminal Package MacTerminal 1.1 (400KiB MFS), MacTerminal 2.2 (800KiB), MacTerminal 2.3.1 (800KiB), and MacTerminal 3.0 (800KiB, 1.44MB). Version 1.1 comes on a System 1.1, Finder 1.1g OS; version 2.2 comes on a System 3.2, Finder 5.3 OS (See note below: not an original disk); 2.3.1 and 3.0 are not bootable
System Software 0.3/0.5 Terminal Client Disk400KiB MFS System 2.0/Finder 4.1, MacTerminal 2.2, PackIt 1.0, BinHex 4.0, MockWrite DA, 128K Disk Copy, BootConfigure. Designed for a 128K or 512K, second FDD highly suggested. Finder Info 1.1.1 won't run on a 512K, so it is not included. If you need to change type & creator, use an emulator to unpack, convert, repackage and transmit over the serial ports
Disk Copy Package Disk Copy 6.4, 6.5b13 and Disk Copy 6 Scripts. All are packed into a BinHex 4.0 encoded self-extracting Compact Pro archive
System 7 Addons 1.44MB CFM-68K 4.0, Macintosh Drag & Drop (not full folder), Thread Manager 2.0.1, Stuffit Expander 4.0.1, DropStuff with EE 4.0.1 installer. You'll need your own serial for EE. Caution: Make sure a good bootable floppy is on hand in case CFM-68K or Thread Manager is incompatible with your system
Network Extras 1 1.44MB AppDisk 1.6.1, BinHex 4.0, DART 1.5.3 folder, Fedit 3.5, Fedit Plus, BootConfigure, ResEdit 1.0D7, Font/DA Mover 3.8, Finder Info 1.1.1, MacBinary 1.0.1, MacBinary II+ 1.0.2, MacPPP 2.0.1, MacTCPWatcher, CD Sunrise INIT (CD driver for System 6), NCSA Telnet 2.7b4-68K
Network Extras 2 1.44MB Mount Everything 1.1.1, MacLynx-b1 (self extracting archive)
Network Extras 3 1.44MB ZTerm .9, FreePPP 2.6, MacTCP 2.0.6 and 2.1 with 2.1 updater
Network Extras 4 1.44MB Disk Copy 4.2, Disk Copy 6.3.3, ResEdit 2.1.3, ShrinkWrap 2.1, System Picker 1.0b10
Network Extras 5 1.44MB 1430K free, Apple CD-ROM extension, Bomb Shelter, Compact Pro, Desktop Manager (System 6), FaberFinder, Flex, MODE32 1.2 and 7.5, NetPresenz 4.1 (bare basics), PC Exchange 1.0.4 (for 7.0/7.1) with Prefs file, RamDisk+ 3.24a, RamBunctious 1.5, System Picker 1.1a3, System 7 minimal install builder, WindowShade 1.2, and the minifinder from pre-System 6 OSes. Use the Installer (v3.4) from a 7.1 Install Disk 1, the Installer (v3.2) from 7.0.1 can also work, though v.3.4 is preferred
System Software 2.01 (System 4.1, Finder 5.5) 800KiB Three .hqx'd images: System Tools and Utilities 1 and 2
System Software 5.1 (System 4.3, Finder 6.0) 800KiB Two .hqx'd images, System Tools 1 and 2
System 7.1 800KiB, 1.44MB System 7.1 on Disk Copy 4.2 images. Converted with Disk Copy 6.3.3. Use an emulator to extract the data if needed. Not for Macs that require special 7.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2 or 7.1P versions. Install disk, 800KiB version is not a bootable disk
Mac OS 8 on floppy disks 1.44MB 27 install floppies and two Disk Tools disks: an upgrade to Mac OS 8.1 is strongly recommended. NDIF Read-Only Compressed format, as per the original
System 2.01 Network Access Disk800KiB System 2.01 (System 4.1, Finder 5.5), Flex, AppleShare WS 1.1, EasyShare Demo, BinHex 4.0, Disk Copy 4.2, PackIt 1.0, MacTerminal 2.2. Desk Accessories: Standard, plus MockWrite, File Tools and Gifwatcher. For a 512Ke, Plus, II or SE
System 6 Emergency Network Access Disks:
6.0.8 1.44MB, 6.0.8L 1.44MB, companion 1.44MB. Should boot any compatible System 6 capable Mac with a 1.44MB drive.		 System 6.0.8 or 6.0.8L, MacPPP 2.0.1, MacTCP 2.1, After Dark 2.0x (6.0.8), Flex (6.0.8L), on the companion disk there is Fetch 2.1.2, RamDisk+ 2.01, ZTerm 0.9, Lunatic Fringe.sea (After Dark module game), TeachText for System 6, Mt. Everything 1.1.1, MacPPP readme and instructions. Use the System 2.01 NAD for a SE, II, Plus or 512Ke instead of System 6: IIx and SE FDHD excepted
Hard Disk Repair Disks: 1.44MB and 800KiB 1.44MB version has Lido 7.56, HD SC 7.5.3 patched, Disk First Aid, RamDisk+ 2.01, System 6.0.8 with LocalTalk capabilities, Mt. Everything 1.1.1 and Flex. 800KiB version has Disk First Aid, HD SC 7.5.3 patched, Lido 7.56, bare System 6.0.8 and Flex
Macintosh SE/30 Schematics Apple and BOMARC schematics in .gif and .png images. Also see this image for help recapping the motherboard
MacTerminal 3.0 Manual
Disk Copy 6.1.2 Manual
PhoneNET Manual
Copy II PC Deluxe Option Board Manual
DART 1.5 Manual
Flash-It 3.0.2 Manual		 PDF format. DART 1.5 PDF conversion was facilitated inside a custom version of Mini vMac II which ran at 1024x768. Screenshots were captured (DocViewer format, in System 6, no other OS would work), converted to PNG, cropped to 547x685 and then passed to Adobe Acrobat X Pro. PNG to PDF conversion by markyb at thinkclassic.org. All artifacts and other errors are exactly as per the original. Flash-It manual conversion by mcdermd at thinkclassic.org
Bolo Archive Comprehensive archive including Bolo, map editors, over 2000 maps, utilities and useful HTML page dumps. Stuffit Deluxe 4.0 self-extracting archive (CompactPro is limited to 1500 items)
Converted Manuals Converted formats of: ZTerm .9, PackIt, Flex 3.0, MacBinary 1.0.1 in TEXT documents. Fedit 3.0 partial documentation is in .RTF. EasyShare Demo documentation in PDF. There is also this file which has EasyShare Demo.cwk, the RS232 adapter image in the AppleWorks project file and the SE/30 capacitor image .cwk project file
Eject Extras This is for certain Macs like the iMac G4 and PowerMac G3 which don't have a physical Eject key on the keyboard. Fetched from the iMac G4 700/800MHz OS 9 Install CD
Mac SECRETS 2nd Edition Diskettes1.44MB Disk images of the three disks that come with the Mac SECRETS 2nd Ed. book. All are freeware or shareware, some require registration. Of those mentioned in the book, only DiskTop specifies a code of 12578, although you can probably use any number. Included are: AppDisk; Applicon; AreaCodeFinder; Before Dark; Bitstream Fonts; Color Coordinator; Color It!; CP DriveLight; CP Undelete; Disinfectant; DiskTop; Extensions Manager; Flash-It; Kaboom! sounds; Label Secrets; MacMan Pro; MenuChoice; MultiClip Lite; Olduvai Fonts & Sounds; Open-wide; PopChar; Power to Go; PwrSwitcher; QuickDEX; Remember?; ResEdit; SCSIProbe; SmartKeys; Speed Disk; Sunset Screen Saver; SuperClock; System 7 Pack; TempoEZ; TypeIt4Me; WYSIWIG Menus; and ZTerm. Start by mounting all disk images with something like Disk Copy 6.3.3, then start with SECRETS Disk 1's Installer to pick which ones you want. They will be copied to a folder on your hard drive
Snooper v.2.01.44MB System profiling and diagnostic testing software
Windows 98SE Setup Disk1.44MB This is the boot floppy used for Windows 98SE system software. It creates a RAM Disk where it stores certain programs like FORMAT.COM. NDIF image format. Created from within the Add/Remove Programs panel from within the Control Panels, imaged with $ dd. MS-DOS version 4.10.2222
DBAN 1.0.71.44MB A bootable Linux floppy disk with DBAN, a SCSI, IDE and ATA disk wiper. This the last version that was available on a floppy disk and came before the 2012 acquisition by a company. Requires an x86 CPU, either 32 or 64 bit. Will not work on x86 Macintosh computers (at least a Mac mini 2006 didn't work with it). NDIF image format, imaged via $ dd. Note that DBAN doesn't do "Secure Erase" whereby certain protected, restricted or hidden areas of the disk are wiped, so try something else for 100% through disk wiping

Concerning MacTerminal 2.2: This was a real exercise because getting a real disk in the wild is nearly impossible. A 68kmla member provided a MacTerminal 2.2 disk which was corrupted and not bootable, with System 3.2/Finder 5.3, based on the creation dates. The provided disk was based on making a modified version of the System 3.2/Finder 5.3 for the 512Ke series, then copying in the MacTerminal data and making it "presentable". This provided copy is not an original and should not presented as an original copy of a MacTerminal 2.2 master disk.


Notes for the NADs: For the 1.44MB versions, load the first disk, start up RamDisk+ 2.01 (may need the Companion disk) and make it the active boot volume. Next, install any Ethernet drivers onto the first boot disk itself with the NSI 1.4.5 install floppy, or something else like the Farallon or Asante disk. Reboot with the updated boot disk and the changes should be applied. Use the RAM disk to be the active boot volume, unload Fetch, or other tasks. Macs with less than 4MiB of RAM may feel the pinch here. Basically, the user updates the SSW6 NAD floppy with the NSI or other Ethernet driver as needed (because the NSI installs different drivers for different hardware), then boots up with the NAD disk again, runs RAMDisk+ to free the floppy drive, then loads additional programs from the Companion or another disk, if desired. It is possible to make a SSW6 800KiB NAD but that is an individual exercise because hardware arrangements vary widely.


Good Networking Games


The heyday of the classic Macintoshes simply overflowed with games. Some were good, some where mediocre, some were downright rubbish, but a small few were really good. Let's take a look at some of them that have faded into obscurity, been forgotten, or are left as fond memories of "the old days".


It must be stressed that many of these games are not as visually striking or realistic as modern games. But in the context of the day, they were as modern as it got. While they may be lacking in such areas, they can make up in the overall sense of "casual", "fun-loving", "plain and simplified" rather than "hard-charging", "industrial-strength" or "raw and unfiltered". Most of these games require color, about 8MiB of memory and some can run off a floppy disk.


Bolo

The original network strategy tank combat game. Enormously popular back in the day, and can still provide a hard challenge and heart-pounding action today. The game itself is about 252KiB, the sound file is about 522KiB, it should be possible to play it off a 800KiB disk. Each map weighs in between 4KiB and 16KiB, so a single floppy can hold a reasonable stack of maps. Each map is pretty much its own unique playing experience. For instance, the author downloaded Carl Osterwald's map archive (expired domain), which has approximately 3,700 items and adds up to about 25MiB. This means that a friend with a SE FDHD and the original 40MiB hard drive and System 6 and another Mac like a IIci could have enough maps to play ten maps per day for a year and still have some left over.


The game can run fine under OS X's Classic Mode, but it's better under genuine Classic OS. The best A.I. foe around is probably aIndy 3.1, which means that a user can run multiple copies of Bolo on one computer, set them


Bolo running on a SE/30

to aIndy control and play on another, or if it is powerful enough, on the same computer. Ally them together for an additional challenge. Networking remotely was originally accomplished via a Bolo Tracker, but the number of games in deployment is so infrequent that it is not worth the time to bother. Better is to hook some friends into the game and play LAN games, with aIndy filling in a couple of slots. A valuable tool for this game is BMAPEdit 4.0, which allows full-blown map editing WYSIWYG style. Color works a lot better on this game for faster detection of hostile pillboxes and enemy bases, identifying allied versus hostile tanks, and so forth. Eye strain is reduced dramatically with color -- and an optical rodent input works much better than a ball-equipped mouse. The game also plays acceptably on emulators, aside from Mini vMac which is a little spotty. According to the read-me, it works on A/UX too (most likely A/UX 3.x).


A note about this game was that it was so popular that it even got its own dedicated newsgroup back in the day: rec.games.bolo. One link for this game is Stuart Chesire's page here. The LGM site host has gone down (use the WayBack Machine), but the game can be obtained from the Macintosh Garden. The Info-Mac archive does have some Bolo content but is not comprehensive. Modern ports such as WinBolo, NuBulo and there might be a Linux clone do not come close to the original (with its bugs like the pill massage trick serving as useful bonuses). Once the beginner robes are discarded and pill-takes are mastered the real heart of the game opens up -- strategy. Certainly a worthy game of the times, being easy to learn and difficult to master.


Super Maze Wars

An enticing title that features 3D graphics, it is a maze-based tank game. Attack enemies either via A.I. or human players. You will want at least four players in the game to get some action going.


Available from the Macintosh Garden, it also has customizable mazes and parameters. May have speed control problems on faster machines or via emulation, as it relies on hardware timers to keep the pace correct. Playable under greyscale but best with color. Make sure to read the manual.


Oxyd

If there was a convenient measure of an individual's competence with a mouse (or trackball) and puzzle-solving skills, there is one such game that can joust for the title: Oxyd. The original version supported networking via serial ports (two player mode), and the subsequent versions like Per.Oxyd, Oxyd Magnum! and Oxyd Extra added more maps and challenges to warp the brain and test the hand. Requires two colors (black and white) or 16 colors, but 256 color mode works too. Better bet is to use a 640x480 display (any bigger won't help) and color. Black and white (and greyscale) is brutal on the eyes for extended intervals.


The original Oxyd version requires that you purchase a rather humorous Oxyd book to obtain the level codes. These books pop up on eBay infrequently. Try checking ebay.de, as Dongleware was a German company. The other version has been cracked and does not need codes. There also may be a certain Oxyd Book that was scanned and uploaded to a certain defunct file sharing site...


Oxyd 3.9 (SheepShaver)

The game itself is simple in idea, simple in execution, but sophisticated in the puzzle department. Certainly, a game that can prove its worth. At the Macintosh Garden, Oxyd and Per Oxyd are uncracked, though Magnum and Extra! are. This game is also very difficult to capture screenshots on and doesn't play nice with emulators -- not even the Classic Environment. With Mini vMac, the game won't even run; and under SheepShaver, the ball control is heavily distorted, making it impossible to control (Basilisk II is as per SheepShaver). There are PC versions of each but they have to run under DOS and have a lower graphics quality -- plus it throws a fit if a serial (RS232, not PS/2 or USB!) mouse is not installed -- use Cute Mouse to get around that problem. A Linux clone called Enigma is around, which also has OS X and Windows ports. This is the sort of game for the patient puzzle lovers who are looking for a challenge. There's also a version for the Atari ST and Amiga series. Note that the Oxyd Book is specific for each version -- there's one each for the original, another one for Oxyd Extra!, then yet another one for Oxyd Magnum! and finally the last one for Per.Oxyd. (There was also an Oxyd Magnum Gold Edition, which had an additional 20 levels. Then there's Oxyd 2.0, but...) The original Oxyd version and the Per.Oxyd version are the only (Mac) versions which support "Link-Local" two-player mode (serial port, AppleTalk); the Magnum and Extra! have a pseudo-two-player mode.



Bolo game in progress (color is better)
Super Maze Wars
Dogfight City
Armor Alley

Dogfight City

An easy going, simple flight combat simulator. It runs fine on a IIfx, and can run in PPC Native mode on a PowerPC machine. It requires 256 colors to run. While it is not very sophisticated like Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0, it can make do with some good dogfighting action and doesn't have the complications of modern sims.


The forerunner to SkyFighters, it does make for a good entry level flight simulator for younger types. Those who are timid to dogfighting make take solace in knowing the Spitfire is the fastest plane and the one with the highest service ceiling...Expert players who get bored easily can try landing on the sandbar on the north end of the island map, or on one of the pinnacles in the desert map. (Pity that SF1945 w/MB for OS X is no longer available.)


You can find this antiquated flight sim at the Macintosh Garden. Skyfighters is also available there, and is networkable, but is a mediocre simulator by even older standards (Even BF1942 flies better...).
Dogfight City

Armor Alley

A solid two dimensional combat game, it runs well under System 6, but under an intense 4-player LAN network, color and a faster machine are better specifications. The campaign is a little challenge that should be a suitable warm up to multiplayer play, but once it gets to the third or fourth level on Armageddon difficulty, it gets a little over the top. It is available from the Macintosh Garden. It supports B&W, 16 greys or colors or 256 greys or colors. Also released for the PC which runs under DOS. This game does some form of serial number checking over the network. Oh, and all those serial numbers with that start with "EX" will not work...at least not for the Mac version...


Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The specs for the Classic Mac binary list a 180MHz 603e as the minimum requirements, but a solid G3 (500MHz or more) or G4 is a better suggestion. It is a turn-based futuristic game much like the Civilization series.


The game is fairly broad in depth, and should the original seven factions be not enough, there is the Alien Crossfire expansion, or various third-party factions. The depth allows individual unit customization, various methods of victory, some interesting scenarios, many ways of empire growth, and so on.


Deeper down, it's the kind of game that suits well to micro-managers (the Builders fit into this category exceedingly well) because there are so many details to be concerned with. But it is a good game because of the extensive depth, replayability, and variety of options in just about everything from politics, economics, warfare, and technology (transcendence). The manual and extensive online articles are essentially a requirement: it's one of those games where players never quite learn it all.
Alpha Centauri

Most players play against the A.I. or by PBEM (Play By Email). IP games are quite infrequent, and the Mac version requires NetSprocket 1.7, so thusly there is a way to do it in OS 9, but the PC version should be more favorable in the networking department (because nobody plays it on Mac anymore). Because it's a turn-based game, PBEM is preferable because other players have to wait while each one executes his turn, which can take a while. The Classic variant requires the CD to be inserted during play (sigh), while the OS X Carbon app does not: but the Carbon app won't work under OS 9. Rosetta emulation of this game does work okay but personal experience indicated that the game can crash when trying to load a save game file from within the game -- to get around this, open the save file from the Finder.


External Links of Interest


Apple KB articles

AppleShare Limitations
File System Specifications and Terms
AppleShare: Platforms and Mac OS Releases Support
Mac OS X Tiger: Connection error with AFP
System 7.x: Limitations on Use of 400KiB Disks
System 7.1 Compatibilities versus 7.0
Software Downloads: Formats and common error messages
System 7 FAQ
PC Exchange Information
AppleShare IP 5.0 Information

Floppy disk articles

Using a PC with Mac floppies
Disk Copy 4.2 spec: important for 400/800KiB disks
Some insight into 400/800KiB disks
Floppy disks into the 21st century
Nerdy articles concerning floppy disks (more links within)

Unsorted articles and links

Binary or ASCII File Transfer Mode for FTP
Passive versus Active Mode FTP
Useful System 6 information and downloads
Clones, browser tips, The Crack a Mac Story, followed by another article here with more.
A to Z Index of the OS X command lines
Mac System Software FAQ
Apple Macintosh Before System 7
General FAQ
68K Mac HTTP Disk (System 7)
Using a Shared OS X Printer
Older Mac Internet Connection Sharing
Older Mac System Software and TCP/IP
Web browsers for antique Macs, home page is here; this page has screen diagnosis.
Macintosh SSW FAQ
Various Peer to Peer networking details
Info-Mac Archive
Early Mac OS details (Pre System 6)
Many Classic OS downloads (Download area)
MacTCP notes (1.4.1)
More MacTCP notes (TidBITS) (Contents)
A good story, and another one here.
More Classic Mac internet links

Possible Questions



What is the best Mac to use as a bridge? Probably a PowerMac G3, like the early 300MHz Outrigger or Minitower. Built-in FDD and DVD drive, GeoPort for LocalTalk, built-in Ethernet, and can boot into OS X. You can even get USB PCI cards for those things, along with accelerators. Avoid Road Apples like the plague. It also depends or not if you need to work with MFS on a regular basis -- an SE/30, IIci, or other System 6 native machine with power and expandability are ideal. The issues with the PM G3 however are: poor quality construction, slow CPU, slow bus, and slow Ethernet (only 10BASE-T).
Do I need MacTCP Admin? No. Under the 2.1 upgrade, the 2.0.6 Admin shows a 2.1 interface and "Protected" checkbox. No idea what it does.
How come the width of the page is fixed? It doesn't scale properly with the feature to increase text size in my browser. XGA displays. There are still a lot of them out there. It was planned to make it more compatible with widescreen displays, but this was abandoned because the present model got entrenched, so to say.
How much time did it take you to write this? No idea. Wouldn't want to know. Updating to v.2.0 took a day and a half just to re-write and re-order everything. Making it Wiki-ready took a lot of time, then redoing it in HTML took even longer. Redoing all the code for to make it work as a separate page took even longer. Early efforts used WYSIWYG HTML editors. Nowadays a text editor (TextEdit or Notepad++) is used to edit the source and previewed in Firefox. Each regular update costs a couple of hours at least, sometimes an entire day, and is a result of minor to major tweaks over a period of a month. The version 3.0 update took about a combined total of a month's work and the final version 3.2 about a year.
What's "Simple Ethereal bi-directional reliable cross-platform self-configuring secure wireless network"?
Can I at least use email clients with OS 9? Yes, there are some out there that could work. Mainly the feasibility leans heavily on the provider; word is that Earthlink has a non-SSL service available.
What does "ZM" mean in Apple's download page? Multi-country, part of a language localization indicator.
Why can't I adjust MacTCP preferences in 7.5.5? Turning on Open Transport hides all Classic Networking control panels and replaces them with Open Transport compatible ones.
Are those trackballs useful? The billiard ball sized ones are excellent, as they are comfortable, easy and intuitive to use, and don't consume much desk space. You just have to use your fingers to rotate the ball around. The ones used with the PB 1xx series are fine for what they are used for. Now the Duo sized ones are manipulated with the index finger and are not unusable, but are a little small. Certainly better than early trackpads, however. The usual cleaning needs typical of ball mice apply as well. One hot idea is to get an optically guided mouse (if it doesn't need the unique ball for increased accuracy) and put clear translucent billiard ball in its place. Use an RGB LED driven by a microcontroller or the like to either mimic a mood lamp, or tie the color to the ball activity, or use your imagination/creativity.
Can I use the Classic emulator in OS X to communicate via LocalTalk or old versions of AppleShare? The Classic emulator's networking is routed through the kernel, so any networking interfacing that cannot be handled natively by OS X won't work under the emulator. OS X doesn't support LocalTalk, either.
What is the "Phase 2" thing on about? Is there a Phase 1 or 3 or stuff like that? The Phase 1 was the the first model of EtherTalk and it's something you'd find on something on the really old versions of AppleShare. It doesn't support zones other than one and a number of other limitations, such as the number of nodes. Feel free to read up more on this subject.
Can LocalTalk to Ethernet adapters work over routers to connect to newer machines?
Sure. A test of a Farallon iPrint LT did work, as shown here. "catfaceBPM" is a iBook G3 900MHz under 9.2.2, and "icecubeW0A" is a Mac mini running 10.4.11.

You still won't be able to connect to it over FTP, though. These adapters only work with AFP over AppleTalk,
Chooser view (Duo 230, SSW 7.1)
and anything higher than 10.2.8 is in the dust.
Can I pluck out the ShareWay IP extension out of Mac OS 9.2 and put it into 7.5? Testing and ResEdit hacking revealed a solid answer of: No. Some reports indicated that it MIGHT have been possible in the past but too little information is out there and any individuals with the know-how on how to do it have long since moved on.
Help! I have no keyboard but I still need to access some local networks! How do I do it? First, MacTCP can be set up first on a computer with a keyboard and the MacTCP application, Prep and DNR (DNR is more or less optional) and then drop it into the target System Folder. Use Key Caps to copy text out and paste it into various places. Better is to get another Mac to mount the troubled Mac and edit the required names directly. Some dialog boxes may not comply all the time (particularly with System 6) or simply not work (like password fields). Use Guest access to grease the wheels. It's possible, just harder.
Where can I find the Ethernet driver for my card? The internet is about all there is, unless a driver diskette came with it. If the card in question doesn't work automatically with the default EtherTalk drivers, then you will have to hunt down a driver for it. Worst case, write your own, or buy a different one that does work.
How come you can mount some CDs and hard drives I can't? The Mac OS can only mount volumes that it understands (and the host operating can work with), like HFS, certain ISO formats, or with 7.5 and PC Exchange, FAT12. FTP can get around this limitation, although the host computer must still be able to read the disk in the first place.
Why did you do this? Personal need, and community service.
I see ZM-AppleShare WS 3.6.5 at the Apple download page. Can I use it? It requires 7.5.1 or later. You may be able to use it in place of AppleShare Client 3.7.4. However, 10.4 volumes are in the dark and will not be mountable.
Which ports does AFP run on? Typically 548, but also can be 427.
Can I apply the TCP Quantum hack on 10.5 and up? Sure, but it won't work like it does in 10.4.
Does FTP only use Port 21? ... Not really. See the previous section here ↩ for an explanation (passive vs. active FTP). So keep this in mind if you have a firewall or outgoing packet protection (such as LittleSnitch or GlowWorm).
I've seen some other people's TCP/IP control panels that look a little different than the one you're using. Is there some higher version or something?
You're probably talking about the Advanced User Mode, as seen here. It's not really needed unless you have special circumstances.

For instance, a Hosts file isn't needed with modern DNS services. The Search Domains are the purview of advanced users, as DHCP typically handles all that stuff server side. Access it from the Edit menu.
Advanced Mode
I can't take screenshots with Command + Shift + 3 anymore, all it does is beep at me. The reason has to do with memory. Sometimes using Flash-It 3.0.2 can get around the problem. Read the Flash-It 3.0.2 manual for details on why.
How come the pictures talking about 7.5 look like 7.0, from the Balloon Help menu? The one in 7.5+ disgusts the author, so a simple resource modification of the icn# resource in the System file fixes it, by copying and replacing it from the one from 7.0.
Can an iPad run off 3G with half an amp power supply, like off a computer USB host port? And how fast does 250MB of data go by? Hmmmm...A bit off topic, perhaps this is a former question that the author may have posed in the past...Anyway, absolutely. Personal testing running YouTube videos (1st gen iPad) with "Not Charging" showing and it ran just fine with no apparent battery draw. As for how fast 250MB goes by, well, a few YouTube videos, a couple of webpages, a speed test and 1/3 of that was gone within an hour. Still, a 3G model is good for having a digital compass and GPS, even if you don't use the 3G functions. A speed test was about 2.5MB; download rate varied from 4.69Mbps to 0.03Mbps (average about 1.5 to 2Mbps), uplink from 0Mbps to .24Mbps (average about .19 or so), and ping varied from 462ms to 142ms (average about 200ms).