Re: Linux vs. DOS

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Falck [mailto:dfalck@...]
> Sent: Monday, May 31, 1999 8:55 PM
> To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@onelist.com
> Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Linux vs. DOS
>
>
> From: Dan Falck <dfalck@...>
>
>
> Tim, make an adapter with a male and female DB-25 plug. Sort of a pass
> through connector that crosses signals to fit what you need. I
> have made a
> few to adapt controllers that were using Dancam and then Maxnc. You could
> pull it in and out of the input path as you test all these programs out.
>

That is the path I am taking to get it going. While I am sitting here in
front of the computer I am figuring out the color codes on a spare parallel
cable I am going to sacrifice and cross wire it to get the connections I
need.

> Now you tell us! :-) The list has been quiet this weekend. I figured
> everyone was busy setting up their Linux machines like me. I just got
> Redhat 5.2 yesterday and have gone through some of the same things Tim has
> been through, but not gotten as far.
> I read in one of the READMEs that kernels can be compiled on
> other machines
> and then inserted into a seperate system. If it could be pulled off for
> this, (enhanced RT Linux +Redhat 5.2) it would be a real timesaver.(Fred,
> Matt, hint hint ;-) )
> I have been watching this thread and am saving all the notes. I
> hope to be
> the second one to run the stepper EMC. Thanks for all the insallation
> advice Matt and Tim!

I was sort of surprised to find out I am the trail blazing guinea pig on
this. Knowing myself better than the rest of you do, boy are you all in
trouble.

Dan, there are a number of things I found out in the installation that I am
have half kept track of you will need to know.

1 - The kernel update files on the RedHat site were an older version than I
had on the CD. To get the realtime patch to install all I needed to do was
load ALL the kernel rpm modules (headers, library, source) that were on the
5.2 CD.
The steps from xwindows are as follows:
mount the Disk 1 CD with the command: mount /mnt/cdrom
use the RPM package manager from the control panel (the picture of a
Christmas present) and click on the Available button in the package manager.
If I remember correctly the packages you want are in the directory
Base/kernel. Once you find them select ALL items in the directory and click
install.

This gets you past step 1 of Matt's instructions. Now just follow his
instructions except for the following changes.
In step 2 where you issue the patch command his instructions show a hyphen
where it should be an underscore. The proper command is: patch -p1 <
../kernel_patch
In step 3 again a hyphen is shown. Do: make modules_install
In step 4 you may want to put in a way to boot to the old kernel just
incase. To do this you have 2 image sections in your lilo.conf file as
follows:
boot=/dev/XXX <-- leave xxx as is, e.g., hda1
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz <-- change this to /boot/vmlinuz
label=rtlinux
root=/dev/XXX <-- leave XXX as is, e.g., hda1
read-only
append="mem=XXm"<-- XX = the number of MB of RAM you have - 1
image=/boot/vmlinuz2.0.36-7 <-- this block is the original one with no
changes
label=linux <-- I am going from memory on the image line, just
leave it alone
root=/dev/XXX <-- leave XXX as is, e.g., hda1
read-only

This lilo.conf will default to the realtime kernel, but you can boot the
original kernel by typing in the value of the label (linux or whatever
your's reads) of the second image block at the Lilo: prompt on bootup.
*Note that the quotes in the append= line should be the same in the begining
and end. I used double quotes. Single may work I haven't tried, but I am
pretty sure they need to be the same single or double.

The only other thing I know to watch out for is to use the memory values
from Matt's last list for updating the 64stepper.ini and run.64step378 file
values.

Good luck and let me know if I can confuse the issue any more.

Tim
[Denver, CO]