[Xenomai-help] Xenomai on laptops

[Xenomai-help] Xenomai on laptops

[Peter Pastor]

Hello !

I am looking into buying a laptop to run Xenomai (and RTnet) and I am
having trouble choosing the appropriate setup.

The plan is to run xenomai on the laptop and use rtnet to communicate
to some controller boards in real-time. I have done this with a
desktop computer and it worked just fine, however, now I need to run
the same thing on a portable device.

I might have to use a RTnet compliant PCMCIA card (if such a thing
exists) because most (Dell) laptops do not have rtnet compliant NICs
(do they?). It would be great to get advice on which gigabit PCMCIA
ethernet card works with Xenomai (and RTnet). Also, are there any
issues with i7 CPUs reported ?

I hope this question is not off topic.

THANKS for any help,
 Peter

[Xenomai-help] Fwd: Xenomai on laptops

[Peter Pastor]

Hey !

Sorry for bothering again, but I just saw the following 2 posts on the
mailing list:

-------
Dell laptop with i7 processors, multicore
    Typical latency was around 5 usec,  but at least once per second had a
long pass of approximately 700 usec.   Tried the xenomai SMI work around with
no noticable change in results.
-------
-------
> Hi,
> Is there any problems when using Xenomai on an i7 (-880 / Dell
> Precision T1500).
> Any tips/suggestions/experiences are most welcome.

I am using the same processor. Its working fine.
-------

...and I am wondering whether someone could report a laptop setup
(model?) that uses an i7 CPU and that does not suffer from "huge"
latency spikes ?

THANKS so much,
 Peter


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peter Pastor <peter.pastor@domain.hid>
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Subject: Xenomai on laptops
To: xenomai@xenomai.org


Hello !

I am looking into buying a laptop to run Xenomai (and RTnet) and I am
having trouble choosing the appropriate setup.

The plan is to run xenomai on the laptop and use rtnet to communicate
to some controller boards in real-time. I have done this with a
desktop computer and it worked just fine, however, now I need to run
the same thing on a portable device.

I might have to use a RTnet compliant PCMCIA card (if such a thing
exists) because most (Dell) laptops do not have rtnet compliant NICs
(do they?). It would be great to get advice on which gigabit PCMCIA
ethernet card works with Xenomai (and RTnet). Also, are there any
issues with i7 CPUs reported ?

I hope this question is not off topic.

THANKS for any help,
 Peter

Re: [Xenomai-help] Fwd: Xenomai on laptops

[Gilles Chanteperdrix]

Peter Pastor wrote:
> Hey !
> 
> Sorry for bothering again, but I just saw the following 2 posts on the
> mailing list:
> 
> -------
> Dell laptop with i7 processors, multicore
>     Typical latency was around 5 usec,  but at least once per second had a
> long pass of approximately 700 usec.   Tried the xenomai SMI work around with
> no noticable change in results.
> -------

Have you checked:
http://www.xenomai.org/index.php/Configuring_x86_kernels#In_case_of_high_latencies


-- 
                                                                Gilles.

Re: [Xenomai-help] Fwd: Xenomai on laptops

[Peter Pastor]

Hey Gilles,

> Have you checked:
> http://www.xenomai.org/index.php/Configuring_x86_kernels#In_case_of_high_latencies

Yes, I am aware of it, thanks.

However, I was asking whether anybody successfully installed xenomai +
rtnet on a (high performance) laptop. I have experienced some
issues/problems of getting Xenomai to work properly due to shared
interrupts and high latencies caused by openGL drivers on desktop
machines. I therefore ask whether someone can report a successful
xenomai + rtnet setup that is running on a laptop. I want to minimize
the risk of ending up with a laptop that causes too much trouble to
setup. I am aware of the list of NICs supported by RTnet, however, to
be on the safe side, if someone could report a successful installation
would help a lot.

THANKS so much,
 Peter


On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Gilles Chanteperdrix
<gilles.chanteperdrix@xenomai.org> wrote:
> Peter Pastor wrote:
>> Hey !
>>
>> Sorry for bothering again, but I just saw the following 2 posts on the
>> mailing list:
>>
>> -------
>> Dell laptop with i7 processors, multicore
>>     Typical latency was around 5 usec,  but at least once per second had a
>> long pass of approximately 700 usec.   Tried the xenomai SMI work around with
>> no noticable change in results.
>> -------
>
> Have you checked:
> http://www.xenomai.org/index.php/Configuring_x86_kernels#In_case_of_high_latencies
>
>
> --
>                                                                Gilles.
>

Re: [Xenomai-help] Fwd: Xenomai on laptops

[Gilles Chanteperdrix]

Peter Pastor wrote:
> Hey Gilles,
> 
>> Have you checked:
>> http://www.xenomai.org/index.php/Configuring_x86_kernels#In_case_of_high_latencies
> 
> Yes, I am aware of it, thanks.

Ok. Because you were quoting someone who probably did not read this
page, so that enabling the SMI workaround did not seem to work, simply
because its chipset was not in the smi.c table.

-- 
					    Gilles.