Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Need help with EMC Install on a Dumpster grade Laptop

dayap1 wrote:

>Hi,
>I was on the verge of installing BDI Live on a P3/450 desktop
>computer when I just came by an IBM 365X Laptop. This computer has
>the following specs: Pentium 133MHz, 80Mb of memory, 2.1Gb Hard disk,
>Floppy and network card, but NO CDROM.
>>From all the correspondence here and on the linuxcnc site, I know
>that BDI LIVE cannot be used (No CDROM, Not enough memory).
>
>Is it possible to install a version of linux without all the Office
>Suites etc, and then install EMC?
>
>

I'd recommend the BDI 2.20b It should support this laptop, as it is hardly
new with a P133. I think you could boot from the net card, after loading
BDI on another system, and setting up the network on that host system to
allow remote booting. You might need the corresponding full Linux distro
of the same Linux revison that the BDI is built onto, to have all the
network
components. The kernel in the BDI 2.20b is 2.2.18, if I recall
correctly. Once
you have a basic kernel booting over the network, you
could then copy all the files onto the hard drive. Basically, you'd
make the
host system become the CD drive for the laptop.

It is probably also possible to make a boot floppy (might take 2) to load
a kernel into the laptop, then mount the BDI CD on an available host
and do the BDI install from the remotely mounted CD.

>Although new to Linux, I am a professional embedded software
>developer so I am not intimidated by the prospect of compiling and
>installing software packages.
>

You should be. EMC is not a monolithic program, it is a network of
cooperating processes running on a patched kernel. I don't recommend
anyone less than a total Linux guru to try building the RT patched kernel
themselves.

Building EMC from the SourceForge CVS is definitely a major undertaking,
but mere mortals can do it, with a little help.

> Is there a description of what it takes
>to install a basic EMC system? There seems to be an information
>overload on Linux. Whose Linux and which version should I choose,
>bearing in mind the above hardware? Debian, Mandrake, Fedora, Suse????
>Also, can I use a network install where the data comes from another
>PC? Or, can I use a parallel port ZIP drive for the source?
>
>And once I have installed Linux, what else do I need? (Realtime
>extensions etc). And finally, exactly what do I need to download for
>EMC?
>
>

The realtime extensions to Linux are not an after the fact addon. They
become
a totally integral part of the kernel. Literally, although Linux starts
the RT
scheduler, after that, Linux is a subtask running UNDER the RT scheduler.
You would do WELL to just get the BDI kernel loaded onto that machine,
somehow. You should be able to load the BDI onto a generic PC and then
use it to generate a boot floppy. Boot the boot floppy on the laptop, and
if it runs OK, you have some assurance the kernel would load and run
from the hard drive. The remaining gotcha is the whether XFree86 (the
windowing system) will work with the LCD on the laptop. Searching the
hardware compatibility database at one of the Linux developers sites
should reveal that.

>
>

Jon