On 1/16/2013 9:15 AM, Michael Haberler wrote: > a short update: There's a lot of really good news here, folks. My thanks and a tip of the hat to Michael, John, Charles, and everyone else who has contributed. I doubt most of us can appreciate how much work has been done to get us to this point. The devil's in the details as they say.
> linuxcnc development branches: > > ... John and me are working to produce a single 'userland threads' build > which supports all of the mentioned styles, and activates them based on > autodetection of the underlying kernel (default) or explicity through a > startup option. This should make it significantly easier for the build > process, and also for trying different kernels with the same configuration > (reboot, but no rebuild required). This is terrific. I've futzed with various schemes to keep separate builds available on the same machine and it's a real nuisance. > ... > > x86 kernels: > > from the 'it doesnt boot on my machine' perspective it seems we're through > the worst with this kernel: > http://static.mah.priv.at/public/xenomai-debs/linux-image-3.2.21-xenomai+_0.4_i386.deb > . However, John is working with the folks on the Xenomai list to produce > debian-style and other 'universal' kernels which likely will be based on a > later vanilla kernel (3.5.x). Since these will likely see more exposure than > my initial attempt I would rather bet on that option. There is also talk > about forward-porting the ipipe patch to 3.8 so with that route it seems to > me the 'kernel too old' problem will go away. John probably can give a better > picture here. Fortunately, all your kernels have booted on my machines without any problems not of my own making. I'm glad to hear the worst is over for others. I'm also relieved to hear the ipipe folks are still breathing. > from the latency perspective, I must say the results are still confusing - we > have Sam's AMD results which are disappointing, and we have other reports > like memleak's which really shine on an AMD (different base version though). > We have no figures from the efforts on the Xenomai list yet, but that > shouldnt be too long. Also memleak has access to my git kernel repo and I am > looking forward to having a build which can be reviewed on other platforms as > well. So here it's more about consistent results, rather than instability. In > fact I havent seen a kernel oops or crash with the 3.2.21 based kernels in > quite a while. Sam's results were so different from my own that I keep thinking there's something obvious we're missing here. Time will tell. I need to repeat my tests using the latest version. > ARM work: > > Several people have been able to get the Beaglebone ubuntu/xenomai setup > working as outlined here: > http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?BeagleboneDevsetup > I have updated the kernel and rootfs image a few days ago so the kernel > includes ext2/3/4 support compiled in, which should take care of two failure > reports I got. > > Again that xenomai kernel is based on 3.2.21; it works very stable for me but > there have been several reports of 'sudden stops'. The BB is a bit sensitive > to power fluctuations but it might be more than that. As for that kernel, it > works, but it is based on a branch which will see no further development. It > supports most of the stuff needed to development; there might be some patches > coming from more active BB users than me. I'm not convinced it is solely a power supply issue, at least not in my case, but more usage should shed light on any underlying problems. I'd be happy to be proven wrong. > Charles has done some great work for a high-speed stepgen on the Beaglebone, > and a few folks have reproduced that, but I leave the fanfare to Charles > here;) That's your cue, Charles; time to appear through the curtain before the drum roll stops :-) > I have done no further work on the Raspberry, I do not consider that platform > particularly useful to base work on. Yep. For me, the RPi ranks right up there with Arduinos as fun but ultimately dissatisfying. I'm using mine for spur-of-the-moment projects. > RTAI note: > > I was pointed to this thread recently, which is interesting to read for > several reasons: > https://mail.rtai.org/pipermail/rtai/2012-December/thread.html "Git > repository for RTAI" > > It does mention a Ubuntu 12.04 RTAI kernel (Shahbaz Youssefi shabbyx at > gmail.com Tue Dec 18 11:09:41 CET 2012) - it might be worth following that > up, maybe this is an option to get the current builds out of the 10.04 > end-of-support-life situation. I would appreciate if somebody more RTAI-aware > than me would pick that up. > > It also touches on the issue how the source repository and collaboration > model touches upon a project's success, and that's an interesting read. It > looks like the nature of open source communities changes due to for instance > the github model, making it easier for the casual contributor, which is a > sore spot with the linuxcnc proejct. Something to think about. Interesting read, indeed. Regards, Kent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Master Java SE, Java EE, Eclipse, Spring, Hibernate, JavaScript, jQuery and much more. Keep your Java skills current with LearnJavaNow - 200+ hours of step-by-step video tutorials by Java experts. SALE $49.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122612 _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
