Finding OS 10.4 box from OS9

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danbae

Registered
I want to connect to an iBook G3 running 10.4.11 from an old clamshell iBook running 9.2.2 using direct ethernet connection (no hub or router, and yes I am using the correct type of cable). The Tiger machine does not show up in the Network Browser or in the AppleShare department of the Chooser. This could be circumvented by typing the IP address of the Tiger box into the Chooser's "Server IP address", but here's the catch: the video card of the Tiger box is shot, so there is no way to interact with that computer directly and thus it is not possible to just look up the IP address in the Network Preferences. It uses DHCP so it takes a new IP number each time it starts (and sometimes even more often). Even if I disconnect it from the internet it assigns itself a different 169.254.xxx.xxx address each time (I can check that, using yet another MacOSX computer which "sees" the defect Tiger computer, by running "netstat" in Terminal).

So is there any convenient way to make the Tiger computer visible from the OS9 machine - or, alternatively, to configure the "screen-dead" Tiger machine to use a static IP address - remember that that would have to be done remotely from another computer since there is no video output. Some nifty Terminal trick?
 
If the clamshell iBook has Firewire, why not just startup the other (nonfunctioning video iBook) in Firewire target mode?

Additionally, are you sure that it is the video card on the Tiger system? Have you attempted to connect an external display via the video port to make sure that it isn't just the iBook's display (or display connection) that has gone bad?
 
RacerX,

Macosx.com only moved my first post to the forum so I copied the other ones here as well. They describe the problem better and also answer your questions:


"Unfortunately, the clamshell iBook has no FireWire socket. Only USB and Ethernet. So another solution is needed."

"1) The Tiger computer has no functioning video card so an external monitor wouldn't do any good, there is no video signal out whatsoever.

2) The Tiger computer _is_ reachable from another MacOS X machine, where it shows up in the Network. It can also be explored via Terminal. However I want to make it accessible from the clamshell iBook (in order to expand the very limited disk space on the clamshell). One way of doing that (I think) would be to assign a static IP address to the Tiger box. Can that be done remotely using Terminal on another OSX box?

3) Sometimes a connection can be made from the clamshell to the Tiger machine in the following cumbersome way: Extract the self-assigned IP address of the Tiger computer using "netstat" in Terminal from another OSX computer, then typing that IP address into the Chooser on the clamshell. However, the IP address changes every time the computer is switched on so it is not a very convenient solution and it requires an extra OSX machine to find out the IP address each time a connection is to be made.

So once again, what I'm looking for is either

a) a way to make the Tiger computer visible in the Network Browser of the clamshell (so I don't have to care about IP addresses), or

b) a way to assign a static IP address to the Tiger machine so I can type that address (always the same) into the Chooser of the clamshell machine - or even create an alias."

Grateful for any hints on this

Regards,

Dan
 
I have found one solution which is maybe not elegant, but it works in my case. There is a MacOS 9 program called Network Toolbox, available from VersionTracker

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/8783

which can detect the IP address of the Tiger machine without prior login. Network Toolbox has a lot of different functions, including what is called "ARP Cache - Address Resolution Protocol, maps IP to ethernet (MAC) address", didn't sound very promising to me, but the IP address of the Tiger computer showed up in a list there. This address could then be typed into the IP address field prompted by Chooser upon selecting AppleShare and clicking "Server IP address...". The login window appeared. Success!

The computer name isn't shown in the Network Toolbox ARP Cahce window so if you have a lot of computers on the network, it may be trickier - you would have to memorise the hardware MAC address of the machine of interest in order to distinguish it. But it works for me, without me really knowing how and why...
 
Problem solved. Still requires the Network Toolbox trick, but anyway:

Connect the Tiger iBook in to another powerpc machine via FireWire, start it in Target Mode.

On the other powerpc, select the Tiger box as startup disk. Restart the other powerpc and login using the Tiger box's login and password.

Now the system preferences of the Tiger box can be changed with respect to afp, ssh, vnc, whatever.

Following this, I can even remote-control the Tiger box from my clamshell using the MacOS 9 vnc client VNCViewer

http://netmath.uiuc.edu/vnc/vnc-3.3.3beta2_ppc_mac.sit

That client can't work with the built-in vnc server of Tiger (ie Apple Remote Desktop sharing), but a third-party server, osxvnc, did the job. I used version 1.33

http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/osxvnc/OSXvnc1.33.dmg

but there is a later version

http://www.testplant.com//downloads/Vine3.0.dmg

which I have not yet tested.

Note that since the built-in vnc server of the Tiger system is occupying port 5900, osxvnc has to use another one, eg 5901.

So, at last, happy end. Still a bit grating that the IP number has to be looked up with Network Toolbox every time, but... wth. Still happy.
 
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