Tiny Computer with Printer port

More
29 May 2014 18:26 #47513 by ArcEye
Glad to hear it.

I used icewm on the image for the same reason, gnome is just so clunky and slow.

If you are feeling brave you could remove the original kernel - System.map - config - initramfs from /boot, its modules in /lib/modules, the realtime in /usr/realtime-2.6.32xxxxx
run update grub and reboot into the vortex kernel.
(Health warning though, it is your safety net if your RIP build goes wrong and does not eat anything when not in use)

Building linuxcnc with --prefix=/usr will build for a user system install and all the binaries will go into /usr/bin and overwrite the old ones

libusb-dev (2.01) is available for Hardy
launchpadlibrarian.net/10525390/libusb-dev_0.1.12-8_i386.deb

You just need to install manually using dpkg -i libusb-dev_0.1.12-8_i386.deb

You will probably have to install libusb-1 from building sources

Whether it is worth the bother depends if you are going to be using a USB pendant etc

regards

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Sep 2014 08:27 #51294 by matterest
I am having trouble getting my ncbox 189 to boot from a flash drive, I have downloaded the 8.04 live I'd and put on a flash drive with win32diskimager but the NC box doesn't see it.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Sep 2014 08:45 #51297 by andypugh
NCbox is a nice platform, I really wish it had taken off. Maybe it still will, it is a better starting point than RaspberryPi or BBB in this application.

If you have a different Linux box running Ubuntu you could try using the Linux-aware Startup Disk Creator.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Sep 2014 11:06 - 18 Sep 2014 11:24 #51298 by midworld08
Most likely your compact flash card is too fast. The NCBox is not compatible with all the later super fast cards. Max speed 266x or 30MB/s. Its getting harder to find the slow cards. I can tell you that Kingston 266x and Sandisk Ultra 30MB/s as I have those running. Also check earlier on this thread for the BIOS Settings that have to be correct to get the flash working as well.
Also be a little more specific, ie Do you see the card when inside the BIOS? Do you get a blinking cursor top left screen after bios completes its boot? Does Grub come up with a failure? These are all Compact flash problems....
I can say it was all rather a pain to get it running compared to a standard PC.
I have a version which I compiled that runs LinuxCNC2.7 for the NCbox. Once you get your flash recognised, PM me, and I will happily dropbox it to you.
Last edit: 18 Sep 2014 11:24 by midworld08. Reason: More additions
The following user(s) said Thank You: matterest

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Sep 2014 18:51 #51305 by matterest
It shows the card in bios but I do get the blinking cursor, i tried a really old card with 128mb and it gave me an error so I think you are right.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
18 Sep 2014 20:19 #51306 by ArcEye
The fast camera card problem is covered here, it is down to card manufacturers not envisaging it being used to boot from, so do not enable that.

www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...port?start=100#46716

However it is not restricted to the new fast cards, tkampster had the same problem with his first card, just because it was an old camera card he had lying around
and had no reason to think it would not boot.

If you go back towards the beginning of the thread there are the BIOS settings used, I think they were re-iterated a few pages back also.

Afraid I am not using the NCBOX any more, so can't assist further.

regards

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 Sep 2014 00:17 #51311 by matterest
I got a "working" cf card but, I installed the latest live cd, now it will show some stuff about debian But after that it just goes to a blinking cursor I have tried to boot from a flash drive again but it just goes to the cf card. Am I just waiting long enough for it to boot?

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 Sep 2014 01:54 #51316 by matterest
interesting... very interesting! i just got my 400x card (from my first attempt) to work!... with windows! there must be something in linux the doesn't like the faster cards?!?!

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 Sep 2014 19:29 #51341 by tkamsker
Hi,
i was mentioned lately here in this thread ;)-
Question have you documented the steps how you managed to get the 2.7.x (or better 2.6.3 ) to run ?
I would love to do that for the cnc lathe i have (that if why i bought an ncbox th first place

i would then do it from scratch and document it for the others ,..

because i have tourchsceeem gmoccpy and and tool changer so 2.6 is mandatory
thx
thomas

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
19 Sep 2014 20:29 #51345 by midworld08
Matterest,
You might be right and that Grub boot loader is not happy with the CF cards, as its a rather early version. I had some mixed results with a 4G card here, which I attempted to put the later grub onto, and then point to the linux install, but I could never get the boot table to look at the right HDD, and the NCBox did not seem to assign the same numbering each time it booted. I remember getting very frustrated, and out of my depth in that area so I gave up, and ordered the flash card that others had working. But I am sure I was onto something.

Thomas,
I was following instructions from yourself and Arceye downloads on compiling the Kernel, and installing the later version 2.5. I got that running. The rough instructions are;
1) Set the NCBox up so it looks at the old Ubuntu repository, and update the repository headers. I had to do this, as when compiling the kernal I had some dependancies that would not solve, so I had to do this to compile in the first place.
2) Used Github to aquire the latest LinuxCNC source code. (This was actually a mistake, I was going for a slightly earlier version, but alas this version runs well)
3) Followed the instructions on compiling the source code from Linuc CNC documentation.
4) Whenever a dependancy was hit, and compiling would stop, I would look on the repository for it and install it. Several of the dependencies I also had to github and compile from source.
5) One dependency that would not resolve was the USB, that was not available from the Ubuntu old repository in source or compiled image, and at the time I could not find source of it from another place...later Arceye posted a link, which I acquired the files, but never went about using it (well my machine is running :) )
6) So the compilation gave the option to compile even though the USB dependency was there, and I said yes, and it was the only thing left that it was complaining about.
That was it. On page 12 of this thread is some more of the details. OK the above is not the command by command blow of it. I do have some pretty good notes stored on the NCBox of the instructions and my notes that I followed. So I'll see if I can find that and post more on it.
I have yet to also follow a recommendation to compile the code and not have to type in the commands to run the RIP install. I recently copied my CF card, and tested the copy, so I am about to see if I can re-compile it all and make it into a permanent install and make it boot directly into it. I did not want to touch the working version, as it took some time to get there, and one silly mistake with this stuff and you kiss it all good bye.

You are welcome to the image I have as it sit Thomas. Its a 16Gig file, as I have dd'ed off the card. I have not figured out how to make it smaller yet, as the dd copies everything, and the card it actually only 8.5GB in size with all data on it. I had a look at it, but setting up a virtual FS, and coping into it, and then bla bla bla was again at my limits. I was happy to make chips :) for a time.
The following user(s) said Thank You: tkamsker

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.180 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum