linuxcnc on 64bit OS

I'm trying to have linuxcnc work on 64bit ubuntu 14.04
Why 64bit?
Because Draftsight releases packages only for 64bit systems, and i need draftsight to work on the same machine with linuxcnc.
Why Ubuntu?
Ease of use, and install (ditch unity and install gnome classic for a familiar look), i guess Debian would work too, but i haven't much experience with it.

I have seen on another post they linked this github.com/NTULINUX/RTAI
But i need to build myself a Kernel, and i don't have the required skills to configure it.

Any suggestions, or kernel configurations i can use?
Anyone has some already made packages that would work on 64bit systmes?
Or a live CD with 64bit linux OS?

Does linuxcnc has any plans to move to 64bit in the future?

Linuxcnc will build on a rt-preempt 64 bit kernel with uspace configured.
If you are using servos or hardware step generation, that should work.

Debian Wheezy has a stock rt-preempt kernel available as a package, there is not one for Jessie yet, but I built my own and am running it now.

If you need a rtai kernel, then only Machinekit has packaged amd64 kernels immediately available with realtime packages.
There is a 3.8.1-amd64-rtai image for debian 7 and 8 and Ubuntu 14

The problem will be how the maths functions are dealt with.
When developing the Machinekit kernels and realtime, we eventually ended up using libposemath, which was originally for Xenomai.
Linuxcnc does things differently and I suspect still may not build on the Machinekit realtime.

That is why NTULINUX was promoting his repo for RTAI, it supposedly has the maths issue sorted in a way that supports Linuxcnc.

The alternative of course is to use Machinekit , but I couldn't possibly promote that on this forum.

regards

i don't need very low latency on my system, 50000 or 100000 ns are enough, i use mesa cards to control the servos.

I'm going to try with Debian Wheezy 64Bit, install the stock RT-PREEMPT and see if i can build LinuxCNC on it.

Do you know which branch can i build on it?

Should i try unified-build-candidate-3?

grandixximo wrote:

i don't need very low latency 50000 or 100000 ns are enough, i use mesa cards to control the servos.

I'm going to try with Debian Wheezy 64Bit, install the stock RT-PREEMPT and see if i can build LinuxCNC on it.

Do you know which branch can i build on it?

Just build the master with configure set as per this wiki

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Uspace

It is simple, I used it for ages, just recently switched to Jessie and a home brew kernel.

Should i try unified-build-candidate-3?

That is defunct, other than what was copied from it to do uspace.

ubc-3 became Machinekit, because the Linuxcnc developers would not include it in the next release so @mhaberler forked it and it has developed completely seperately since.

regards

PS

If you are running a real machine on rt_preempt, don't be tempted to install proprietary video drivers, just because you want to use it for CAD too.

This machine has a 2GB GPU Nvidia card, which works perfectly using the opensource nouveau drivers.

If I build the nvidia drivers via DKMS, I will get a RTAI error every time realtime starts

why would that be the case?
Are you sure?
The hostmot driver doesn't work with rt-preeemt?

According to this

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Uspace

Hardware support

The following drivers are built and tested:

hm2_pci (tested with 5i20, 5i25, 5i22)

So it should work...

Well i'll try tomorrow, ad let you know guys, thanks for your help!

Uspace/Preemt-RT works with our PCI cards, I dont recall testing the EPP cards (7I43/7I90HD)

ArcEye wrote:

PS

If you are running a real machine on rt_preempt, don't be tempted to install proprietary video drivers, just because you want to use it for CAD too.

This machine has a 2GB GPU Nvidia card, which works perfectly using the opensource nouveau drivers.

If I build the nvidia drivers via DKMS, I will get a RTAI error every time realtime starts

What gpu are you using?
I won't built proprietary drivers, but if it can improve cad performance with the open source drivers, without rtai error, that would be awesomeness, what GPU is it?
I tried a bunch of gpu with old Ubuntu 10.04 live CD installation, but I never could find a suitable one.

The rt-preempt is more forgiving?
I can install any GPU?
Nvidia or ati?