Use a PC as an OSX server with Darwin??

advocateuk · June 17, 2004 1:41PM

It has just occurred to me that perhaps it may be possible to install Darwin on my (no longer used since buying my G5) PC and using it as an OSX-type server that the G5 could communicate with.

I know none of the eye-candy tech is in Darwin for x86 (obviously) but are the underlying technologies in there to allow the pc to act as a server for OSX? e.g Rendezvous

TIA

Advocate

karl kuehn · June 17, 2004 4:01PM

Darwin does not include the code for AFP (Apple File Protocol) the standard method of filesharing from MacOS... so it does not make a great server. You can get around this via NetATalk, but then I think I remember right that X86 Darwin does not usually install on HFS+, and that kills most of the advantage it has over systems like FreeBSD (my favorite for this sort of task).

You can always attach via SMB... to SaMBa running on FreeBSD....

advocateuk · June 17, 2004 10:51PM

Damn I was hoping that Darwin may have been my route to a hassle free network between Mac and PC

I'm already using Samba to connect to the Windows box but OSX's samba networking seems to be a bit flaky at best

Looks like I may have to pony-up for a second Mac

the wiz · June 18, 2004 5:56PM

you can always install it on PearPC

dfryer · June 18, 2004 6:03PM

Is there a particular reason you need to have the mac networked with another server? You certainly can set up some kinds of networking between a Darwin server and Mac OS X, it just isn't AppleShare, you'd have to use something else (does Darwin do NFS?)

advocateuk · June 19, 2004 2:22AM

Well, since buying my G5 I've gotten used to the Apple way of doing things (ie it's easy) instead of the Windows way of doing things (ie configure these 100 things then cross your fingers and it might work) so I'd like the networking to be as easy as OSX makes everything else

The PC that is sitting next to my G5, though no slouch (P4 3Ghz, 1GB Corsair mem, Rad9700Pro, SB Audigy Platinum etc) hardly ever gets used but does come in useful for backing up data from the Mac occasionally.

Advocate

tidris · June 19, 2004 1:55PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AdvocateUK

Well, since buying my G5 I've gotten used to the Apple way of doing things (ie it's easy) instead of the Windows way of doing things (ie configure these 100 things then cross your fingers and it might work) so I'd like the networking to be as easy as OSX makes everything else

The PC that is sitting next to my G5, though no slouch (P4 3Ghz, 1GB Corsair mem, Rad9700Pro, SB Audigy Platinum etc) hardly ever gets used but does come in useful for backing up data from the Mac occasionally.

Advocate

You might want to consider installing one of the free X86 LINUX distributions on it. Many come complete with full GUI (KDE, GNOME, etc) and all server software LINUX is well known for.

I recently installed Mandrake LINUX 10 on a couple of old Athlon PCs and it was almost as easy as installing OSX on my dual G5. I booted the PC from the Mandrake LINUX CD and then followed the steps in the GUI installer. The CD images can be downloaded from the Madrake web site.

advocateuk · June 20, 2004 1:35AM

I have tinkered with Linux on numerous occasions, with Gentoo being my distro of choice, (one of the reasons I bought a Mac truth be told) but my recent experiences with Linux on this PC's config have been less than successful due in part to the Asus P4P800 motherboard (which Linux seems to dislike intensely).

Advocate

dobby · June 20, 2004 2:23PM

Suse 9 has no problem with the Asus P4P800 (it even got a compatibility award which means sod all!).

Where my company can't replace a Mac due to $$, I put in budget PC with either Fedora /Mandrake or Suse.

I don't bother with AFP/AFS as the resource fork issues are a pain in the arse.

I create NFS/Samba shares which I can then share with ever other machine.

Dobby.

Use a PC as an OSX server with Darwin??

Comments