Plop – it always amazes me what’s out there. Good find by Steve303.
So I tried the process and found a few quirks running on my system.
First, you can download the ploplinux-4.3.3-S-i486.iso file at 295 MB or if you’re on a budget you can go for the ploplinux-4.2.2-x64.iso older version at 92MB.
Either version works the same on my system but neither one would work until I selected the “USB 1.1 (OHCI) Controller” inside the VB machine settings. This is sort of pointed out in the video “How to Boot from USB in VirtualBox” at time index 1:42 where it states to uncheck the “Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller”. After installation the USB setting can be changed back from “USB 1.1 (OHCI) Controller” to whatever your hardware supports.
When creating your machine remember PP2 is now a Linux Ubuntu 64-bit system. Also, installation no longer requires a fixed VDI. You can now select and use a 40GB dynamic version whereas before you had to use a fixed one. This saves on disk space. After install, the VDI is only about 10GB but will expand automatically up to 40GB if needed.
Anyway, it does work & is definitely easier than the hard way …
After the install readjust your machine settings for the USB removing the USB filter & selecting the USB controller you desire. Be sure to also remove the Plop iso from the optical drive. We need an empty CD drive to facilitate the adding the VB Guest Additions.
Now re-power the machine and PP will boot and work in simulation mode without any modification. Just pick you machine and go. However, to get the most out of it & to better understand the underlying OS you really want to boot into the desktop to learn about it.
So exit out of PP and the machine will power down. Restart the machine and during the first Tormach splash screen press both the left Shift & Alt keys until the desktop menu appears – lower left corner of the screen. Now you’re in the desktop. First click "Menu->Preferences->Startup Applications" & under the "Startup Programs" tab scroll down to the PathPilot item & uncheck it’s box. Next we need to add a startup program. Click the add box and enter the following:
Name: Mate Desktop Panel
Command: /usr/bin/mate-panel
Comment: anything you want, or leave blank
These changes prevent PP from starting up after booting and adds the desktop menu to the desktop. Now click "Menu->Quit->Restart" to make sure we get to the desktop with our menu.
Now we need to get the VB guest additions installed. Using the VB menu select the Device drop down tab & click on “Insert Guest Additions CD Image ...”. Remember, you need to have an empty CD device setup in your machine settings for storage. Go to the desktop menu in the lower left corner & select the file drawer ICON to bring up Caja. This is the Mint MATE (this is what the desktop is named) equivalent to windows explorer. In the left column under “Devices” click on “Vbox_Gas..” to display the contents of the VB Guest Additions CD in the left window of Caja. In this window right click the mouse & select “Open a Terminal” and enter this command:
$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
After this process completes restart the machine to enable them. If the video goes to crap give it a few minutes then power off the machine manually. Restart the machine & you should be fine. The next time your machine is off you can remove the VB Guest Additions CD from the machine settings.
OK, now we need to create a desktop launcher for PP. Right click the desktop somewhere & click “Create Launcher”. Fill in he fields as follows:
Type: Application
Name: PathPilot v2.0
Command: mate-terminal -x bash -c "~/operator_login"
Comment: anything you want, or leave blank
Now we can launch PP from the desktop. Note: PP is invoked using the terminal so don’t delete this while PP is running.
So that’s some of the basics ...