Latency Testing

Having got through the grub loading problem, I thought it might get a bit easier

Read through the various guides/manuals and started to determine the latency figure.

As a first test I just let the computer run unloaded to see what that showed, and then started moving windows about, like the test window suggested (not having anything better for the moment).
The figure was awful, up in the 100000's, so I started to look for hints as to what I might do to reduce the figure.
Found a reference to poor figures associated with ATI graphics boards, so I swiched my AGP board to an older SiS PCI board, and immediately found a great improvement.
Admittedly I had to sacrifice my high res image(1400x900ish) to 800x600, but not a problem.
(I'm planning to use this pc only for the cnc mc, and designing on a different m/c.)

Now, however, I find that each time I perform a latency test I get completely different figures, even before loading the system, anywhere from 20000 to 110000, and when I opened "system/preferences/main menu" as a random choice for loading the pc, I noticed the maximised window was bigger than the screen.
Trying to adjust the size after clicking on the minimise button didn't work - dragging the sides or corners of the window produced no effect.
So I'm now faced with the possibility of problems with the original ubuntu installation.
The emc2 pc has no internet connection, nor a network card at the moment, so if I need to look for a newer version of my live cd download it will be via this laptop.

Any/all comments/help/advice/shoulder to cry on greatly appreciated.
John B

On the email list, Stuart Stevenson provided these thoughts, perhaps they can help you and others.

Gentlemen,
My personal preference for installing EMC2 is as follows:

install a minimum of 256 mb ram
try to use the motherboard video (keep as simple as possible)
in bios - set parallel port to epp (I use Jon Elson's boards and they
require EPP mode)
load Ubuntu (6.06 LTS or 8.04 LTS) (depends on computer hardware) (for my
touch screens I find 6.06 is the easiest to configure)
update Ubuntu version to latest of the version
configure everything in Ubuntu as desired (especially touch screens)
download and run the install.sh for EMC2
restart computer
start EMC2 from the menu to make sure it will run
stop EMC2
git (a version) (I prefer trunk)
follow wiki instructions for build prep
go to src directory and configure (I always configure to run in place)
look through the configure results to make sure configure found everything
necessary
if configure did not find everything then install packages to resolve
dependencies and run configure again
when configure has found everything then run 'make'
when make has completed successfully then run 'sudo make setuid'
go to the top level directory of the version you installed
run 'scripts/emc'
EMC2 should start and run
if your touch screen was working before the EMC2 install - it will work now
until you have your machine starting and running reliably you need to start
EMC2 in a terminal so you can see the error messages - after you have your
machine running you can copy the menu icon to your desktop and change the
launch path to your compile version and use your icon to start EMC2
hth
Stuart

BMG - many thanks for your posting.
Having been away for a week, I return to the problem with a refreshed and open mind.
This means I've probably forgotten everything I did, so Stuarts posting will be an interesting route to try.
Certainly, before I left, the latency was good, and I was moving on to the problems of sorting out homing switches etc, but who knows what awaits me in the workshop.
Again thanks for the info.
Regards
John