From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <4B163F13.90400@domain.hid> Date: Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:18:59 +0100 From: Gilles Chanteperdrix MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <4B162421.20907@domain.hid> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [Xenomai-help] Xenomai Ready PC List-Id: Help regarding installation and common use of Xenomai List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Adrian Boeing Cc: xenomai@xenomai.org Adrian Boeing wrote: > We are having trouble just getting the PC to install linux (it fails > to install, and if we install on another machine, and bring the HDD > across then it boots very very slowly), we also have to write our own > Xenomai CAN drivers. So your problem seems rather to be with Linux than with Xenomai? Or did you recompile the kernel? As far as I know, a distribution with a non working kernel for your PC can nevertheless be installed on the PC provided that you change the kernel used for installation, and use that same kernel once the distribution installed. Slow boot probably means that the kernel is using the wrong drivers for the disk. That is because upon first installation, the initrd/initramfs that is build and will be used for next boots is specific to your disk controller. This can be fixed after the slow boot by rerunning mkinitrd/mkinitramfs/whatever your distribution provides to re-adapt the initrd/initramfs to your disk controller. But you can avoid this issue completely by building a kernel tailored to your PC without even the need for an initrd/initramfs. Of course, if your chipset/disk controller is not even recognized by recent kernels, you are toast. But that should be the exception, not the rule. > > We would strongly prefer to purchase a complete system that is known > to work with Xenomai. I do not know if such a thing exist. The problems to avoid (specific to Xenomai I mean), if that is an x86, are: - check that there is no SMI issue, or if there is, that the SMI can be safely disabled (that is that they can be disabled at all, and that disabling them does not cause issues such as overheating); - check that there is no IRQ sharing between real-time drivers (such as RT-can) and other peripherals on your board. If that happens, you may be able to fix it by swapping PCI cards, and/or using BIOS to disable integrated peripherals, or disable them in the kernel configuration. -- Gilles