[szcharle]

I have a old PC the CPU only about 400Mhz, and RAM is 128M, i hope i can use this pc to run cnc software like emc2 ,can i
I have read the EMC2 manual ,and there not mentioned the min requirement of PC hardware

thanks!

[dertsap]

the emc debian bdi installs on older pcs ok but it is a little slow ,though it is a nice software ,no real reason it won t work , they also have a redhat version for dumpster grade computers ,

ubuntu has a great installer cd with emc2 but not good for older systems , im new to the linux thing but i have to say i m impressed with it ,ive got my system setup with ubuntu kde ,just waiting to get my drivers all setup again and ill be running

with a lot of research there is a number of different softwares out there for linux, cad/cam and such , mostly simple type of stuff but it is free ,,
it a pain trying to figure out how to get it installed

[szcharle]

dertsap ,thank you for you reply !
and from you reply i know at least i can try

yes ,linux unix ...such OS for us(people familar with windows) is a bit hard ,
but at least here another choice, a free choice

[dertsap]

http://dsplabs.utt.ro/~juve/emc/

emc bdi install cd's

[dertsap]

http://sagcad.sourceforge.jp/

try this once your up and running simple cad/cam software , nothing serious but fun to play with all the same
don t let the japanese site on the site scare you it installs in english

[szcharle]

thank you! later i will download and try, first on a newer pc

[Drakkn]

szcharlie donload the iso file and burn a copy - It will run from cd so no need to install - that way you can test if it works for you.Then if you like it you can install it .Download from
http://www.linuxcnc.org/index.php?op...emid=4&lang=en Best regards - let me know how it goes

[samco]

I have run emc2 on a 400mhz penitum II but I needed 256mB of memory for the install. Others have said that after the install you can remove the extra memory but I have never tried that.

sam

[unterhaus]

I wonder what the maximum pc is that has been run with EMC. I see that RTAI real time linux is experimentally available for 64 bit.

[kiwichris]

For what it's worth, I just installed EMC2 from the Ubuntu live CD on a PIII 733, with 256Mb of ram... Seems to work really well on that machine. Just got to build a USB pendant, and I'll be happy with the controller part of my setup.

The only down side I've found so far is that I have no idea what the root password is on the machine so I can get it to mount my NFS server drives for the g-code files. Some googling required it seems. :-).

Cheers, Me.

(Just noticed, this is a really old thread... )

[Drakkn]

I think the root password for the emc2 live cd is blank - just press enter and you should be ok

[acondit]

I think he is talking about the root password for Ubuntu. Ubuntu sets up the first user as the administrator and doesn't setup a password for "root". If you go to this site http://www.ubuntux.org/how-to-change...word-in-ubuntu
It will show you how to enable the password for "root". It is usually not needed though with Ubuntu, since, you have administrative privileges with your original user password.

Alan

[kiwichris]

I think he is talking about the root password for Ubuntu. Ubuntu sets up the first user as the administrator and doesn't setup a password for "root". If you go to this site http://www.ubuntux.org/how-to-change...word-in-ubuntu
It will show you how to enable the password for "root". It is usually not needed though with Ubuntu, since, you have administrative privileges with your original user password.

Alan

Arrr, you are correct, and thanks..

A litle snippet of assumed Ubuntu knowledge there. I use Debian normally..

Interesting sudo passwd didn't work on the bdi install either, but the GUI user tool let me change the root password and I can now su to root. I'm happy either way, I've got my mounted drives, and all is brightness and light.

[PsyKotyk]

I started with a P3-800, but when I upgraded to PICStep controllers doing micro-stepping, I found the computer (RTLinux) couldn't keep up.

I ended up buying a P4-3GHz which now runs my machine at about 100 ipm with 16x micro-stepping. - That's the printer port putting out a 96kHz signal, which is near the upper limit of the PICStep controller.

Ironically, what was supposed to be the crappiest computer, is now the fastest computer in the house. A dedicated controller could have solved the problem, but it's nice to have a quick boot up

[svenakela]

yes ,linux unix ...such OS for us(people familar with windows) is a bit hard ,
but at least here another choice, a free choice

And for me it's the other way, I can't live without Unix and Linux (That's actually true, I make my living from it...). Windows I can for sure live without. I'm not saying it's bad or evil, just that I can make it without it.

As already stated in the thread the EMC Linux ready distro is easy to setup and manage. Give it a try!