EMC2 on a Mac

Hello,
can EMC2 run directly as a mac program on a Mac (iMac Intel Core Duo)?
I mean without a Linux partition and EMC2 installed on this partition ?
Regards
Thierry

i doubt it , due to the needed real time component ( RTAI ) amongst others

andypugh wrote:

ThLDQ wrote:
[quotecan EMC2 run directly as a mac program on a Mac (iMac Intel Core Duo)?

No.

You might be able to compile it in the simulator mode, but there would be problems with some of the Linux kernel macros that are used (though a compatibility library might bupass that).

The fundamental problem is that (as far as I know) there is no RTAI patch for the Darwin kernel used in the Mac OS.[/quote]
Actually simulator mode on Mac OS would be nice even if it never runs a real machine. Which brings up a question, does the simulator need any access to RTAI?

At one time it was possible to run simulator in a VM under Ubuntu from what I understand, but this is supposedly a problem now. I haven't tried this myself with 2.5

Interestingly the kernel for Mc OS is completey open source. Thus I would think that a realtime extension would be very doable. Mac OS does support realtime threads but I have no idea if they are of the quality required by EMC. Unfortunately I think the task of a port is beyond my capabilities.

Ok.
I understand EMC2 might run, but not for sure, and a lot of work would be necessary to make it run...
Nobody want to work on that ????

In the meanwhile, booting on a Linux partition with EMC2 on it is better.
Thank you for the answer.
Regards
Thierry

Hello Andypugh,
what is Vmware Fusion ?
Thierry

I use the free virtualbox.org VM software on a Macbook pro and run linuxcnc in it, mostly the 10.04 version with the RTAI kernel, but I dont use it to drive any hardware.

It does compile and run rt and sim versions, although I use mostly the sim version for development, and for the areas I'm working on sim is actually easier to debug since all HAL modules are in userland, not kernel space.

I wouldnt know which hardware to connect to the Mac anyway. Also, for me it wouldnt make sense to do development using some Mac OSX shim and then move it to linux to run it. Also, I havent even looked at latency issues running virtualbox/OSX.

- Michael

I've had Ubuntu installed on a Mac, via VirtutalBox for a long time. However trying to run the normal version of LinuxCNC would cause a very hard rash. At least in the past it did. So I have to ask are you running the emulator version or the normal version?

mhaberler wrote:

I use the free virtualbox.org VM software on a Macbook pro and run linuxcnc in it, mostly the 10.04 version with the RTAI kernel, but I dont use it to drive any hardware.

It does compile and run rt and sim versions, although I use mostly the sim version for development, and for the areas I'm working on sim is actually easier to debug since all HAL modules are in userland, not kernel space.

Is this a recent result? I ask because I had hard crashes so bad a hard reboot was required. This is not something that happens to a Mac under normal operation. It has been a long time since iVe tested this though.

I wouldnt know which hardware to connect to the Mac anyway. Also, for me it wouldnt make sense to do development using some Mac OSX shim and then move it to linux to run it. Also, I havent even looked at latency issues running virtualbox/OSX.

There are many good reasons to want to run on the Mac. For one it is a laptop, thus I do not have any intention of actually running a machine on the VM. It would be a good place to do demos, programming and other things while away from stationary equipment.

- Michael