A MacSE, MacTCP and RaSCSI

[retr01]

Morning, @Bolkonskij.

I suspect something is going on with the SE's interface with the RaSCSI. Is the RaSCSI interfaced internally or externally? What network card driver are you using with RaSCSI? DaynaPort?

Can you clarify how the SE and IIci is connecting to the network with RaSCSI? SCSI to Ethernet bridge?

 

[retr01]

Another thing came to mind as I stumbled a site while looking into firmware updates from BlueSCSI.

MacTCP 2.1 is a patch that supposedly allows classless subnet masks when connecting with a class C IP address on LAN (192.x.x.x). You could try rolling back to MacTCP 2.0.9?

Glenn's MacTCP patches

 

[retr01]

One other thing, see if you can open the /var/log/rascsi.log on the Pi of the RaSCSI to review errors, if any, while you were trying to connect the SE with RaSCSI to the network?

 

[rjkucia]

I successfully got my SE online with the RaSCSI bridge before I upgraded it to an SE/30 board.

What's the output of ifconfig on the Pi? Additionally, can you post a screenshot of how MacTCP is configured? This will tell us exactly what you have set up.

Here's some information about how I had it working:

• My Pi Zero 2W was connected to the network via Wi-Fi
• The bridge was set between RaSCSI and a USB ethernet dongle
• I set my Mac's IP to the same address as the RaSCSI bridge
• DNS servers set to 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8

 

[retr01]

Yes, that ifconfig information will help to point the way towards resolution.

Cheers!

 

[landogriffin]

So your guess about having to use half-duplex remains the last straw. I wonder if @landogriffin can help out whether or not RaSCSI can run in half-duplex mode and how that is accomplished?

Sorry for the delay! I don't check this forum as often as I should!

For RaSCSI, it doesn't really care about duplex. It doesn't know about anything below Layer 2. All of the physical layer stuff is handled by the raspberry pi and the Linux OS. RaSCSI just hooks into a Linux network device.

I would assume the raspberry pi can handle half duplex, but I've never tried it.

 

[rjkucia]

Does your Pi have WiFi? If so have you tried using the WiFi bridge mode?

 

[Bolkonskij]

First off, thank to @retr01, @rjkucia and @landogriffin for trying to help! I had been busy with other things lately, but finally get the time to sit down at the SE again!

Morning, @Bolkonskij.

I suspect something is going on with the SE's interface with the RaSCSI. Is the RaSCSI interfaced internally or externally? What network card driver are you using with RaSCSI? DaynaPort?

Can you clarify how the SE and IIci is connecting to the network with RaSCSI? SCSI to Ethernet bridge?

To answer all your questions - yes, using the DaynaPort drivers referenced in the RaSCSI manual.
The RaSCSI interfaces with the external SCSI port of the SE. Can confirm its working as it boots the OS

About the MacTCP config, adding a screenshot to my post.

Dump of ifconfig on the PI:

eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether b8:27:eb:71:ee:39 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 900 bytes 153444 (149.8 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 353 bytes 52465 (51.2 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 299 bytes 88146 (86.0 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 299 bytes 88146 (86.0 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

ras0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::a412:21ff:fe17:a60a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether a6:12:21:17:a6:0a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 83 bytes 4972 (4.8 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 521 bytes 111263 (108.6 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

rascsi_bridge: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.92 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
inet6 fe80::ba27:ebff:fe71:ee39 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether a6:12:21:17:a6:0a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 982 bytes 155754 (152.1 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 265 bytes 43867 (42.8 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

I don't know if the Pi can do Wi-Fi but I'd assume given it's a Pi3 IIRC. Using Wi-Fi is not an option for me though. I don't think that really matters either though, the connection appears to be good?

Anyone spotting anything looking odd ?

 

[retr01]

First off, thank to @retr01, @rjkucia and @landogriffin for trying to help! I had been busy with other things lately, but finally get the time to sit down at the SE again!

Welcome back, @Bolkonskij!

Anyone spotting anything looking odd ?

Just to clarify, does obtaining the LAN IP address dynamically work?

 

[retr01]

I am looking at this part of the log from your RaSCSI and commenting according to those lines.

rascsi_bridge: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

MTU 1500 looks good.

inet 192.168.1.92 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255

The RaSCSI has a LAN IP of 192.168.1.92 from the router.

inet6 fe80::ba27:ebff:fe71:ee39 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether a6:12:21:17:a6:0a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)

The RaSCSI is connected at gigabit rather than 10/100. I wonder if it should be at 10, @landogriffin?

RX packets 982 bytes 155754 (152.1 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 265 bytes 43867 (42.8 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

It is a good sign that RaSCSI is linked.

Since you have Daynaport driver, I believe there is a utility that tests the connection on your Mac SE's side. I need to try find that.

 

[Bolkonskij]

Hi @retr01, appreciate your help!

Tried the auto DHCP option. Didn't work either, but no surprise, hm? I think I've read plenty of times that MacTCP requires the good old manual setup.

Can I help locating the mentioned tool? Any idea what it is called or who made it?

 

[retr01]

Hi @retr01, appreciate your help!

My pleasure!

Tried the auto DHCP option. Didn't work either, but no surprise, hm? I think I've read plenty of times that MacTCP requires the good old manual setup.

Right. Duh me. Does the RaSCSI pass on the LAN IP address from the router? RaSCSI is assigned the IP address, hmmm. I know the router gives a range, but I wonder why the raSCSI gets the higher end of the range from 192.168.1.2 to 254 or whatever the router ends with.

What LAN IP did you manually enter for your SE? 192.168.1.50 ?

Can I help locating the mentioned tool? Any idea what it is called or who made it?

I recall that Sonic provided a test app on the disk for my Sonic Ethernet card that I have in my IIci. However, I am not sure if it works under System 6.

Ethernet installer 5.0 - Macintosh Garden

Images of floppy disks mirrored from the Internet Archive. Original page description reproduced below: These are two distinct floppies that both contain the same version of an Ethernet Driver for the Apple Macintosh.

macintoshgarden.org

 

[rjkucia]

I believe the RaSCSI DaynaPort disk image comes with troubleshooting utilities (https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/rascsi-reloaded)

I would recommend reserving an IP address on the router's side and then using the IP address you pick there.

When I tried this, I also (strangely) had success when assigning the Mac to the same IP address as the Pi (in this case, xx.92). That definitely shouldn't have worked, but it did. However my Pi was connected over both WiFi and ethernet. I'm not completely sure about how the bridge behaves in this instance (does it act as a pass-through, or more like a virtual switch?)

 

[retr01]

Yeah, @rjkucia, thank you!

I thought of manually setting MacTCP on the SE to 192.168.1.92, but I was not sure if it would work because it usually can't have the same IP as another MAC ID (not Macintosh, Media Access Control ID ). Yes, most routers will have the option to assign an IP address to a MAC ID.

So, @Bolkonskij, you can try that approach. All NICs have a MAC ID. Yours should have one listed.

 

[Bolkonskij]

@retr01 I manually assigned 192.168.1.101 as an IP address for the SE within the MacTCP control panel. This LAN IP is unused.

The SE's self-assigned LAN IP doesn't show up on my routers web interface, but then it doesn't directly connect to the router, so that should be OK.

Tried @rjkucia's suggestion of setting the manually assigned IP within MacTCP to 192.168.1.92 (RaSCSI). Wouldn't work. For sake of completion, I tried setting the router adress in MacTCP to 192.168.1.92 (RaSCSI). Wouldn't work either.

Remembering that I use a TP-Link WLAN bridge that connects from my Mac room to my router, I tried setting the IP adress to that of the WLAN bridge (LAN IP: 192.168.1.62). That gave me timeouts too, unfortunately. Judging by MacPing on the SE I can't even get to the TP-Link WLAN bridge.

I can assign a IP/MAC pair via my router, just how to obtain the MAC adress for my SE? Should I use the RASCSI's ? Sorry if that question sounds stupid, just never tinkered with that before.

 

[rjkucia]

I *think* one of those DynaPort utilities will list the MAC address? If not then it looks like this has it: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/ag-net-tools

I'd recommend checking the DynaPort troubleshooting utilities to verify that it's detecting both the software and the hardware correctly.

 

[Bolkonskij]

Thanks @rjkucia. The ag net tools you linked to (thank you!) unfortunately require System 7 and extensions like Thread Manager according to the readme, so no-no for my System 6 SE. But I'm going to check out the Dayna Utilities. Thanks!

If somebody else has a suggestion, please feel free to share it. Appreciate any help and I'm at the point where I'm willing to try out anything to get this to finally work!