Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk

I now see why people don't get rid of old Macs, and wish I'd hung onto one. Sigh.

Anyone here who's used SheepShaver?

Thanks,

Debbie

Here is another possible way to look for the IP address of a printer, if one is already set up:


<This link was removed, please see [subsequent post|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10723303#10723303] for explanation.>
<Edited by Host>

I just thought of something. I have an external FW drive that is mostly empty right now. Could I create a partition on it and install OS 9, then boot the iMac in 9 from the FW drive? (I still have disc images of OS 9 and the updates to 9.2.2 on the main machine.) If so, then I could use the printer utility to do what I need...right? If this will work, how small could I make the partition?

Thanks again! Bill

If you have a G5 or lower/lesser processor iMac, yes, you can do that.

That's exactly what I did.

Loaded 9 on a FW Drive and Classic (and the Printer Utility).

Booted an iMac G5 to the FW drive.

Then went through the steps as previously outlined in this post.

I'm getting so close! Was making mistakes with SheepShaver but now have OS 9.0.4 installed and running (on a MacBook)! Also have Desktop Printer Utility working which it turns out is not the same thing as Apple Print Utility and I assume it's the former I need. But still can't work out how to change the IP address using it.

<<Here is another possible way to look for the IP address of a printer, if one is already set up:
Find local network devices using [special features of Terminal] ping >>

I'm trying this but haven't succeeded yet. Actually it doesn't seem to be showing up at all but I'm not sure. There are addresses on the startup page (Mac and IP) but neither showing up when I 'ping' (or 'arp') and they don't work when I try to verify printer from the DPU.

What's next?

Thanks,

Debbie

This is really weird.

The printer's Mac address does not show up in Terminal when I ping. The IP address on the printer's startup page isn't what it used to be (it was my network's and now is 0.0.0.0) without me ever changing it.

The Desktop Printer Utility won't even see the printer in Appletalk - nothing is showing up in Appletalk Zones - and I assume it should?

The printer is attached to the computer by the same cable that it's always had so it can't be that.

I'm stumped.

Debbie

Eureka! It's printing!

The printer wasn't showing up at all in anything - Terminal, Desktop Printer Utility or Apple Printer Utility, so I Googled "laserwriter not showing up in Apple Printer Utility" and found that somebody on another forum had had this problem (different printer, different Mac) but the printer had become visible when connected to the router, as opposed to the Mac. So, I connected it to the router and restarted it - and the IP address changed again, to a network address. I pinged (well 'arped') and that IP addess was now there against the printer's Mac address.

I put that IP address into the Desktop Printer Utility and hey presto, there it was. It didn't showed up in the Apple Printer Utility at any stage. Skipped back to OS X and successfully printed.

Many thanks to Jerry and others here.

------------------------

So for anyone else, here's my recap of what I did.

First of all I tried using Telnet to get to the printer, as per the manual for the 8500, but I couldn't get anywhere with that. I also tried the TCP/IP thing on a windows laptop, but that wouldn't work either. I don't have any other Macs so after a fair bit of Googling, decided that the SheepShaver/Classic emulator was the way to go.

I installed SheepShaver 2.3 because reports were that that version was stable. It crashes a lot but it's still better than 3 which crashed on startup every time. It wasn't intuitive to me, and I found two helpful guides: http://theappleblog.com/2006/07/01/classic-on-intel-macs-courtesy-of-sheepshaver / and http://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshavermac_os_xsetup which spelled out the obvious things such as the need to initialise the disc during SheepShaver Setup (sadly, not obvious to me).

You need a working ROM file. The catch 22 is that most ROM files need to be extracted - and that can only be done under Classic. If you google newworld86.rom you'll find a pre-extracted working ROM file.

Then you need a working system. I tried all the systems I have (all 8.x) but SheepShaver crashed on start up. Then I read that 7.5.3 up to 9.0.1 were acceptable but they have to be independent of hardware - all mine were PowerBook or iMac systems. Then I tried to download the only one that Apple provides free, 7.5.3, but couldn't combine it - the utility needs Classic. I put a call out for OS 8.5-9.0.4 on Freecycle and somebody came to my rescue, and today I got hold an installation disc of 9.0.4.

For the first time SheepShaver actually opened and stayed open. At this stage I wasted more time becuase I didn't realise I had to initialise the disc (I get scared when I see the word 'erase' and didn't take it all in). But following the instructions in the guides above, I finally got it. The original volume I created (as per the first set of instructions above) wasn't big enough to install the system which then crashed during installation, so I had to do it again. This time I created a volume of 500mb. Volume created, disc initialised, and the installation disc finally agreed to install Mac OS 9.0.4.

So now I had Classic running on the MacBook.

Next, I copied the Apple Printer Utility into a folder on the new disk. It still wouldn't open. In my googling I then discovered that the Desktop Printer Utility seemed as important, so I found that it had been installed as part of 9.0.4 (Apple Extras/Apple Laserwriter Software). Nothing showed up the Appletalk Zone as I would have expected so I spent ages faffing about with cables, swapping them around and so forth. And I tried the pinging that Jerry suggested in his last post. Then I realised that Jerry had said to download the Apple Print Utility from within Classic, so I did that, and yes indeed it opened - but showed no printer!

Eventually I found a post elsewhere saying that the printer should be connected to the router, not the computer, so I switched that and suddenly it appeared when I pinged, and the Desktop Printer Utility connected it. (Still invisible in the Apple Printer Utility)

It looks like perhaps all this hassle with Classic wasn't necessary; I don't know if it would have connected without the Desktop Printer Utility. Either way, I'm just happy that it's all working now.

Hope this helps somebody else.

Thanks all,

Debbie

Debbie,
You are almost there!

If you just focus on using Apple Printer Utility 2.2. Not the Desktop Printer Utility or Terminal.

Have yoy installed the Apple Printer Utility application and been able to start it?
If yes, you can turn it of (for now).

Open the "Chooser" and select "LaserWriter 8" in the left window. Does your printer show up in the window to the right?

Below the right window there is 2 radio buttons to turn on/off AppleTalk.
Is AppleTalk active? If not turn it on and hit return.

This was step #1. Post a reply.

But I am there! I am printing! (Though it's remarkably slow - is LPD always so much slower to spool than AppleTalk?)

However, I just had a go at what you suggested and it still doesn't show up - AppleTalk is active in the Chooser and the 'Select Postscript Printer' window is empty, and the 'Create' button dimmed.

Still nothing in the Apple Printer Utility too - but it doesn't matter as I only need to print from OS X which is now working fine.

Thanks,

Debbie

Congratulations!!

I wrote my last post before I read your success post.

As you now know the printers IP adress you also can connect to it directly from your MacBook. Download a Printer Description file [PPD] for your printer from Apple. Install it manually in [OS X] HD/Library/Printers/PPD Plugins/.
It adds preferences for performance and memory allocation etc.

/Instant_1

JerrytheK: Well, it's an Intel iMac I'm dealing with, so the direct OS 9 approach apparently won't fly, but if I install Panther in the same partition of the external FW drive, boot in Panther, and then fire up Classic, that would work...right? I haven't had time to study the posts over the past couple of days so maybe there's another approach I can use instead, but this is where I'm leaning right now. We shall see...

Bill

There is also a Windows version of Apple Printer Utility. I ma not sure what the requirements are.

Bill, I'm not sure if you can boot Panther on an Intel machine.

Oooo, you're right, and Tiger won't do Classic at all on an Intel machine. So I have to bail out of that approach and do a bit of re-thinking. Thanks--Bill.

Bill, you can run Classic on an Intel machine using SheepShaver (see my post above).

Debbie