Ok guys, Banging my head against a wall here. 4 attempts at getting this working now. Admittedly I went off the beaten track the first 3 but on my final attempt, I couldn't follow the track.
Attempt 1:
Went with Mint 18.2, Kernel 4.9.40 Fail. Well sort of failed. I didn't work out how to configure the Kernel properly and couldn't find "Fully Preemptable Kernel". It wasn't until the next attempt that I found this. Latency on this attempt ended up going over 1 million. With the old Wheezy install, I got it down to 4000 so I figured I had some head room for the heavier operating system.
Attempt 2:
Mint 18.2, realized Kernel 4.9.4 was confirmed to work not 4.9.40 so this attempt with 4.9.4. Fail
Attempt 3:
Mint 18.1 and Kernel 4.9.4 because 18.2 wasn't exactly confirmed. Fail
Attempt 4:
Just copy and past each command line in order in case I was missing something. Mint 18.1 fresh install. Still Fail
What's really killing me is the Kernel build time is about 3 hours.
Everything works without error until
wget
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/linux-4.8.11.tar.xz
wget
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects...-4.8.11-rt7.patch.gz
But going to:
The Kernel is located here: kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/
The RT Patch is located here: kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/
and downloading the 2 files works fine and I doubt this is my problem. I have tried changing my DNS to google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 but wget still doesn't work with those addresses. After downloading I just move the 2 files to my home folder and then uncompress them there.
The next lot all works fine but takes a while. I end up with 5 deb files that I can just open in the gui and install. No problems.
I have never bothered editing the grub menu yet. I have just held left shift during startup and chosen the new Kernel. Confirmed after startup with uname -r.
This: git clone git://git.linuxcnc.org/git/linuxcnc.git linuxcnc-dev has never worked. Don't know why but it can never find the location.
I have just referred to
buildbot.linuxcnc.org/
. The last build, I even struggled with this. As far as I got I couldn't cover all the dependencies.
I got this:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
linux-headers-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae:i386 : Depends: gcc-4.6:i386 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Searched and followed along about page 9 on this thread but still couldn't get it. Now I've installed so much stuff, i figure it's just a mess and I'll be starting again for a 5th time.
What got me going on this initially was I had installed a Wifi card and it caused my latency to randomly jump over 100,000. I had a USB WiFi dongle that I couldn't get to work and Rodw mentioned he got his USB dongle working with Mint. When I installed Mint 18.2, mine worked without any extra work from me. What has kept me going at it is I just like how it looks.
I probably shouldn't say I am a noob but I'm going to guess it's been about 12 - 14 years since I build a Linux Kernel and it was a whole lot different then. I've almost always had linux installed on a computer somewhere in the house but there's been times when the computer with Linux might not have been turned on for over 12 months. So not only is it so much different now but I have forgotten so much. As I put in command line commands it comes back to me a little.
I also like everything to be as tidy as it can be. I hate installing something and it not working. I feel that install is always there like rubbish swept under the carpet. I cant see it but I know it's there and I fear it will be slowing something down, whether it is or not? I also like what I install to be the most up to date as it can be. So while I might get the earlier Kernel working, I'll be likely to attempt to start again and get the later Kernel up and running. It's just a personal fault of mine that causes me some grief as I try to get things to work.
I'm currently trying to read all the posts from start to here to make sure I'm not missing something.
Happy Days.
