mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
288 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
288 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
<!doctype linuxdoc system>
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<article>
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<title> The MacTerminal MINI-HOWTO
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<author> Robert Kiesling
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<date>v1.4, 9 November 1997
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<abstract>
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This mini HOWTO describes the 1,002nd use for a dead Macintosh (grin):
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how to configure the Mac for use as a Linux terminal. Configurations
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using getty and the terminal program kermit are described, as well as
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using kermit peer-to-peer networking between between Linux and a
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Macintosh. This document may be reproduced freely, in whole or in
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part, provided that any usage conforms to the general copyright notice
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of the HOWTO series of the Linux Documentation Project. See the file
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COPYRIGHT for details. Send all complaints, suggestions, errata, and
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any miscellany to <htmlurl url="mailto:kiesling@terracom.net" name =
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"kiesling@terracom.net">, so I can keep this document as complete and
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up to date as possible.
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</abstract>
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<toc>
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<sect>Introduction.
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<P>
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This mini-HOWTO should give you some Insanely Great ideas for how to
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make your Macintosh work with Linux. Unfortunately, I have been very
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busy, and so I haven't been able to include even half of what I wanted
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to include, like using MacTCP and Open Transport to connect to your
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Linux box via a PPP line. That will need to wait for future versions.
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This mini-HOWTO doesn't cover networking with LocalTalk and AppleTalk,
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either. I might explore these avenues if there's enough interest in,
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say, printing to a LaserWriter printer from Linux. Otherwise, it
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seems to me that such applications, being more trouble than they're
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worth (not to mention pricey), are beyond the scope of this document.
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I don't plan to cover MkLinux in this document, either. It's more than
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adequately documented elsewhere.
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So if you have ideas for this document, drop me a line at the e-mail
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above. Both systems embody a lot of the beginner's mindset as well as
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technical prowess, and in my opinion they don't talk to each other
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nearly enough.
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<sect>Setting up a serial link.
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<P>
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To set up a serial link between a Mac and a Linux machine, you will
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need, on the Linux side, either a DB9 Female-to-DB25 Male serial cable
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or a DB25 Female-to-DB25 Male serial cable, depending on your serial
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port. On the Macintosh side, you will need a DIN9-to-DB25 Male
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high-speed modem cable.
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Make sure that the cable is labeled a "high speed" cable, because some
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older Macintosh cables are configured with their handshaking lines
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tied high, which makes them useless for high-speed serial connections.
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You will also need a null modem adapter, available at Comp USA, Radio
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Shack, and similar outlets, and a DB25 Female-to-DB25 Female serial gender
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changer to connect the two serial cables.
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I have heard that Mac printer cables are really null modem cables in
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disguise, but I can't confirm this. Some of them are DIN9-to-DIN9
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anyway, and wiring one into a serial link would be more trouble than
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it's worth.
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If this sounds like Greek to you, read the Serial-HOWTO for details of
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RS-232 cable configurations and data transmission protocols.
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Before connecting the Mac and the Linux machines, you should determine
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that you have a working serial port on both machines, either by
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connecting a modem and dialing out to another computer with <tt>minicom</tt>
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(Linux), ZTerm (Mac), <tt>kermit</tt> (either), or the communications
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program of your choice.
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The latest version of minicom is available from <htmlurl
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url="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/serialcomm/dialout"
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name="sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/serialcomm/dialout"> and mirror
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sites.
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ZTerm is a complete, easy to use comm program. Unfortunately, it's
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shareware. A current version is available from <htmlurl
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url="ftp://mac.archive.umich.edu" name="mac.archive.umich.edu"> and
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outlets like it.
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The <tt>kermit</tt> program has been ported to every computer and
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operating system in existence. The archives are located at <htmlurl
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url="ftp://ftp.columbia.edu/kermit" name="ftp.columbia.edu/kermit">.
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You should strongly consider using <tt>kermit</tt> on both machines at
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this stage at least, because 1) it's free (although it's not covered
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by the Free Software Foundation's General Public License); and 2) it's
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a lot less confusing to have <tt>kermit</tt> on both machines than two
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completely different communications programs.
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If you have another way to determine that the serial ports of the two
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machines are operational, feel free to use that. The point is to ensure
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that both machines have working serial ports.
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Making the actual serial connection should be easy, given the
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directions above. In case it isn't, the connection looks like this:
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<verb>
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Linux PC DB9- or DB25- Null Gender DIN9-to- MacBox
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--------- to-DB25 male Modem Changer DB25 Mac --------
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| | serial cable. | | | | Serial Cable | |
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| |-----------------| |--| |-----------------| |
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| | | | | | | |
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--------- Adapter --------
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</verb>
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<sect>Client-server connection with <tt>kermit</tt>.
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<P>
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This is the most transient of all the configurations described here.
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It requires the least amount of system configuration, although in
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operation, it is the more difficult to use of the systems described
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here.
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In brief, you start <tt>kermit</tt> on both the Linux machine and the
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Mac, and place one of them in server mode. It doesn't matter which
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machine is the client ant which is the server, because this is a
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peer-to-peer connection. However, the Linux <tt>kermit</tt> can take
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advantage of Linux's superior scripting abilities, so it seems logical
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(to me at least) to designate the Linux-side <tt>kermit</tt> as the
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server, because this is the more readily automated task.
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You should ensure that <tt>kermit</tt> is installed correctly on both
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the Mac and the Linux PC. Follow the instructions in the respective
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kermit distributions. On the Linux machine type <tt>kermit</tt> at
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the shell prompt to start it. You may need root permissions in order
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to set the port and baud rate.
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<tt>kermit</tt>, the recent POSIX versions for Unices, supports baud
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rates up to 115 Kbps. The more recent Macintosh versions support
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serial port speeds up to 57.6 Kbps. This should be more than
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sufficient for any dumb tty-type application, but if you need a
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higher-speed connection, you're s.o.l, as far as <tt>kermit</tt> and
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serial lines are concerned. However, <tt>kermit</tt> provides
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facilities for communication over a TCP/IP link, but I haven't been
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able to test it. See the alternative in the following sections. Just
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remember, especially on the Mac side, to use a different port for
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<tt>kermit</tt> serial connections than your TCP/IP connections,
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because Mac <tt>kermit</tt> will rudely hose a serial port that is
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already in use.
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With that in mind, your <tt>.kermrc</tt> file would contain something
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like this:
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<verb>
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echo Executing site initialization file /usr/local/bin/ckermit.local.ini....
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set prompt Chanel3 >
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set line /dev/ttyS0
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set baud 38400
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set send packet-length 2000
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set receive packet-length 2000
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set block 3
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set file type binary
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</verb>
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Then, in your <tt>˜/.kermrc</tt> file, you would have a line like
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<verb>
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take /usr/local/bin/ckermit.local.ini
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</verb>
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On the Macintosh side, set the same communication parameters for bps,
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stop bits, parity, and word length. Some older versions of Mac Kermit
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do not support 2k packets, so you might need to set a smaller packet
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size. Howerver, <tt>kermit</tt> sets the communication packet length
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based on the receive packet-length setting, so you need to set a shorter
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packet size on the Linux end, too.
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To actually communicate over the link, you need to enter server mode
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on either the Mac or Linux side. It doesn't matter which. See the
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<tt>kermit</tt> docs for details of server mode.
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<sect1>Macintosh resources.
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<P>
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This is one of the very few <tt>kermit</tt> applications where setting
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a <tt>text</tt> file type for transfers is useful. This is because
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Macintosh files have two parts: the <bf>data fork</bf> and the
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<bf>resource fork</bf>. The data fork corresponds to what we in the
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Linux world think of as a file: it's the actual data. The resource
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fork contains bitmaps for the icons, keymaps, font specifications, and
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the like. If you transfer a file from Linux to the Mac, the file
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won't be recognized as a text file by the Mac, if you use binary mode.
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When transferring binary files between the two systems, you should use
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the Macintosh <tt>.hqx</tt> BinHex format, which is a 7-bit encoding
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of an 8-bit data file. Mac utilities like BinHexer or StuffIt will
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covert the file to its binary form.
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If you have a text file which inadvertently ends up as a data-only
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file on the Mac, it's likely that it won't even appear in an Open
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dialog list box. What you need to do is open the file with ResEdit,
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which is available from <tt>mac.archive.umich.edu</tt>. ResEdit will
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tell you that the file you're opening has no resource fork and then
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asks if you would like to add one. You should answer "Yes" to this
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question. You can then edit the file's Type and Creator by selecting
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the Open Special option of the File menu. All Macintosh text files
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are type <tt>TEXT</tt>, so replace the question marks in the Text box
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with that. The Creator code depends on your text editor or word
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processor. Each one is unique, incidentally, and is how the Mac
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identifies different apps. The Creator code for GNU Emacs on the Mac
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is <tt>EMAC</tt>, for example. If in doubt what the creator code of
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your text editor or word processor is, use <tt>ttxt</tt>, which is the
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creator code for TeachText (which is the Mac equivalent of
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<tt>EDLIN.EXE</tt>.) Then your real word processor or text editor can
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translate the file from TeachText to its native type.
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There are many other neato things which TeachText can do, so it's
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worthwhile to keep it permanently on your Mac. The book <em>Voodoo
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Mac,</em> by Kay Yarborough Nelson, is a good source of tried-and-true
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Macintosh tricks that use ResEdit, TeachText, the Finder, and other
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overlooked programs.
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<sect>Logging in via <tt>kermit</tt>.
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<p>
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Configuring Linux to use the Mac as a <tt>login:</tt> terminal is even
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easier. <tt>kermit</tt> is ideal for this purpose, because it is one
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of the few free communication programs which provides credible
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VT100/120/220 emulation.
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Essentially, what you want to do is start <tt>kermit</tt> on the
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Macintosh side as in the previous section, but rather than issue
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server commands, you enter <tt>connect</tt> mode. This is the normal
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terminal emulation mode that most people use, anyway.
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On the Linux side, the serial line must be configured with a
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<tt>getty</tt> on it to start a <tt>login:</tt> shell. To do this,
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you need to tell <tt>init</tt> that the serial line has a terminal on
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it. In your <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> file you will need a line something
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like this:
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<verb>
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T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
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</verb>
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Be sure to substitute the appropriate serial device for
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<tt>/dev/ttyS0</tt> and the correct baud rate for <tt>9600</tt> in the
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command line above.
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This command tells <tt>getty</tt> to start <tt>login</tt> (the
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<tt>-L</tt> switch) on the terminal display, and, when the login times
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out, to re-start (<tt>respawn</tt>) the login program until someone
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logs in. If no device is connected to the serial line, or if the
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connection is defective, you may see a message on the system console
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like: <tt>/dev/ttyS0 respawning too fast: disabling for 5
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minutes</tt>. If this happens, you can return things to normal by (as
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root) <tt>kill</tt>ing the <tt>getty</tt> process, or using the
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<tt>init q</tt> command. Both of them have the effect of re-spawning
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the <tt>getty</tt> processe(s). If everything is in order, you should
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see the Linux banner and login prompt on the Mac's <tt>kermit</tt>
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window. That's all there is to it.
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Also, if you use something besides vanilla <tt>getty</tt>, like
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<tt>getty_ps</tt>, the command above will look somewhat different.
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The important thing to remember is that everything to the right of
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<tt>/sbin/getty</tt> is an argument for <tt>getty</tt> itself; not
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<tt>init</tt>. You should look at the manual pages for
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<tt>getty</tt>, <tt>init</tt>,and <tt>inittab</tt> if you have
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questions concerning the setup of <tt>init</tt> and <tt>getty</tt>.
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The Serial HOWTO provides helpful details on how to configure
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<tt>/etc/inittab</tt> for <tt>getty_ps</tt>, if that's what your
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system uses.
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To transfer files back and forth between the Macintosh and the Linux
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machine, you can (via the Mac's Kermit) issue the <tt>kermit -x</tt>
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command to start the Linux <tt>kermit</tt> in server mode. You can
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then use the normal file transfer commands to send files across
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the serial line. It's useful to set a prompt in your
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<tt>˜/.kermrc</tt> with a line like
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<verb>
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set prompt Linux-kermit >
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</verb>
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Otherwise, remembering which machine you're on can quickly become
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confusing.
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<sect1>Other Mac terminal programs.
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<p>
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This method should work equally well for any other Mac terminal
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program. If you have ZTerm, you can use <tt>rz</tt> and <tt>sz</tt>
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on the Linux machine to transfer files via the ZModem protocol. If
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Microphone Lite came bundled with your fax modem, that works
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equally well, albeit without <tt>kermit's</tt> superior scripting and
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configuration facilities.
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<sect>Conclusion.
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<p>
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If you have questions about any of this material, or suggestions for
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future directions of Mac-Linux serial-line connectivity, don't
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hesitate to drop me a line at <tt>kiesling@terracom.net</tt>.
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</article>
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