RTAPI error and realtime delay at EMC launch

Hello, all. I had installed EMC2 from the Live CD with Ubuntu 10.04 recently, had horrible latency problems, found a solution (I posted on these forums my solution) but I'm still having some errors at EMC2 launch that I had before I solved the latency problems.

I had problems with the video card/screen being slow. I installed a new video card and some tweaks and solved that (included in my post about that specific problem and resolution). However, I still get an RTAPI error at launch and an unexpected error with the realtime (whatever that is).

The specific errors are:

RTAPI: ERROR: Unexpected realtime delay on task 1. This Message will only display once per session. Run the Latency Test and resolve before continuing.

Unexpected reatlime delay: check dmesg for details.

I attempted to run (as I found pointed to in other posts) the realtime latency test from the console (with EMC2 NOT running) but I am getting an error there: CANNOT INIT MASTER TASK.

The system operates my table (a Fireball v.90) okay (I've only done air runs, no production work yet) and the EMC2 latency test reports <25,000 ns for both the Servo and Base threads (test while dragging windows rapidly around the screen, launching Firefox, browsing sites). I'm not sure what to do next.

Please help if you can offer any answers or suggestions. Thank you for your time.

--HC

Sorry, I'm a noob with Linux. Follow up, running the latency test with sudo gave me results.

As per what BigJohnT told me in an old post I've tried to do this sorta long posting via paste bin (we'll see if this works).

RTAI testsuite results:

pastebin.com/eUP0qGYV

After a little online searching I managed to get a complete dmesg dump to a text file so I could post the entire thing (the console window cut off the beginning):

pastebin.com/thm9cbs9

Hope that'll help someone figure out what is wrong. Thank you again.

--HC

From your error msg:

In recent history there were 2203168, 2204535, 2202002, 2200710, and 2200135 elapsed clocks between calls to the motion controller.This time, there were 2858722 which is so anomalously large that it probably signifies a problem with your realtime configuration.

You have real time delay of several millisec. This is "anomalously".
I had this on a laptop due to the SMI issue. Switching off SMI helps in this case. I remember there was a wiki about how to do.
Another candidate is said to be USB. Have you any USB device connected ?

Gerd

I had tried to post a reply but got an error so if it shows up twice, forgive me.

Basically I did this: I had another PC laying around so I loaded the Ubuntu 10.04 with EMC2 on it. Entirely different PC (diff MB, diff proc, diff RAM, diff onboard video card, the only things that stayed the same were the keyboard, mouse, and monitor). No errors, much less latency than on the first PC (PC1). The second PC (PC2) is a system built on an Intel MB, Intel proc, 2 GB RAM, whatever onboard video card). Latency was reduced dramatically over the initial load of PC1 but not as low as the latency after I changed the video card on PC1 so I loaded that video card on PC2 and rebooted and then got the RTAPI error on PC2. Removed the video card and reloaded the OS from disc and no errors anymore. Since then I have made several test cuts and run EMC2 numerous times with no RTAPI errors on PC2.

I set PC1 backup with the Gigabyte video card and am using it now to try to work through the problems. I would like to fix this system and to understand more about what the problem is.

I tried the steps at the wiki (thank you andypugh for the link) but when I edit the rtapi.conf file (a trick for we Linux newbs...I had to sudo gedit to do it) and made the TWO changes (adding the rtai_smi entry to the MODULES list and the MODPATH entry) but I get an error at EMC2 start up. Looking through the errors the seemingly relevant entry is: insmod: error inserting (path to rtai_smi.ko): -1 No such device 2641

I have twice reviewed the path and verified that the file (rtai_smi.ko) is there, so I don't think that's the problem. What the heck is the no such device error?

I have two devices connected to USB: my Microsoft Wheelmouse Optical and the Probotix PC interface for the Fireball v90 (used soley for power to the electronics, supplementing the 120vac input for the motor drivers).

Thank you both (step4linux and andypugh) for your replies.

What should I try next?

Merry Christmas.

--HC

Sorry, an important point: I'd like this system (PC1, the first system I loaded EMC2 on and had the posted problems with) to be running because I'm going to be working on a CNC plasma table and I'll need two functional motion control computers; one for the Fireball, one for the plasma table. That said to point out that this exercise with this computer is not just acedemic.

Thank you all for your time and help.

--HC

Andy, thank you for your reply. Here is the PasteBin link:

pastebin.com/0h839dbM

I had done a search for that "rtapi no such device 2641"

I did it on Google. I got squat (although, repeating it now I get a couple of links to my post here).

I noticed a problem at bootup (I'm only setting this computer up when I have time to try to work through this problem). I got a CMOS Checksum bad error and I had to reset the date and time. I skipped the step and Ubuntu ate itself on start up claiming that there was some disk error. It attempted to mount the drive and then the system rebooted. I entered setup on the second boot and set the date and time and removed the floppy disk (disabled it) as it was back to being enabled (I had disabled it when I first set this system up).

I don't know if the CMOS battery going bad (probably the cause of a bad checksum error, in my experience) could cause the EMC2 errors I'm seeing. But, a problem is a problem, so I'm going to replace the battery tomorrow, just in case. It'd be nice if that's all the problem is.

Thank you again and Merry Christmas.

--HC

Okay, I found I already had a spare battery that was the right one for the motherboard, thank God. Saved waiting until tomorrow. I checked the voltage (it's been in a drawer a while) and got just over 3.1 volts. I pulled the old one and got barely a quarter volt. I installed the new one but got the errors still. I reloaded the system from the Live CD and re-installed the video card driver but I still get the "unexpected realtime" error and the RTAPI error. Not both all the time, sometimes just one or the other, sometimes both at the same time (over multiple close/open cycles of the EMC2 software.

I was hoping for the best with the battery but, no, not happening. I posted the latest dmesg in case it changed.

pastebin.com/Ath2mj13

I have the one functional system, but I need a second for to use on the plasma table I'm working on. If this gets to be too big a pain in the butt I'll see about building a new system (I see BigJohnT posted a motherboard he has had good luck with) but it'd be nice to figure this out just in case I run across it again sometime (or someone else runs across it).

Thank you.

--HC