Options on testing LinuxCNC
23 Dec 2012 22:50 #27979
by GPappy
Options on testing LinuxCNC was created by GPappy
I have an early 90's Acer Power Tower 9100T computer collecting dust and thought I would try to use it for experimenting with Linux and LinuxCNC. The BIOS is dated 1993 and it does not recognize CD-ROM drives and is limited to 504M hard drives. I wanted to run the LinuxCNC CD to test the latency of the board but it has not been easy. It is a pentium III but I am not sure what the clock speed is.
The original CD-ROM Drive that was in the machine would not recognize CD-R disks so I had to add a newer drive. I ran into all kinds of issues trying to get the board to recognize the newer drive but through trial and error (and a little help from another site) I got the right drivers and cofigured the drive for the interface board I was using. I know have a working CD drive that can read the LinuxCNC Disk.
So I boot up the machine in Dos and try to start the menu on the CD which of course comes back and tells me it will not run under DOS. I assume that this means I have to boot from the CD in order to get LinuxCNC to work. Now I am back working on the limitations of the original BIOS, it does not see the CD until dos runs so I can not boot from it. I found the SBM.BIN on the cd and read about the boot manager. I made a Boot DIsk (has a 3.5" floppy) and tried again. Still isn't going to work because the bios does not recognize the CD until I load the Driver in DOS.
So, it looks like I may have to give up on the idea of testing the latency before installing LinuxCNC on my hard drive. Anyone else have any ideas before I go down that path???
Thanks,
Greg
The original CD-ROM Drive that was in the machine would not recognize CD-R disks so I had to add a newer drive. I ran into all kinds of issues trying to get the board to recognize the newer drive but through trial and error (and a little help from another site) I got the right drivers and cofigured the drive for the interface board I was using. I know have a working CD drive that can read the LinuxCNC Disk.
So I boot up the machine in Dos and try to start the menu on the CD which of course comes back and tells me it will not run under DOS. I assume that this means I have to boot from the CD in order to get LinuxCNC to work. Now I am back working on the limitations of the original BIOS, it does not see the CD until dos runs so I can not boot from it. I found the SBM.BIN on the cd and read about the boot manager. I made a Boot DIsk (has a 3.5" floppy) and tried again. Still isn't going to work because the bios does not recognize the CD until I load the Driver in DOS.
So, it looks like I may have to give up on the idea of testing the latency before installing LinuxCNC on my hard drive. Anyone else have any ideas before I go down that path???
Thanks,
Greg
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23 Dec 2012 23:29 #27980
by BigJohnT
Replied by BigJohnT on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
If you can't boot from the CD I doubt you can install LinuxCNC. Is there a boot option in the bios? 1993 is pretty old even for the Ubuntu 6.06 version we used to use at one time... IMHO this is a time sink.
John
John
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23 Dec 2012 23:45 #27981
by cncbasher
Replied by cncbasher on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
I would not bother , just too darned old ! and as John says a time looser !
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23 Dec 2012 23:46 #27982
by GPappy
Replied by GPappy on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
Time sink? Yes and no. It is turning out that it won't work but I did wake up some old skills. I started working for IBM in 1982 and did a lot of work on those early PCs in DOS. I remember when you had to know the hardware inside and out in order to set up a machine to do test control in the lab. Even built a few of my fist machines.
I left IBM in the early 90's and went into a completely different kind of work and never did get into the guts of any machine past the 486. With that said, this machine is a non starter for Linux but I got to dust off my DOS skills and proved to myself that I can still find my way around the hardware if I want to. I did get the cd to run but found out that I don't have enough memory. Oh well, another one for the trash pile but I have 2 more to try.
I left IBM in the early 90's and went into a completely different kind of work and never did get into the guts of any machine past the 486. With that said, this machine is a non starter for Linux but I got to dust off my DOS skills and proved to myself that I can still find my way around the hardware if I want to. I did get the cd to run but found out that I don't have enough memory. Oh well, another one for the trash pile but I have 2 more to try.
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24 Dec 2012 00:15 #27983
by BigJohnT
Replied by BigJohnT on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
If you gain some valuable experience then the time was worth it. If the ultimate goal was to run LinuxCNC on that computer then it is a time sink IMHO.
John
John
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24 Dec 2012 00:25 #27984
by PCW
Replied by PCW on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
If it's from 1993 that has to be a Pentium 1!
Possibly running at a blazing 66 MHz!
(well unless its a 486)
On the bright side, the CPU is worth a few bucks because of its gold content...
Possibly running at a blazing 66 MHz!
(well unless its a 486)
On the bright side, the CPU is worth a few bucks because of its gold content...
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24 Dec 2012 05:44 #27990
by Todd Zuercher
Replied by Todd Zuercher on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
Linuxcnc won't run on something that old. but if you have your hart set on using this pc to run a cnc there were some old DOS programs that can do step generation. The ones I am familiar with were not open source, require a hardware key and are no longer supported by their vendors. (and this brings us back to why I started using Linuxcnc in the first place.)
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24 Dec 2012 07:40 #27992
by GPappy
Replied by GPappy on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
Yes, it did turn out that it will not work but I learn a little bit more every time I try something new. I just read that some of the older hardware worked better than some of the newer hardware does. Guess I went too far back. Thank you for your help. I have a couple of newer machines that I can rob including a known Pentium III.
Greg
Greg
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24 Dec 2012 07:56 - 24 Dec 2012 09:33 #27994
by GPappy
Replied by GPappy on topic Options on testing LinuxCNC
Duplicate post, sorry.
Last edit: 24 Dec 2012 09:33 by GPappy.
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