Installation problems

I'm having trouble getting Ubuntu 10.04 to work.

After installation, I get a login prompt even though I've selected 'login automatically' when I installed it.

Nevertheless, I can enter my password and it accepts it, then the screen flickers a bit and I'm right back at the login prompt.

I had Xbuntu 11.10 on this same machine before and it worked fine.

I am wondering if I can put Xbuntu 11.10 back on, install the realtime kernal and then build EMC2 locally?

I'm in the process of doing that right now but am I wasting my time trying? Anything that would prevent this from working?

Just wondering.

Hi

If you succeeded, all you would have would be 10.4 running a load of applications which were built against a later kernel, with all the problems that might bring.

The problem you have is most likely the g(opping)d(display)m(anager) that Ubuntu insist upon using, even though it has become far more difficult to configure and modify.

I have never used the automatic log in option, for security considerations, but I have had a cycling log-in and exit before.
This appears to have been down to gdm being unable to launch an X session and crashing back to the login screen again.

As you have not got anywhere yet and only installed the basic system, I would re-install 10.4 again, just using standard log in options of one root user and one normal user, without auto log in.
Make sure that you format the volume to be used so that no screwed up conf files remain.

I have only once had the problem you describe and re-installing cured whatever the gdm configuration screwed up.

Then get rid of gdm and install lxdm would be my choice.

regards

Thanks for the input, I have re-installed the linuxcnc iso several times now with identical results. However, as I mentioned, I already had 11.10 xbuntu on this system- I did not format before I installed the liveCD, so perhaps that was an issue.

I have 11.10 on it again and that works well, I'm in the middle of a build of the 3.0.20 realtime kernal which is taking a LONG time.

The password is not an issue for me, this will be a dedicated machine controller, I have a windows box I do all my design on.

I will continue this path for now but if the results are unsatisfactory I will drop back to the 10.04 livecd and re-try that with your suggestions.

Thanks again for the response, much appreciated, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions

Martan

I'm in the middle of a build of the 3.0.20 realtime kernal

Where did you get the magma kernel patches for 3.0.20?
They only went up to 2.6.37 last time I looked. I'd be very interested.

After 2.6.32 I had a lot of problems with the patches, they either would not patch because the the kernel version had been consolidated and it no longer matched code wise, or it appeared to patch OK but would not boot.

Actually, without opening the box I'm not sure what motherboard, I'm guessing AMD? It's a frankenstein from several older computers- the processor is a 2.3g celeron, about a gig of ram I think.

I've googled extensively and seen some similar issues but not this exact one. If I run the 10.04 LiveCD in 'try me' mode, it still asks for a login and nothing works, I've tried all the suggested ones to no avail.

If I install from the OS, I use the entire C drive (40G) (it also has a 120G as the D drive but that is just an old FAT32 volume)

I also have the Xbuntu 11.10 iso, this installs and works with no issues, hence my try at starting there and building a RT kernal and then EMC2.

The 10.04 also has some shutdown issues, it seems whack the screen and hang sometimes.

Anyhow, what I will try this evening is to complete the 11.10 Xbuntu with the realtime kernal build, then do the EMC2 and see if that works. If not, I'll format the C drive, then re-install 10.04 linuxcnc LiveCD and start over from there.

I found the RT stuff here:
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/3.0/

Martan

Yep, 8.04 comes up ok.

martan wrote:

I found the RT stuff here:
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/3.0/

I don't think you will find that RTLinux will work with LinuxCNC and it needs to be RTAI as found here
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.gna.org:/cvs/rtai co magma

and built as described here
code.google.com/p/neo-technical/wiki/emc2arch

It looks as though the 2 diverged some time back, albeit RTAI was originally based upon RTLinux but is only backwardly compatable with v1.

regards

Well you could just use 8.04 for running Linxcnc .

But if you also need a newer version why not set a dual boot with 8.04 for Linxcnc and a new version for other tasks?

Rick G