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Welcome to the community maintained website of the Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Project

News

Experimental packages for Ubuntu 10.04

A new LTS version of Ubuntu was released in April 2010. We now have experimental kernel, rtai and emc2 packages for Ubuntu 10.04. If you're a kernel hacker then Ubuntu10.04Notes may be useful to you. For new installations, 8.04 is still a very good choice; it will receive security updates from Ubuntu for an additional year (desktop software) and we plan to build packages for it through the end of the emc 2.4.x series.

Why are there packages only for 8.04 and 10.04

We have chosen to use 8.04 and 10.04 because they are "long term support" (LTS) releases. If you use an LTS release, you can be sure of support and security fixes from the Ubuntu team for 3-5 years. However, we would be happy to accept and host packages for other versions if a user/developer of emc2 wishes to contribute them.

Upgrading from Ubuntu 8.04 to 10.04 will remove emc2

If you use the Ubuntu updater to upgrade from 8.04 to 10.04, it will remove the emc2 packages. After the upgrade, you can install the new packages for 10.04. Instead of upgrading, we recommend performing a fresh install of 10.04 so that your existing 8.04 setup is retained; after installing emc2 on 10.04, copy your old configuration files and update them if necessary. This way, if you find that the experimental 10.04 packages do not work as well for you, you can simply return to your working 8.04 system.

EMC 2.4.3 release

The latest version of EMC is EMC 2.4.3. View a list of changes in this release Instructions on upgrading from 2.3.x to 2.4.x

EMC2 Fest 2010

EMC Fest 2010

EMC on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

[Official announcement] of pre-built packages and a Live CD for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS "Hardy Heron". After installing from the CD, upgrade online to emc 2.4.

Table of Contents

Linux Distributions

[The EMC2 Live CD] is based on Ubuntu 8.04, includes EMC 2.2.5, and can also be used to install Ubuntu and EMC2 to your hard drive. After installing, you can easily upgrade to the latest version of EMC2 over a network connection

An entire special distribution of Linux is not needed to easily install and run EMC2; see [the instructions for installing the EMC2 packages for Ubuntu] 6.06 and 8.04. These packages are maintained by the EMC board of directors and are kept up-to-date (and provide a very easy upgrade capability) as new releases are made.

An [Italian version of the Live CD] (with version 2.1.5) is also available.

Specialized Linux Distributions

coolCNC is a "Live-CD" linux distribution, based on Puppy Linux, which contains EMC2 and the RTAI kernel patches. It is possible to install coolCNC to harddisk or to an USB stick. Download: http://cooltool.he.fdread.org/cncforum/ . Development information on the CncUser page. (Unfortunately, this Live CD is not recommended for use, because it contains a very outdated version of emc2, older than 2.0.0)

EMC on Puppy Linux by Matt Shaver. Matt inspired by cncuser who created coolCNC, decided to try adding real time capabilities to Puppy Linux starting from scratch and documenting the process. The emc puppy page has the details with updates as progress is made!

EMC2 on [ArchLinux] build and installation including the RTAI kernel patches [Arch-HOWTO]. Arch is a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. The Arch focus on simplicity and economy for developers means, among other things, that the main effort in assisting the user is not expended in crafting GUI configuration tools — the package manager, for example, does not have an official graphical front-end — but making well-annotated configuration files and extensive use of shell scripts. This has earned it a reputation as a distribution for intermediate and advanced Linux users who aren't afraid of the command line.

Why won't EMC run on Windows?

  1. EMC runs in real-time, to give smooth motion. This is critical to accuracy and machine life. Hard real-time is not available on Windows in a price range many can afford... especially those interested in using a PC-based control.
  2. EMC is intended to control machine tools. Machine tools are DANGEROUS and reliability/consistent behavior is extremely important. Compared to Windows, few viruses affect Linux. Even without consideration of viruses, Linux is far more stable.
  3. The above also apply to virtual machines (i.e. VMWARE) and emulators. It may be possible to trick EMC to run on a virtual machine but do so at your own risk!

The future of EMC

Glossary

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Last edited August 10, 2010 10:46 am by Sammel Lothar (diff)Published under a Creative Commons License