Ubuntu10.04PackageNotes

Experimental packages for Ubuntu 10.04 are now available, both Realtime and Simulation.

Installation

Installation is different if you want a Realtime system (capable of actually running a real machine, but needing a realtime kernel) or a Simulation system (useful for testing and previewing g-code and playing with the emc2 ui programs, but not capable of controlling a real machine).

Installation on Lucid was [discussed] briefly on the [Mailinglist].

Realtime

Installation:

• Install a normal Ubuntu 10.04 (only 32-bit is supported for realtime)
• Download http://www.linuxcnc.org/lucid/emc2-install.sh
• Run it in the terminal: sh Downloads/emc2-install.sh
• when prompted, enter your password
• reboot, select rtai kernel in boot menu
• start emc from the menu

Simulation

Installation:

• Install a normal Ubuntu 10.04 (official packages are currently available in 32-bit only, [buildbot packages] are available in 32- and 64-bit)
• Create a list file, add the pgp key, and install emc2 by running the following commands in a terminal

echo deb http://www.linuxcnc.org/lucid lucid base emc2.4-sim >  /tmp/linuxcnc.list
sudo mv /tmp/linuxcnc.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu --recv-key 8F374FEF
gpg -a --export 8F374FEF | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install emc2-sim

Known problems

Conflict with manually-installed kernel packages

If you already installed emc2 from linuxcnc.org/mozmck, then you will run into trouble with the emc2-install script, because of a conflict between two different versions of rtai (fresh installs should not be affected). If you want to do so, it appears necessary to run the following command first:

 sudo dpkg --purge rtai-modules-2.6.32-22-rtai

this removes the rtai package associated with an earlier version of the realtime kernel. If you do not do this, you will get a message similar to this one:

 E: /var/cache/apt/archives/rtai-modules-2.6.32-122-rtai_3.8.1-linuxcnc1_i386.deb: trying to overwrite '/etc/udev/rules.d/99-rtai.rules', which is also in package rtai-modules-2.6.32-22-rtai 0

If you get this message, then you may be able to recover by running

 sudo dpkg --purge rtai-modules-2.6.32-22-rtai
 sudo apt-get install emc2

Trouble if running without an X display

Reportedly, running emc2-install.sh without an X display available leads to some kind of trouble. The exact nature of this problem is not yet known.

Problem with more than 2 CPU cores/threads

Reportedly, some 4- and 6-core machines do not work properly. Emc, the emc latency-test and the rtai latency test all fail (emc2 latency-test always reports a latency of 0). If you have a machine that is affected by this problem, try booting with `maxcpus=1` or `maxcpus=2` on the grub2 kernel command line. Please report success or failure on the mailing list. [Grub2 Command Line and Rescue Mode]

Reported as working: Intel Core i5 CPU 750 (Quad Core) with Intel 3400-series chipset