Time to update. I think..

Running Ubuntu 10.04LTS and Linuxcnc 2.5 currently. Had been running in a dual boot (WinXP) environment and had been getting realtime errors on Linuxcnc startup forever. Decided that since I just got a new machine, it was time to try and fix it, so...I reinstalled 2.5 from LiveCd and completely removed Windows boot option.

Since then, I have not been able to get my monitor resolution corrected, despite following thread after thread, both here and in Ubuntu forum. I was told in the Ubuntu forum, that I needed to update from 10.04, since it was no longer supported. I am somewhat reluctant to do so, since I had been told NOT to update the OS or else...

So my first question is, can I upgrade or not? I downloaded the 2.7 iso file this morning, but am leary to go any further. What should I do, and what should I expect?

My next issue is, that with my Emachines PC, I am not able to boot from USB (found a thread on that last week). It also appears that I cannot boot from a dvd. I had 2.5 on a CD and that worked fine. Since the iso doesn't fit on a CD, not sure what to do here, other than find another PC..

I have a laptop that I am able to boot to USB and I tried 2.7 on it and everything (software) started ok, but I did not connect to machine control. BTW, I am using the parallel port for control.

Would like confirmation, before going any further that I am not going to have issues after upgrading to 2.7. Is 2.7 really that much better than 2.5? Hopefully with the Ubuntu upgrade, I will be able to get my monitor resolution figured out as well as this is really my only issue.

Thanks!

2.7 can and will run perfectly fine on a machine with Ubuntu 10.04. It sounds like your pc is quite old, and may not run well (or as well, if at all) using one of the newer OS options. It might be advisable to stick with the OS installation you have, and just update Linuxcnc. It is simple, if you have or can get an internet connection to the PC. If you are having latency issues, updating to a newer OS will likely make them worse.

There have been a lot of updates since 2.5, the biggest of which I feel is the new trajectory planner. How much difference it will make for you will depend on the type of machining you do. You can see very large improvements in maintaining speed for milling 3d carving and engraving.

There are also new user interfaces, and graphical user interface programming tool support (Glade).

You will have to tell us more about your screen resolution problem. Is this a problem that you've always had with your Linux install, or something that used to work but now it doesn't? I've had some monitors that don't properly communicate their resolutions to Linux, and there usually are some work arounds that can make them work. (I had one once that I had to unplug the monitor while the computer booted, and If I plugged it back in after it was done booting then it worked fine.)

Hi Todd
I have attached a pic showing my computer specs. It is about 8 years old but has been working fine other than the real-time error on startup of LinuxCNC. Latency was around 20k.
I am using a Dell monitor, the same one as before reinstalling LinuxCNC 2.5. the issues that I am having is that the bottom toolbar is mostly off the screen and mouse clicks have to be above an icon to work. Max resolution should be 1280x1024, but can on get 1024x760.
I am going from memory as I am not home now until Monday.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Does the machine still only have 512MB ram? That is kind of scraping the bottom for what might work with the newer OS. If you really want to update to the latest OS (Linuxcnc's Debian Wheezy ISO) Then a hardware update may be called for.

Don't recall on the RAM, will have to look when I get home. Seems like I did add more. Would like to update if it will help on 3d carvings.
Everytime that I have tried to update using the update manager, it starts the download,. It always errors out at about 80%. Any ideas on how I can update since I can't update via USB and haven't been able to make it boot to DVD drive?
Thanks again

You don't have to upgrade the OS to run the current 2.7 version of Linuxcnc. It will run perfectly fine on Ubuntu 10.04.
Just change the source list from the 2.5 source to the 2.7 one (they aren't exactly the same.)

Can I use my same configuration files?

Todd wrote:

Does the machine still only have 512MB ram? That is kind of scraping the bottom for what might work with the newer OS. If you really want to update to the latest OS (Linuxcnc's Debian Wheezy ISO) Then a hardware update may be called for.

Checked on RAM and I did upgrade to 2gb.
Not having any luck upgrading to 2.7 either by using the terminal commands or upgrade manager. Pretty much at a dead end..
Is there a way to download 2.7 instead of using a livecd?