New installation on formatted drive

I've been running LinuxCNC 2.5.4 on 32 bit Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for 2+ years without issues that weren't my own. I downloaded using the following link linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/download , which no longer appears to work.

I need to set up one or more additional computers to control other machines. So now I'm trying to figure out which release of LinuxCNC I'd do best to run on what version of Ubuntu starting from scratch. I came across a fairly recent post that stated: Is there some reason you're not using the LiveCD to install Ubuntu 10.04 with LinuxCNC? That is the easy way for sure and you can update to LinuxCNC 2.7.4 with a small change to the Synaptic Package Manager and still have Ubuntu 10.04. I have several CNC machines still running Ubuntu 10.04 and have LinuxCNC 2.7.4. But the facts that 1) the link I had to the referenced LiveCD is no longer live, 2) I didn't find any mention of 10.04 on the Getting LinuxCNC page , and 3) 10.04 is absent from the Ubuntu Alternative Downloads page , give me some pause.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Here is a link to a place where several copies of old Linuxcnc (EMC2) live CD images are stored.
linuxcnc.org/iso/
It looks like there are 3 versions using Ubuntu 10.04. (I suspect v2.3, 2.4, and 2.5). I could be very wrong about what versions are available with what iso.

Have you given the current iso a try? (It needs a DVD or other device to install because its larger than a CD,)

Thanks for the reply. I figured out after I posted that the current Live/Install Image does include the operating system. ("At boot time you will be given a choice of booting the "Live" system ... or booting the Installer (to install LinuxCNC and its operating system onto your computer’s hard drive.") My confusion resulted in part from the fact the computer I picked up today wouldn't boot from the thumb-drive I'd downloaded to. So I jumped to the conclusion I'd only downloaded the new release of LinuxCNC. And I also picked up the impression from a recent post that Ubuntu 10.0.4 is still the preferred OS for LinuxCNC. The Debian stuff went completely over my head.

Thanks again.

Did you follow the instructions for installing the iso onto a usb device? (You can't just copy the iso file to the drive.)

Yeah, I figured that out last night.

I hadn't read carefully past "The Linux Live/Install Image is a hybrid ISO image which can be written directly to a USB storage device (flash drive) ... and used to boot a computer. Thought that's what I had done two years ago, but apparently I burned to a disc.

So I put the Live/Install Image on the computer I have running LinuxCNC 2.5.4 on 32 bit Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and tried for a couple hours to get it to install the iso on a 2 gig thumb drive. Wouldn't work. Tried formatting to FAT32, and every other format offered by Ubuntu 10.04 but nothing worked. Kept running into denial of access. Permissions all looked to be good.

Gave up on that and decided to burn to a DVD, although the machine I'm trying to set up from fresh doesn't have an internal optical drive. Now I can't get the either of the installed DVD R/W drives on the functioning computer, or the external unit I attached via USB, to work with the DVD discs I have on hand (Memorex DVD-R 16x 4.7GB 120mm). I'm sure those discs worked before I installed Ubuntu on that machine, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.

I'm off to Staples to buy a fresh thumb drive and some different DVD.

Any suggestions? Doesn't seem like it should be this hard.

why are you using Ubuntu ? 10_04 is real old now and, linuxcnc has moved to debian 7

andypugh wrote:

Were you using dd ?

Note that dd can take half an hour or so to write the image, and gives no feedback during that time.

Yes, but I must have had a corrupted thumb-drive. I tried a new one, and it worked after I figured out I needed to prefix with sudo.

cncbasher wrote:

why are you using Ubuntu ? 10_04 is real old now and, linuxcnc has moved to debian 7

Old is relative. I'm running four 25+-year-old lathes on a PIII I bought in 2003. I installed the Live version of LinuxCNC with Ubuntu 10.04 just about two years ago when I was 60. At the time, I had never operated any kind of lathe before, had no prior exposure to CNC, had never written a line of any kind of code, and had absolutely no experience or familiarity with Linux. With dogged effort I figured out what I needed to figure out to get done what I wanted to do. That wasn't entirely easy. This forum and its community were extremely helpful to me. But I still struggle to understand much of what is posted here in response to even the simplest of questions.

LinuxCNC 2.5.4 (single installation with four configurations and a physical switch) on 32 bit Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has done and continues to do a highly satisfactory job of controlling four lathes, but 1) I want to add more lathes and 2) I'm starting to be a little anxious about dependence on my old PIII. So I decided to set up at least one other computer. All things being equal, I'd rather not add challenges to my aging (and I suspect declining) mental capacity without good reason. That generally translates into an if it ain't broke, why fix it orientation. I don't doubt that there were many compelling reasons to advance development of LinuxCNC beyond 2.5.4 and move to Debian. That doesn't necessarily mean my purposes would best be served by making the migration. If I do, however, I don't think I'll want to be running different versions of LinuxCNC on different operating systems. That's what I was trying to sort out when I initially posted this thread. This is intended to be a respectful (not snarky) response to a perfectly reasonable question.

I've now successfully tried out the new Live version on a newer old machine, latency appears to be acceptable, and I think I can get along with Debian just fine. Once I complete installation to a hard drive and more thoroughly test it running programs with my lathes, I'll probably put it on the PIII also, or retire the PIII (preserving it as is, just in case) and set up another identical computer to run additional machines.

Problem I'm having now is that when I boot into the new installation, Debian won't accept the password it prompted me to create during the installation process.

There is a common mistake that I, and many others can make/have made when trying to start a computer that was installed with the Linuxcnc Debian images. Unlike earlier Ubutnu installs, the login screen first prompts you for your your username, then the password on the second screen. Unfortunately both the username and password prompt screens are almost identical, except for the rather small print "username" and "password". If you mistakenly enter your password on the first screen, you will never get in and be stuck in an endless loop of "password incorrect please enter again"s.