RTAI_SERIAL

I have installed EMC per the 12.04 setup. I have code to perform serial in real time via the RTAI_SERIAL HAL module. I am working agianst a serial port not a USB serial port. Is there a way to get this module in the configuration?

I am not sure this is the correct forum catagory to post in. Let me know if there is a more approriate area.

Thanks,
Eric

Hi

When you say THE rtai_serial module, are you talking about the one in RTAI?
It is an addon which is not enabled in the normal realtime builds for Linuxcnc

The best way to ensure compatability of symbols, kernel versions, rtai versions etc, would be to build RTAI against the rtai kernel you have installed (3.4.55 ?).
Ensure that serial is enabled in the config (I think it normally builds, but is not installed automatically, you have to manually copy it to /usr/realtime/modules/linuxcnc/ plus the .h file to /usr/realtime/include )

Then hide the existing /usr/realtime folder and run make install to create /usr/realtime and copy over rtai_serial files

Then build Linuxcnc as a RIP install built against this new realtime.

Now you can probably insert it in the same way as the rtai_smi module, so that it is loaded at run time
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?FixingSMIIssues

This way you will not affect the existing install and have the linuxcnc source code available too

regards

Yes.

I performed the install per
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UpdatingTo2.6
Fresh install on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise)
Section - so that resulted in the use of the kernel and modules defined in this step -> sudo apt-get install linux-image-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae rtai-modules-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae

uname -v yields #1 SMP PREMPT Debain 3.4.55-31linuxcnc

I believe the step above does not install the rtai source (just the headers and modules)...
Is there documentation for getting the rtai source and building rtai against the linuxcnc kernel ?

OK I am looking at the link you provided and I may get what your saying...
How do I know what RTAI version source to use (The one that was used to patch the linux kernel)?

I am guessing the answer might be something like -> apt-get source rtai-3.8.X?

OK I found in the realtime dir -> \realtime-xxx-pae\share\rtai\config-rtai-3.9.1-unofficial

so what does the 'unofficial' mean?

Thanks,
Eric

The very reason why I suggested you build RTAI yourself, is because the sources are not available as a package AFAIK
They are an unofficial version from github.com/ShabbyX/RTAI
I don't know if you can download that exact version which was used with 3.4.9 or if the repo has changed since

Is there documentation for getting the rtai source and building rtai against the linuxcnc kernel ?

Source as per above
Most are out of date, this goes through the process, just ignore the specific version numbers
code.google.com/p/neo-technical/wiki/emc2ubuntu

It is just really
autogen.sh
make menu-config
make
but you will need a lot of build tools and libs which are not in the distro
Most are in that link, but a few of those are now out of date also. configure will tell you what is missing.

Point of Information the rtai_fifo.ko is also not present.

If you build it yourself it will be.

This a ls of my /usr/realtime dir for a partition with a rtai kernel and realtime built from sources

total 712
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11645 Jul 1 17:49 latency_rt.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33982 Jul 1 17:49 Module.symvers
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6260 Jul 1 17:49 preempt_rt.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 17:21 realtime.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19453 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_bits.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9273 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_calibrate.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58623 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_fifos.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 43089 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_hal.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25972 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_mbx.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28525 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_mq.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52611 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_msg.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44319 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_netrpc.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 168373 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_sched.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56361 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_sem.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24015 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_serial.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26440 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_shm.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5673 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_smi.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30329 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_tasklets.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16257 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_tbx.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24554 Jul 1 17:49 rtai_wd.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10173 Jul 1 17:49 switches_rt.ko

You will see it has rtai_serial in it too

regards

The repo for rtai can patch 3.4.87 .... not 3.4.55

Do you have the .config file for the Kernel make menuconfig?

also the .config for rtai ?

E

Hi

I don't know where Seb keeps the rtai sources
Have a root around highlab.com/~seb/linuxcnc/ and see if you can find them
Or you could always ask him

The kernel config will be what is in /boot/config-3.4.55-rtai-xxxx

There is no config for rtai, you just select C99 and Maths funcs in kernel as per the building link I posted earlier

regards

Something is not right, using that config file in the build results in an image that is an order of magnitude bigger than the rtai 3.4.55 pae image.

additionally the update-initramfs step can't find modules.builtin

As I said I have no idea where Seb keeps his configs, or what he did with the sources.

If you are going to build a kernel, just build one there is patch for in RTAI, use the rtai config in the link I posted and make any changes you think you need.

3.8.13 builds fine