Re: redhat Linux 6.2 and EMC on a K6

Les,

Some comments interspersed. My background is C-64, Amiga, Dos, WInPC, some
minimal Unix minicomputer - no linux until rather recently... So, you may
find this redundant, and anyone
should feel free suggest other possibilities :)

-----Original Message-----

>Ok I got a functioning rh 6.2 on an acer 200 mhz k6. I installed
>the server version but do not have a GUI running yet. The only reason I did
>server was because it was the only one where disk druid would automatically
>partition the drive. I do not know how much partition space to allocate
>manually.

Disk partitions that have worked for me:
/boot - 18mb (a little large, but I have several Linux kernels to boot
from -read- various rtlinux compilations!)
<swap> - (180mb)
/ - Remainder of the 1.2gig disk

>Of course I don't know squat about linux. My Redhat manuals
>CD seems to require a running linux and some linux command
>knowledge to access it. ?????!!!!!

You may have a GUI installed already, try typing 'startx' from the command
line.

I've got an RH6.1 install (installed on a clean P166/32mb/1.2g SVGA system,
with Gnome Workstation), which I used as my graphical interface base. The
GUI interface helped me quite a bit while getting a feel for the linux
filesystem setup. I did have to upgrade several components, (RH 6.1 being
linux2.2.13) because the rtlinux2.2 prepatched creates a 2.2.14 kernel.


Once in Gnome, the HOWTO files (roughly equivalent to Windows help files)
are easily accessible from the file manager under /usr/docs/HOWTO/, or from
the cdrom. (dig around...) I recommend reading the one on transition from
DOS to Linux.
If all else fails, get them from the www.linux.org site. Little tips:
'--help' following a command does that. <shift> <Pgup> scrolls the screen
back so you can read what whizzed past. alternatively use the format:
'your_command' --help | less. <ESC> then <q>
gets you out of 'less'.

>-What is the proper prepatched realtime kernel for linux 2.2.14-5.0 (RH
>6.2) and where is it

ftp.rtlinux.org/pub/rtlinux/v2/rtlinux-2.2a-prepatched.tar.bz2
Linux 2.2.14 kernel is part of the download.
I created a working directory to bunzip the file in - mkdir 'directory'
Unzipped it bzip2 -df 'filename'
Then un-tarred it 'tar -xpvf rtlinux*'
(the 'tar -xIvf rtlinux*' command does both steps at once - thats a capital
'i', not an L)

The INSTALL.phil is the better set of compile instructions. (use the command
'less INSTALL.phil' from the )

I used the nifty multitasking features of linux to start a separate console
<alt><F2> to read the instructions - 'less INSTALL.phil' - while compiling
the rtlinux kernel in my original console. Note that though the install
instructions say that you'll get an 'enable real time extensions' option
when configuring the kernel, it has been made a default in the makefile
already, and doesn't appear when you configure before compiling
(rtlinuxv2.3, anyhow...)

Had to change file permissions in several places to get the './insrtl'
command to work. Changing file permissions can be dangerous, but until I
stop to figure out permission setups in more detail, it works.....

Downloaded the prepatched kernel from the RTLinux ftp site. I used the
2.3pre-2, but had to modify the EMC install somewhat. Also, the odd version
numbers of rtlinux are consindered 'unstable'. (To tell the truth, through
the process I must have re-install/re-compiled Linux 2.2.x w/ rtlinux at
least 6 or 7 times. Mostly had to do with file permissions, which I found
out about the sixth or seventh time, naturally.)

>- what is the appropriate EMC distribution?

Try the August 2000 release rpm, which installs a pre-compiled version in
the right place. www.linuxCNC.org/dropbox/?
('rpm -i rtlinux*' typed from the appropriate directory)

The default run mode uses TkEMC, which best I can tell needs Gnome
(xwindows) running before it will work. I start EMC in a terminal(console)
window from Gnome. (its is possible to change the emc.ini/sim.ini to use the

'emcpanel' interface, which runs from the console.)

Note that I'm still collecting the hardware portion of the system, so I've
just been able to run ./sim.run....

>
>-Is there a script for the rh 6.2, rtlinux, and EMC combination?

Don't know.

Hope this helps

Keith Rumley

(Michigan, L.P.)




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