Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk

Jerry, I only have a MacBook, but I understand that I can run Classic with SheepShank if I have a version of the system that isn't hardware dependent. That's v generous of you but I'm in Ireland, so if you're in the US it would be expensive (and slow). What about yousendit.com?

Grant, I seem to remember trying the telnet route before with no success. I can't remember why it didn't work, but the router (a different one then) simply wouldn't recognise it the printer and I was unable to change the IP address. I think I'd still like to try the Classic/Apple Printer Utility route, now that I've come this far.

Debbie

http://theappleblog.com/2009/09/04/how-to-resurrect-your-appletalk-printer-in-sn ow-leopard/

I think getting a box to convert USB/Parallel to Ethernet printing is a very suitable solution.

I'm still trying the Print Over IP option but still don't have a complete system to use Classic in, and Telnet isn't getting very far either - no idea what's wrong.

I don't need to convert USB/Parallel to Ethernet as it's already Ethernet. Unless I"m missing something.

gj
x

I purchased the cable from monoprice, but it is not producing any output on my LaserWriter Select 360 in Snow Leopard. Can you give more detail on how you configured it to work? Did you somehow get a driver off the included CD? Did you just let the System Preferences find the printer? Did you change it from "Generic Postscript" to the LS360 configs?

Any help would be appreciated.

1. Connect cable to Parallel Port on LS 360
2. Turn on the LaserWriter Select 360
3. Connect cable to a USB port on your Mac
4. Goto: System Preferences/Print & Fax
5. Click on Add Printer (+ sign at bottom of printer list)
6. In the printer list you should now see 'Prolific Technology Inc. IEEE-1284 Controller'
7. Select: Prolific Technology Inc. IEEE-1284 Controller USB
8. In Print Using select: Apple LaserWriter Select 360 v2013.112
9. Click ADD


Hope this helps,
Ed

Got it, thanks! I had done all that, but no go. On a whim I changed where the USB cable plugged in, and Bam it was working! Looks like one of the ports on my USB Hub was not performing at the level I expect from my electronic devices, so it's been removed from active duty with extreme predjudice! 🙂

Dana

I've been reading this thread for a while now and I'm confused. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?
I have a LaserWriter 4/600 PS which I have been using for years and now use with OS 10.5.8 with a Farallon iPrint adapter. Is there anyway to use this printer with Snow Leopard? I do not want to use a dedicated server for the printer. Is there some way to set it up so I can continue to use it? Thanks for any help!

I found no way to connect a Laser writer 4/600 PS to Snow Leopard. It's an AppleTalk-only printer and you must have AppleTalk to use it; it has no IP address or serial port. Netatalk won't work. I tried using Pacifist to install AppleTalk components from a 10.5.6 install disc - couldn't make it work. I tried a Parallels VM with Leopard Server guest operating system - it has AppleTalk, but cannot see or connect to any printer not seen by the host Snow Leopard operating system. I tried a VMWare fusion Leopard VM, but for that you must have a 64-bit CPU that I don't have. I do not like throwing out perfectly good equipment like the 4/600.

There are two awkward workarounds that I know of:
1) Use a second computer with Leopard installed as a print server.
2) Print "Save as .pdf" files, reboot into a Leopard installation on a separate partition, open and print the .pdf files with Preview.

In fact, this irritation along with the disappearance of Java SE 5.0 that is required by some of my quite recent but suddenly 'legacy' applications was enough for me. I restored my Leopard system from backup and happily have everything running sweetly again. Honestly, I didn't see enough improvement in Snow Leopard to make this 'upgrade' worthwhile in the end.

Regards

Hello,

I just managed to get my beloved LaserWriter Pro 630 back online and printing again under Snow Leopard. Here is the whole, very lengthy story. I hope this will others to get their stuff reused.

Well, I wont moan about the removal of the AppleTalk Protocol (which nevertheless served us well for a long time), but it was rather unclear how Apple meant to support the LaserWriter Pro 630 in Snow Leopard as mentioned here <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669#apple>.

Now, what is in the box? It is a Canon EX print engine, a Hardware PostScript Level 2 Interpreter and an Ethernet Printserver only capable to use EtherTalk as a means of transport. This box was built before the invention of WWW, so Web configuration and Internet Printing Protocol were unthinkable and TCP as transport layer was just pointless. So it was clear, that I had to forget about the Ethernet Apple Attachment Unit Interface and the logic behind that port. However I was willing to reuse the print engine and the PostScript engine inside.

How to connect to the PostScript Engine? There is a SCSI Interface, but that is not suitable for data transfer, only to store print and font data on an external disc (never used that and dont know anybody who did). The serial connector is just too slow to think about besides the protocol issues. So the Centronics parallel port was the way to go. Phew, thats PC style.

I looked out for Centronics print server on ebay and bought a widely used D-Link DP301+. Beware of this one. It has a severe design flaw. All these small form factor print servers lack an external reset button, so once configured, you cant reset it without usage of software. In this case, it is not only hard to find the IP adress configured on the device ( I did a nmap scan to achieve this), but it remains unaccessible without the proper password. The seller did not know it either. He said, it was a former friend of him who had configured it. Maybe the thing did not actually belong to him. I was happy to give it back.

Then I bought a Netgear PS101 which is also quite common, even smaller and from a company that I like anyway. It was a bit more expensive though. It was easier to set up. In case there were a password on the device you would need to have a windows machine available to run the software thats required for resetting, but at least there is such an option. I still think that a hardware button is better, because anybody who can connect to your network might gamble with the configuration of the device, but that is not an issue in a home network. The Netgear PS101 gets its IP address through DHCP, so you have to search your subnet only to find the web interface. There is not much to configure there.

Knowing the IP address of the print server, I was ready to go - I thought. I opened up Printers in system settings on my Mac and started to add a new printer. But what exactly to enter? choosing the IP tab was fairly obvious, but which protocol is right? The default LPD? The modern IPP? The proprietary but widely supported JetDirect? I knew there were open ports 9100 and 515 but quick search in /etc/services left me unclear as to which protocol these ports are related to.

I configured a printer for each of these protocols. I even tried to configure a windows printer, but that turned out to be impossible. All three printer connections showed up with a green light in the list on the left of printer settings, but with LPD and IPP, printing a page gave me a timeout after more then a minute. JetDirect however printed a lot of crap, indicating that there was PostScript code sent as expected, but as it probably was PostScript 3 sent to a PostScript 2 printer, this looked like the reason for spitting out sheet after sheet with little bit of crap on it.

It was not. I had overseen, that there is still one thing to configure on the printer. There is a very little wheel offering ten settings on the left rear top of the printer above all connectors. The LaserWriter Utility is not available any longer under Mac OS X and it is common use to turn of printing the configuration upon printer startup, so there was not means to find out the current settings.

Apple provides the old handbooks here: <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50128>. Oh, how ugly they are. They are barely readable, but there is nothing else available. Please try again conversion of old manuals, Apple! The important table in Appendix C took me about an hour to understand. The line numbers are missing and one had to find out that four lines make up a set of settings. Settings zero to five are fixed, so they are reliable. For parallel port however, only three different settings are of interest.

Settings one ant three interpret the data sent as raw PCL 4 which seems to fit JetDirect nicely, as both JetDirect and PCL are HP inventions afaik. Setting zero, two, four and most of the others provide PostScript over "normal" connection, whatever this means. This was my setting and it was obvious, that it was just plain wrong for printing with my Netgear printserver from Snow Leopard. Now, there is still mode nine which provides PostScript on the Centronics port over "BSP". Does that one hurt? No, definetly not.

I was happy enough that I had not changed configuration number nine some fifteen year ago when I got this printer. I tried setting zero, one and nine and had luck with setting nine. So my advice is, buy a Netgear PS101, plug it in, switch to setting nine and be happy. It appears to me as even a bit slower the before but that does not matter for me.

Another advantage that I have got through the printserver is, that I can now print by Airport. My WLAN basestation is a FritzBox, which did not support AppleTalk routing which would have been required for printing from the WiFi MacBook to the cable attached printer. I had always to plug in Ethernet for printing. In this case, the FritzBox acted as a switch only and did not interfere. Now, it acts as a DHCP server and does not interfere otherwise either.

I believe that Apple should have given some more hints as to what to keep in mind when choosing a printserver to revitalize old printers and also decode the settings table including explanation of now uncommon acronyms such as "normal" vs. "BSP" connection. I guess, that many people will throw away their old treasures before they find out, how to connect them, and that is why I took the time to explain it here. I hope it gets found by those who need it. So please copy if you like.

Christian Völker

I have read all the posts here, which has made for generally interesting or sometimes confusing reading, depending. I am soooooooo close to getting my 12/640 usable again, but: I cannot figure out the IP address of the printer. That's the hangup here. I have no way that I know of to get the thing to print a configuration page, because 1) it has no buttons on it except the power switch, and 2) I have no way to run OS 9 or Classic to get it to print a test page via the old Apple Printer Utility or whatever it was called. I believe that this issue of the missing IP address, which I think applies regardless of whether it's wired to the computer or to the (wireless) router, is the only thing keeping me from getting back on the laser trail.

How can I get the printer's IP address under these circumstances, and given my complete lack of money to buy anything more? As always my thanks in advance! Bill

Message was edited by: dsch

The only way I was able to accomplish this was dropping back to Classic and using the Printer Utility.

I believe the 'generic' IP address was 0.0.0.0, but I was not able to use that address with any success, prior to going the Classic/Printer Utility Route.

All I can suggest is an independent apple store that may have an old computer they could use to set an IP address for you, or finding someone with an older machine on which you can run Classic.

I was in exactly the same boat you are in prior to getting Classic running on my G5.

I've been following this, and despite people giving me other (incomprehensible) ways of trying this, the Classic option is the one I've been trying.

I have:

MacBook
Two WD external drives (USB)
Apple Laserwriter 8500 (ethernet)
Netopia Router (not currently connected to the printer but it's what I'm aiming for)
Mac OS 9.0.4 installation disc
Apple Printer Utility 68k and PPC versions
SheepShaver
Working ROM File

So today I finally got hold of a Mac OS that opens under SheepShaver - 9.0.4 (previous systems crashed on startup) so I'm getting further than I did before.

However, my MacBook won't startup from the CD, and it won't install on the MacBook OR the external drives.

As I said, SheepShaver will open it, but it won't open the Apple Printer Utility because it's not in the System Prefs.

Where do I go from here, please?

Thanks,

Debbie

Apple Printer Utility is a program, not a preference.

You can download it from apple.com support.

I know, and I did, but this is the error message I get: http://skitch.com/irishgirl/nbpat/sheepshaver

It's definitely the app that I have: http://skitch.com/irishgirl/nbp2b/apple-printer-utility-info

Any ideas about where it should go in order for SheepShaver to be able to open it?

Thanks,
D

No help on SheepShaver.

I booted into Classic on a G5, so I went the old-school route.