I wonder how long it takes EvilMadScientist to clog up the CPU heatsink with nasty wood dust
1 Like
Back to the ‘Trouble shooting pocket knife’. Although I’m not sure I can get this done alone, I still think it is possible.
An USB image containing the distro with Arduino IDE, Kivy, Phython and a scripted “Git-pull” to the latest Maslow firmware and GC.
This way a preset folder structure is set, so launchers can be used, to eliminate the fear of having to type something in a terminal.
3 Likes
That sounds like a very good project! Can it be made it run on a Ras. Pi as well?
I guess the process of making an image is the same for the Pi. I am just reading how to make a customised distro. What I could use help on is how to do pull of the latest from git-hub at start-up. Cron? Script?
I’ll check if this can be done as a Live Boot from USB, so nothing needs to be installed on the hard-drive, so I don’t get moosed 
.
Edit: Is from Sep 2015, but I’ll give it a try https://www.maketecheasier.com/create-linux-distro/
Edit2: GitHub - Distroshare/distroshare-ubuntu-imager: Creates an installable live CD from an installed Ubuntu or derivative distribution last update 3years, think i’ll keep looking
I’d like to find a way to create an executable package for Linux similar to the ones released for Windows and OSX. That would leave the decision to update with the user, but remove the need to maintain a complex set of directories and links.
I wonder if Wine… , no more complexity is not the best solution…
We should be able to make a Pi version as well, there will be some slight
differences, but if we package up GC and it’s dependencies as a .deb package, it
should be able to easily be installed on any debian/ubuntu image fairly easily
(or at worst, we have slightly different packages that vary only on the
dependencies)
1 Like
wine is the wrong answer, just package GC as a .deb package and it will ‘just
work’
The GC part is easy, the kivy and pyserial part seems to be more common problems. PyInstaller looks like it could create the packaged executable, perhaps.
They said very little gets into their CPU compartment, but mention excellent dust collection. The plan has optional cork gasketting. I’d add filtered positive pressure air if it’s a worry, or see the dust collection topics here
@blurfl Ras Pi image is an interesting one, Due to it’s ARM-pocket calculator it will have a different boot behaviour. This is why it would be good to have that pre-existing distro in place to take care of ‘all the other stuff’
I like the idea that @Bee opted to use docker for this. I kinda like this option as it takes care of the kernel. But i never used docker myself so i can’t say if it’s THE solution for this.
The biggest challenge is to make the right kernel boot at whatever mainbord it finds.
intel i368 i686 64bit arm etc. This is the biggest task out there… And to make this work we probably need a bunch of people who can dream this kind of stuff. So that we don’t get pulled into OS-building.
I like embedded mainboards, but since the price of refurbished netbooks is lower then a Pi +box, PSU, display, keyboard it still seems backwards to me to buy brandnew tinker stuff when there are so many used netbooks available. (that are much less of a pain to slap a decent OS on to, let alone the cable spagetti that comes with Pi The footprint of the plugs makes a Pi just as big as a netbook.
Still there are many people who have a Pi in the drawer (me included)
As for Wine… Wine is great to run old DOS software that can’t run on modern 64bit windows boxes (:D), but if your life depends on it then … meh… Eventhough i’m impressed what wine is capable of.
I became a bit allergic to microsoft. Over a period of about a year I switched to *buntu and never looked back.
So i’m a bit biased.
@mooselake
For dusty environments i would like to use oversized passive heatsinks with large fin spaceing thats easy to brush out.
The Ubunu-touch tablets would have been so damn great for this… It’s a shame that that never made it. Ubuntu made a few bold bets on the horses running at the end (apps and Unity) The convertible tablet was however a HUGE idea.
I really wonder how to keep laptops from eating dust in a woodworking space, they consume lots of air per minute. If anyone happens to open a laptop that spend lots of time near a router then please snap a few pictures of the air canals.
What is the favourite Pi distro?
Rasbian?
And since there is not much available in CAD CAM CNC based distro’s, that also tells a lot.
So this branches out in several options:
- a bootable USB image. Minimal and straightforward to run all Maslow related software.
- Pi-image (how much depends on kivi, is kivi reliable enough)
- fullblown distro with a powerfull selection of software. (I think this would be way to much for us alone)
- docker image or a virtual machine
- find an existing distro, and tweak that to our needs
define the versions if kivy and pyserial that are needed, don’t try to tie
specific versions into an ‘executable’, that will only cause problems later as
updates are needed.
David Lang
1 Like
What is the favourite Pi distro?
Rasbian?
Raspian is the most common, it closely mirrors what’s available in debian.
And since there is not much available in CAD CAM CNC based distro’s, that also tells a lot.
So this branches out in several options:
- a bootable USB image. Minimal and straightforward to run all Maslow related software.
- Pi-image (how much depends on kivi, is kivi reliable enough)
These are essentially two versions of the same thing.
- fullblown distro with a powerfull selection of software. (I think this would be way to much for us alone)
agreed
- docker image or a virtual machine
Docker goes on top of an OS, it doesn’t eliminate the OS
a Virtual Machine requires a full OS install to work, so we’re back to the first
option.
- find an existing distro, and tweak that to our needs
same as the first option, we aren’t going to create a bootable USB or Pi-image
from scratch, we will start from an existing distro
David Lang
1 Like
The executables packaged by buildozer bring the versions present on the machine used to build them, so when the package maintainer keeps up-to-date the packages follow along. buildozer doesn’t offer a way to package for linux, so as you point out, the users with linux systems must update for themselves. The recent update to pyserial was an example.
1 Like
Yesterday i did a lot of searching and couldn’t find an existing distro that had a CNC toolset. Other then LinuxCNC As linuxCNC has a very different approach it doesn’t seem to be a real candidate. However it remains to be the best one out there.
Then there are a few other distro’s
OpenIndiana: This one includes FreeCAD, But it is based on OpenSolaris so it’s not very mainstream…
CAELinux: This one has a lot of CAD, CAM, CAE / FEA / CFD stuff onboard but seems to be more of a math thing… However it is based on Debian/Ubuntu LTS. So thats a good thing.
I will have a closer look at LinuxCNC and CAELinux
Docker smells nice but i don’t really see a user friendly solution in it yet. The whole thing looks like a Starship Enterprise, An overwhelming amount of information. (thats actually a good thing) But no simple intuitive installer that you can try to get an idea what you get in to. You first need to ‘sign up’ before you can even download the sucker. It feels like a very closed-world approach to me. Smart people who hide in their self made prison. (I hope i’m wrong about that)
At this point i’m not very thrilled about any option.
And it’s now time to take a moment, step back and look at the big picture and ask the question: What is most simple and effective? Simple as in maintainable, effective as in reliable and user-friendly.
And for now it seems to be something like this:
A minimal linux (Ubuntu-core?)
i368 so that it boots on about any old box.
Then let it boot and launch GroundControl
Questions:
Would be able to boot on a Pi as well?
Would it be possible to add an option to GC to do firmware updates? This could be a tricky one if there would be a move away form Arduino compatible hardware.
But this ultimately would allow for a reasonable simple package of all the basics to do all the machine related stuff from one USB stick. Not even the need of a desktop.
And once a distro comes to life somewhere then it should be easy to include those essentials to that distro.
The main goal, to be able to test the hardware with a ‘known good’ system, would then be achieved.
And this should also be just enough to include GroundControl in the package on a (wooden USB) ‘stick’. 
If there would be a GroundControl .deb package this could make it more easy to set up.
I don’t know if this is already an option. I guess this would be nice to have when GC reaches v1.0
And i wouldn’t mind to wait for that first. Waiting for the right moment to do something is also a way to save resources. But then it is good to be able to estimate when that right moment may be.
If .deb happens then when would that be? And what dependencies does it have to run?
WIll such Image be feasible enough The world is slowly moving to 64bit, but there are heaps of old boxes out there capable enough to run GC. But it’s about the same for the Pi…
Looking at Distroshare it looks doable
Thanks for that tip @Gero!
I’m definitely going to explore this.
I think I start with Ubuntu-Mate this is lightweight on the CPU and has a GUI that most people can figure out without feeling ‘OS-tracised’
1 Like
Questions:
Would be able to boot on a Pi as well?
no, you are not going to make an image that can boot on x86 (PC and Mac) and on
ARM (Pi and similar)
Would it be possible to add an option to GC to do firmware updates? This could
be a tricky one if there would be a move away form Arduino compatible
hardware.
Yes, and if we move to different hardware, this can change as well
But this ultimately would allow for a reasonable simple package of all the
basics to do all the machine related stuff from one USB stick. Not even the
need of a desktop.
That’s not that hard
And once a distro comes to life somewhere then it should be easy to include those essentials to that distro.
Grab a ‘live CD’ version of a USB stick, say ubuntu, where you can boot and run
from the USB without installing anything on the PC.
Then add the packages needed on the stick and make the resulting image available
If there would be a GroundControl .deb package this could make it more easy to set up.
I don’t know if this is already an option. I guess this would be nice to have when GC reaches v1.0
It’s not that hard to package something up as a .deb
And i wouldn’t mind to wait for that first. Waiting for the right moment to do something is also a way to save resources. But then it is good to be able to estimate when that right moment may be.
If .deb happens then when would that be? And what dependencies does it have to run?
Defining the dependencies is the harder part
WIll such Image be feasible enough The world is slowly moving to 64bit, but
there are heaps of old boxes out there capable enough to run GC. But it’s
about the same for the Pi…
A 32 bit image should be fine for this, and would support more old hardware.
1 Like
@dlang Its a bit unfortunate that i368 and PI can’t boot from one image stick.
Then one stick could have been included with the Kit to cater for all
however a i386 stick can boot on lots of cheap hardware.
I tried to launch GC from a terminal, not being logged in to the desktop itself, but that did not work.
It needs a Display Manager. I’ll have a look at this later if I can keep it in the back of my mind.
I’m now building a VM based on Ubuntu-Mate i386. I will make a thread about the procedure so that others can chip in with ideas, improvements and see if i make any mistakes.
32bit it will be…
I set up a kivyPi image that boots directly in to GC, has a nice Maslow boot logo, and restarts if it crashes. I just scp files to it from my laptop. Its using the 7" rPi touchscreen and it’s mounted to my Maslow on a 2x4 extended arm. I’m happy with the separation of design and control, and I can always load up whatever, zero/home it and off to the races, and not have my laptop committed when cutting. Having a dedicated touchscreen is really helpful (aside from running back and forth when calibrating)
2 Likes
BTW - I don’t think it makes sense but I’ll put it out their that there is a X86 emulator for the pi I think it’s like $50. So once again the total cost exceeds that of getting a nice beater laptop.
@skiz
I have a pi display that sits on my junk pile. I’ll have to try this sometime. My display reports it’s under powered no matter how I power it. When I fed it from a 5v 10A power supply on every power input it had and it still complained I gave up relying on it. It sounds like you came up with a really nice setup. I’m still looking at the PI as a dedicated controller for the workflow you have described. Good Work!
Thank you
1 Like