EMC2 won't start, errors

Hi again John - I found 8.04 live and tried it in the HP machine I have been working with. It did much better - actually displayed the Axis GUI but with the low half of the screen hashed horizontally. Error msg. reads 'unexpected real time delay - check dmesg for details' The file is attached. Maybe the HP box is not a good candidate?
Thanks for the time and effort looking at the big files which I have not the ability to interpret their meaning.

Hi again John - I found 8.04 live and tried it in the HP machine I have been working with. It did much better - actually displayed the Axis GUI but with the low half of the screen hashed horizontally. Error msg. reads 'unexpected real time delay - check dmesg for details' The file is attached. Maybe the HP box is not a good candidate?
Thanks for the time and effort looking at the big files which I have not the ability to interpret their meaning.

Hi

If you a going for 8.04, which is probably sensible, you now need to operate in a methodical fashion.

Install it, don't run from Live CD, and that will eliminate all the delays inherent in IDE seeks/reads from CD and possible memory shortages with no swap partition available and running from ramdisk.

You need to start reading wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?action...&id=EmcKnowledgeBase
as a jumping off point.

Then do a long latency test as per the wiki.
Abuse the system, open several glxgears apps, move large files, download from the internet and move windows about with a mouse periodically.

Your quoted background figures don't appear brilliant going by the dmesg print, and the spike that triggered the error was only about 25% higher, but I am assuming that was running from CD so can't really tell.

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?TroubleShooting
gives more detail on testing and common errors.

Once you have the latency test results and any other error messages that arise, should have a better idea if your computer is a candidate or paper weight.

regards

It did much better - actually displayed the Axis GUI but with the low half of the screen hashed horizontally

Is this with the on-board video? If so and you have a pci video card handy you could install that and disable the on borad to see if that helps.
You should be able to run the latency test from the Live CD to get an idea of how the computer will work without modifications.
The latency will determine if EMC2 will work for you and and what speed. Often the results are different with 8.04 and 10.04.
As ArcEye pointed out do not expect EMC2 to run great from the LiveCD.

Rick G

Hi folks - I did the install of 8.04 and got exactly the same results as running from the CD. My next move will be to try a PCI video card and also see if I can run the latency test from the CD - the things which you have kindly suggested. I am realizing that the computer requirements for just wanting to test EMC are the same as for actually operating a machine. Using another computer which will properly run the live CD (10.04) I showed my friend how EMC works using the Sherline configuration. As mentioned in an earlier post the CD did not run on his machine (HP Pavilion but newer than the one I am now wrestling) so I decided to try building him a Linux box with Ubuntu/EMC installed. This exercise started this whole discussion. I'll keep you posted.

I am realizing that the computer requirements for just wanting to test EMC are the same as for actually operating a machine.

Well maybe not exactly.
For just testing you can install LinxCNC as a simiulator without the Real time component.

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxCNC_Pure_Simulator

If installed this way the latency is not an issue and you can try some of the simulator configurations.

Rick G

Thanks Rick G. - that's exactly what I would like to get done - simulate and try various g-code programs. I am VERY green to Linux so maybe a question:
Should I begin with a fresh install of 10.04 without the EMC package and then install the simulator as described in the link you gave?
Thanx

I would start with a fresh install.
Also remember you will need to pick a simulator configuration.

Once this is done, just run "emc". You've got to pick a "sim" configuration from the list, otherwise HAL whines about a missing library in "probe_parport: dlopen".

Rick G

Got it! One more question (maybe only one) - I noticed something called WUBI. If one were to use this to implement a dual boot situation would the resulting install of 10.04 have any hickups with the 'simulator' mode of EMC?
Thanx

Never tried it, I normally just install a plain version of 10.04 from a Ubuntu live cd

Rick G