Ivan X

Hello world,

I am very happy to announce A2SERVER, which is a ready-to-go, easy-to-
use file and network boot server for Apple II client computers. It's
basically Netatalk running in a virtual machine, without the
configuration pain. You can read all about it at: http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/

I'm expecting that issues will come up, so consider this a soft-
launch, and send me an email if you have questions or comments. I'd
like to make A2SERVER as easy to use as possible and have the web site
be as useful as possible so I'd welcome the feedback.

Thanks to Steven, Geoff, Antoine, and all the others here who have
been so helpful in answering my questions and helping me put this
together.

Cheers,
Ivan.

Antoine Vignau

On 18 jan, 15:56, Ivan X <i...@ivanx.com> wrote:
> Hello world,
>
> I am very happy to announce A2SERVER, which is a ready-to-go, easy-to-
> use file and network boot server for Apple II client computers. It's
> basically Netatalk running in a virtual machine, without the
> configuration pain. You can read all about it at:http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/
>
> I'm expecting that issues will come up, so consider this a soft-
> launch, and send me an email if you have questions or comments. I'd
> like to make A2SERVER as easy to use as possible and have the web site
> be as useful as possible so I'd welcome the feedback.
>
> Thanks to Steven, Geoff, Antoine, and all the others here who have
> been so helpful in answering my questions and helping me put this
> together.
>
> Cheers,
> Ivan.

Heeeehh, that's fantastic, congratulations, Ivan!
Antoine

Alex Lee

Is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble connecting to
http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server ?

Alex
--
http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/

Antoine Vignau

On 18 jan, 23:39, Alex Lee <ale...@mac.com> wrote:
> Is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble connecting tohttp://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server?
>
> Alex
> --http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/

From France, connection is OK.

D Finnigan

Alex Lee wrote:
> Is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble connecting to
> http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server ?
>
> Alex
>

Must be you.

But if you're impatient now, here is the text from the web page:


A2SERVER


A2SERVER is a file server which runs on current computers, to which Apple II
computers can connect as clients, and use to boot into GS/OS or ProDOS 8
over the network. It has been designed to be as easy to set up and use as
possible, and it's free.

Which Apple II computers are supported?
Apple IIgs (ROM 01 or ROM 03)
Apple IIe enhanced, with Apple Workstation Card

A2SERVER is comprised of Netatalk 2.1.6, running on Ubuntu Server 11.10,
inside an Oracle VirtualBox 4.1.8 virtual machine, plus various scripts I
wrote and utilities from others to make everything smooth.


Choose which method you want to follow, and you'll be up and running
shortly.

Fully Automatic (easy):
download and use a premade virtual machine

Semi Automatic (reasonably easy):
create a virtual machine from scratch, then use automated scripts to turn it
into A2SERVER

Manual (black diamond):
create a virtual machine from scratch, then read and enter the contents of
the scripts to create A2SERVER


Once you're up and running, you may want to check out:

How to connect to A2SERVER from your Apple II

How to boot into ProDOS 8 or GS/OS over the network

Logging into, shutting down, and doing stuff in the A2SERVER console

How to access A2SERVER from a Mac or Windows computer


Many thanks to Steven Hirsch, Geoff Body, Tony Diaz, Antoine Vignau, Peter
Wong, and others at comp.sys.apple2 and KansasFest for the work they've done
and insight they've offered which made it possible to put A2SERVER together.

--
]DF$
Mac GUI Vault - A source for retro Apple II and
Macintosh computing.
http://macgui.com/vault/

Ivan Drucker

See, I knew there'd be issues. Like a dead link to the virtual machine
file itself (sheesh). If you tried to download it and got a Page Not
Found before, please try again.

Steven Hirsch

On 01/19/2012 12:43 PM, Ivan Drucker wrote:
> See, I knew there'd be issues. Like a dead link to the virtual machine
> file itself (sheesh). If you tried to download it and got a Page Not
> Found before, please try again.

Ivan, Do you know offhand if that .ova image can be converted for use with
VMware? I have a $$$ license for Workstation and would like to try it there.

David Schmidt

On 1/19/2012 6:09 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> On 01/19/2012 12:43 PM, Ivan Drucker wrote:
>> See, I knew there'd be issues. Like a dead link to the virtual machine
>> file itself (sheesh). If you tried to download it and got a Page Not
>> Found before, please try again.
>
> Ivan, Do you know offhand if that .ova image can be converted for use
> with VMware? I have a $$$ license for Workstation and would like to try
> it there.

OVA is just the OVF in one file, isn't it? Tarred up? I use OVFs all
the time with VMware. You can deploy OVFs directly.

Ivan X

> On 1/19/2012 6:09 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> > Ivan, Do you know offhand if that .ova image can be converted for use
> > with VMware? I have a $$$ license for Workstation and would like to try
> > it there.

On Jan 19, 8:44*pm, David Schmidt <schmi...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> OVA is just the OVF in one file, isn't it? *Tarred up? *I use OVFs all
> the time with VMware. *You can deploy OVFs directly.

It's true that the OVA is just a tarred OVF, though I can't test to
see if it works because VMWare Fusion (what I have) doesn't apparently
support OVA or OVF files.

There's also another option, which is outlined in the "Semi-Automatic"
instructions on the web site -- basically, create a VM in the
virtualizer of your choice, install Ubuntu Server into it (I only
tried the 32-bit version, FWIW), and then kick off the installation
script which builds and configures everything. That's how the OVA file
was made, so it should yield the same thing.

Steven Hirsch

On 01/19/2012 08:44 PM, David Schmidt wrote:
> On 1/19/2012 6:09 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
>> On 01/19/2012 12:43 PM, Ivan Drucker wrote:
>>> See, I knew there'd be issues. Like a dead link to the virtual machine
>>> file itself (sheesh). If you tried to download it and got a Page Not
>>> Found before, please try again.
>>
>> Ivan, Do you know offhand if that .ova image can be converted for use
>> with VMware? I have a $$$ license for Workstation and would like to try
>> it there.
>
> OVA is just the OVF in one file, isn't it? Tarred up? I use OVFs all the time
> with VMware. You can deploy OVFs directly.

That's what about 40% of the mutually-conflicting articles on the net claim,
but VMware Workstation panics trying to boot the extracted vmdks directly. I
downloaded 'ovftool' and tried a conversion that way, but it complains that it
doesn't know anything about "virtualbox-2.2" images. That was after a
protracted fight just getting ovftool to install - it kept throwing an error
about a conflict with an existing VMware resource. Ended up putting it in a
chroot environment. There were hints that - somehow - this function was built
into Workstation 7.5, but damned if I could find it.

I love standards. Everybody should have their own!

Steve