EMC2 errors at startup-crash

Hello, all, I hope someone can help me with getting EMC2 to run.

I downloaded the Live-CD with U8.04 and installed it on a PC I have. The PC was built by some local guy who used an ASUS A8V-VM mboard with built-on video. The video chip has VIA on it, VT8251. I do computer work and got the system given to me as a hand-me-down when the company using it replaced it. It ran fine when it was replaced and the installation of Ubuntu went smoothly.

When the installation was complete I attempted to run EMC2. I chose one of the plasma profiles and EMC2 began loading (the main window appeared) but then crashed. I saw that Ubuntu had a bunch of updates (198) to perform but, knowing that some updates could break EMC2 (in the notes on this website) I read around and found a suggestion from BigJohnT (I think it was, an admin/moderator) in response to someone else saying to turn off updates for the OS (System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager - Settings - Repositories - Updates tab and set "Show new distribution releases" to Never). So I did that. After all the updates were performed (including several for EMC2) I get error still at startup (launching EMC2).

I have tried different profiles: plasma-thc-sim, plasma-thc (all three sub items), stepper-sim_inch, stepper_inch, and stepper_mm and gotten errors each time.

Looking at the errors more closely before I post this, I notice that the errors are the same (I had a different one about serial something but I closed that window already). The errors appear to be identical (at least the Debug File Information section at the end):

dmesg
pastebin.ca/1822843


I'm not sure but does the VIA in "DRM_VIA_PCICMD" have something to do with the video card? Ubuntu seems to be working well other than this problem.

Thank you for your help.

--HC

Thanks for the reply, John. Pretty color on that Goldwing, BTW.

Okay, I did a search online about the libgl1-mesa-swx11 package referenced. It is, apparently, an OpenGL-type library/API. So, it seems that the version of whatever it is that is not working on my system is just not happy with the VIA chipset (not implemented at this time the message said). I will try installing this package when I return home tomorrow. If that fails I will disable the onboard chipset and buy an aftermarket card unless someone else can tell me what to do fix the problem.

Maybe a better question would be, if the libgl1-mesa-swx11 package fails to solve the problem, what is it that EMC2 is looking for that is being satisfied by the package on my system that is failing and libgl1-mesa-swx11? That is, if I knew exactly what package was failing (and its purpose), maybe I could seek support from the relevant source (whatever group provides that software).

Sorry, pretty much basic questions but I've been a Windows guy and DOS before that; I have very little experience with any flavor of 'nix.

And sorry about the post listing, I'll use pastebin next time.

Thank you for your time.

--HC

Hey, John, thanks again for the reply. I went to the house today and worked on the system. I hit Google for the package and found a site with it for 8.04 Hardy. It said to use the package manager as a preferred method so I used the PM to search for the package. It indicated it would need to uninstall some components (I'm sorry, I have no idea what the were called; I figured if I hosed the system I could reload it so no need to record the info). I presume it uninstalled some other OpenGL-for-Linux flavor. Regardless, when it was done I tried running EMC2 and chose the stepper-inch profile and it came up quickly and showed me a line-art 3D image of AXIS 3D letters and sat there so it seems to be working. I will have time to play with it Sunday night when I return home again.

In the meantime, to better learn what the heck I'm doing, see if I have this right:

Mesa is an implementation of OpenGL-like functionality for Linux, similar to something else that was on my system (the Live-CD) which did not work on my VIA chipset in my PC. AXIS (some type of GUI for EMC2 similiar to (KDE, Gnome, et cetera (x windows)) is a GUI for Linux (UNIX) and as Windows 3.x was a GUI for DOS only that EMC2 is not the OS, of course) needs an OpenGL-type API to do it's graphical thing. Replacing the non-functioning OpenGL-type piece with one that works with my video chipset fixed the problem (AXIS unable to do it's thing).

Had that failed (and I've done nothing to test the setup other than see it start on screen, so it may yet fail more, once in use) I would need to change the GUI for EMC2. TKEMC is a GUI for EMC2.

This stems from the fact that the OpenGL-type technology included on the Live-CD did not implement whatever was needed to make it work on my VIA chipset. Which brings me to what I've seen in Linux before; make sure you can get a driver for Linux for your hardware. Since I'm already here, and I probably should have done this *FIRST*: is there a list of recommended/tested hardware for use with the Live-CD (Ubuntu 8.04 and EMC2 combined)? So if I decide to build a computer just for this purpose or to replace the video card on my current system I could have a 'recipe' to follow?

Thanks again.

--HC

Hey, all, a follow up to this post I made months ago. Since that time I bought a Fireball v.90 CNC table from Probotix. They supplied it with the Live CD with Ubuntu 10.04. I installed it on the same system I was complaining about in my original post. However, with 10.04 the system worked the first time, no errors with the video card and the GUI worked the first time.

However, the video latency with the VIA chipset on the motherboard was a pig. I am going now to post a new thread about video cards and my experiences and what I did to solve my problems. I'll post it under the Computer forum as it is not directly related to this thread.

--HC