Help me transfer Files from Old Mac to Linux

[wsimpso1]

The other half has informed me that I gotta get my own Internet box (been using her's for over ten years) and my ancient Mac SE30 (when's the last time you heard about one of those?) has a bunch of Excel and Word files that I want to move to the next machine.

I know that I can spend significant money, buy an Apple, poison the poor thing with Microsoft products and move my files, but I was thinking of making the change to Linux of some sort and also avoid further enrichening Bill Gates et al.

Well, can I do it and how would I do it? I do not have a machine yet, so I can buy appropriate equipment. I am getting advice on where buy hardware, where to find shareware, etc. The big issue is salvaging all of the writing and analysis tools I have already written that reside on the SE30. I have a SCSI port so the big trick would seem to be giving a Linux box a way to read the files, but what do I know. I just use the front end of the Mac...

Advice gratefully accepted here.

Billski

[hard candy]

First, I would look on the OpenOffice.org and Abiword websites and see if you will be able to use the Word and Excel files depending on the format with a Linux OS. And will your analysis tools run in an Linux environment?

[IsaacKuo]

The other half has informed me that I gotta get my own Internet box (been using her's for over ten years) and my ancient Mac SE30 (when's the last time you heard about one of those?) has a bunch of Excel and Word files that I want to move to the next machine.

Ah, a Mac SE30! Truly a slick piece of hardware at the time. They took a Mac and managed to squeeze in a hard drive without increasing the size of the machine! Awesome! And still fanless!

The big issue is salvaging all of the writing and analysis tools I have already written that reside on the SE30. I have a SCSI port so the big trick would seem to be giving a Linux box a way to read the files, but what do I know. I just use the front end of the Mac...

Well...there's SCSI and then there's SCSI. You simply don't want to know how complex SCSI has become since the good old days of the Mac SE.

One obvious option would be to transfer your files over the Internet. I'm guessing the Mac's internet connection is too slow for you to seriously consider this.

Hmm...I don't think the versions of Mac OS which shipped with the SE had any capability to handle DOS file systems (and even if they did, Windows 95's long filename capability didn't even exist yet). Hmm...no USB...

...see, I think that even if you connected the SE's drive to a SCSI controller, neither DOS/Windows nor linux has any support for classic Mac file systems (Hierarchical File System?).

Your only options may be to transfer files over a network--either local connection or via the internet. How is this Mac SE30 connected to the internet? Modem? What speed?

[WhiteKnight]

...see, I think that even if you connected the SE's drive to a SCSI controller, neither DOS/Windows nor linux has any support for classic Mac file systems (Hierarchical File System?)

Linux does have HFS support..

There seems to be a rather active cult of classic mac hackers/tinkers out there... perhaps a google might help u out

[dkeav]

aye throw an AHA scsi card in the new box and hook the drive up, probably have to recompile the kernel to add in the HFS support, but should be a rather trivial task

[wsimpso1]

You guys are talking my language. Only one difficulty - no Internet on my SE30, that is why I have been using the wife's machine. Thanks for the suggestions. I shall come back here when I have looked over the options presented.

Billski

[Sepero]

Have you considered setting up dual-boot on the machine? :)

[wsimpso1]

I can only guess at what dual-boot means, and have no idea how to do such a thing. Are you suggesting that I do such a thing on my Mac SE30.

I just use computers... I do not have a Linux machine yet, and am looking for guidance on how to move stuff from an ancient Mac to a Linux machine, and then live with the Linux machine.

[IsaacKuo]

I don't think Sepero was being entirely serious. It's not likely your Mac SE30 has enough RAM for a straightforward Linux install.

Only one difficulty - no Internet on my SE30, that is why I have been using the wife's machine.

Ah, my misunderstanding. For some reason, I thought that the SE30 was the shared "internet machine".

You have an external SCSI port on the Mac, right? Then, maybe the best thing to do would be to get a dirt cheap old SCSI drive from someplace like www.compuvest.com. Then, you can format the drive with the Mac and copy all your old files over to this spare drive. Thus, you don't even have to temporarily "break" your Mac to do all this. You'll also need a SCSI card for the new Linux computer.

Also, I had been assuming that you simply wanted to store your old programs. Are you hoping to actually run them? I guess you'd want to use some sort of emulator. I know they have Amiga and Atari ST emulators; I'm not sure about classic 68xxx Mac.

[Modorf]

Mac On Linux ( http://www.maconlinux.org/overview.html ) is a linux/ppc program which makes it possible to run Mac OS in parallel with Linux.

Support hardware / software:

Client OS support:
- Mac OS X (10.1-10.3.3)
- Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2
- Linux

Technology:
- No CPU emulation - very fast!
- No ROM image needed
- Complete MMU virtualization
- Idle sleep (8.6 or later)
- Very compatible
- Multi-session support
- 603, 604, G3 and G4 support

Device support:
- Full screen video (fbdev, xdga)
- MMU accelereaded X11 video
- CD burners
- Generic SCSI
- Generic USB
- Audio
- Networking
- AltiVec™ support


I've used it to have an OS9 session running while running Gentoo PPC on my G3. It didn't work with my Gentoo PPC64 G5.

[WhiteKnight]

SE30 should have 2 serial ports IIRC... S, i u want to get it on the internet, u should be able to conect a 9600 baud modem to it doubt it would support anything higher..

yeah.. i think ur best bet is to get a SCSI drive and connect it to your mac through ur external SCSI port then plug the drive into your linux box after u r done.

[IsaacKuo]

Mac On Linux ( http://www.maconlinux.org/overview.html ) is a linux/ppc program which makes it possible to run Mac OS in parallel with Linux. [...]
- No CPU emulation - very fast!

PowerPC isn't binary compatible with 68xxx, is it?

[Modorf]

That reminds me.

Apple LocalTalk network - serial port -> telephone cable token ring network.
you might need a LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge or use a serial cable to connect the computers.

http://www.atpm.com/network/setup/index.html
http://www.atpm.com/network/setup/localtalk_serial.html
http://www.atpm.com/network/setup/localtalk_ethernet.htm

has some instructions about setting up a localtalk network or serial linking two macs.
If your new computer is a mac, you will need to buy a usb -> mac serial adapter to do the serial link. Keyspan.com makes what your looking for.

[Modorf]

PowerPC isn't binary compatible with 68xxx, is it?

PPC isn't 68K binary compatible, but Apple added a compatability layer to MacOS to allow old 68K programs to run on PPC systems. I know it was supported up to OS9, but not sure about OSX. You probably need to run those programs in Classic mode (meaning no MacIntel support).

[KieranCorkBoy]

Would it be possible to remove the HD from your Mac, and plug it into another machine that would allow you to transfer the data to your new machine.

Just a thought

[ladoga]

I guess he will need some SCSI controller to plug the drive into.

Btw. Im going to Cork tomorrow. How's the weather there? :D