Ubuntu 6.06 vs Ubuntu 7.1

[piedpiper]

Well, I had installed version 7.1 after playing with 6.06 on the live CD and hoping that it wouldn't be to much trouble to get EMC-2 up and running on the latest and greatest Ubuntu. After I reviewed the proceedure and ruminated a while i said to myself - Self, just install the 6.06 and let it go! Well, that's happening now I think Its probably wiping out 7.1 -- I don't think It would wipe out XP(also on this machine). Just rebooted and got a Grub ERROR 18!! and because that controls the access to the disk the machine is now down and I don't have access to it. Damn!! Version 7.1 was playing quite nicely with XP -well it had elbowed it over rudely on install but took care of the partition all right. Now I'm dead in the water!

(AMD Athalon 1600 with 400M of memory)

[kanton]

I had Version 7.1 on one drive and XP on another in my Core 2 Duo computer. After I removed the Ubuntu drive I tried to remove Grub. This resulted in wiping out XP. I had to repartition, reformat and reinstall XP. Fortunately, I did a backup of the XP drive before trying to remove Ubuntu. Unfortunately, I used the XP backup software but eventually I did manage to retrieve the files I wanted on the XP drive.

As a result of this experience I will never install Ubuntu and Windows on the same computer unless I consider all the files on the system to be expendable.

I hope your luck is better than mine.

[piedpiper]

Ended up telling 6.06 to format the drive and install itself regardless as I need EMC_2 operating and need to assess its capabilities. It did just that and now I am without a spare machine with XP and 7.1. I am thinking of trying to install 7.1 along side of 6.06 but as I really don't need a spare XP and the 7.1 was in hope that EMC-2 would run on the newest release, I guess I should be happy!

[cyclestart]

3 solid pieces of advice

#1 don't panic !
#2 seek help on the ubuntu forums. The accumulated abilities there are unbeatable.
#3 see #1

Originally Posted by piedpiper Well, that's happening now I think Its probably wiping out 7.1 -- I don't think It would wipe out XP(also on this machine).

You think or you know? Boot up one of your ubuntu cd's, open up a terminal and try this;

The <> is just to point out these are commands. The "l" is a lowercase L.
Hopefully your seeing a ntfs partition, one or more linux partitions and a swap partition of some kind.
Let's say there is a linux partition at /dev/hda2 and you're curious what's on it.

will make a place to mount it


to look for personal files.
for good measure

although rebooting will also unmount it.

Fwiw, I don't think your computer is ancient enough for a real Error 18. More likely GRUB is confused.

[cyclestart]

Wow. How I wrote that long winded response without spotting replies # 2+3 is a mystery.

The situation was recoverable, but seeing as you didn't need the XP, maybe not worth the effort.

Originally Posted by kanton After I removed the Ubuntu drive I tried to remove Grub. This resulted in wiping out XP......... As a result of this experience I will never install Ubuntu and Windows on the same computer unless I consider all the files on the system to be expendable.

And there's the rub. Creating a dual boot is a no-brainer these days. Mucking with the installed Windows later on is another story . If only Windows were more user friendly.

[piedpiper]

Hey, cyclestart, thanks for the reply as I said in my Email, I think to you? I couldn't access the drive from boot so I took the live cd and booted from that and told it to go ahead and install , it did and took the whole drive so I now have 6.01 and with EMC-2 on a fairly quick machine with a 140G hard drive and 400M mem. My approach is to wait patiently untill they get EMC working with 7.1 and re install it then.
piedpiper

[piedpiper]

cyclestart and the EMC forum:
Just so you will know this is not just an exercise, I work for a company that, to get into the CNC mill business, purchased a Bridgeport Textron which had blown its controller and the then owner had replaced the controller with three Geckos driven by a Dell running Debian(?sp) and EMC (1). It works ok but is a little irratic and some of the documentation we have is lacking detail. This is the motivation behind moving to this edition.
piedpiper

[guru_florida]

If I had gotten to you earlier I could have saved you a lot of trouble. As earlier stated, GRUB was simply confused but it is easily remedied. (Probably dont even need the Live CD.) At the GRUB menu you have many commands available. (use help) For example:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1

will boot a linux kernal on /dev/hda1 (hd0,0) (hard drive 0, partition 0) given that no initial ramdisk was used. Other commands can be used to specify initrd's, find the kernel when you dont know where it is, and to install a new Master Boot Record. GRUB can be accessed from the boot menu after the POST screen (if the MBR loads GRUB successfully), or otherwise from a live CD by running grub (edit your grub config file first.) I just had a "No OS found error" and used the GRUB menu to find and load my linux and reinstall the MBR. Also, if you uninstall GRUB and linux and your Windows wont boot, you put in your windows XP cd, and choose the restore option to reinstall the MBR (but not overwrite your registry!) and you will be back up in no time.

See GRUB commands (google search "grub commands"):
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...-commands.html

Also, even though your EMC2 installed on the whole drive. You could resize the partition using resize2fs and fdisk (you must use both, in that order), and then you would have the space to install windows again. Google "resize ext3 partition".

As for EMC2 and recent ubuntu's:
I just did a lot with GRUB recently as I tried to get EMC2 on my recent ubuntu installation without success. I gave up for the time being and went for a 6.06 installation on a 2GB Compact Flash drive. The minimum requirements stated 2GB but this is not quite true...its more like 3GB including swap. So I installed the 6.06 on a 10GB HD and figured I would use dd (raw copy) to copy the partition to the 2GB flash drive after I uninstalled unneeded programs like openoffice and shrunk the partitions to under 2GB. This actually worked really well. There were some caveats to the process, including reinstalling the MBR using GRUB after dd'ing the partition to CF. I have a 300MB swap and a 1.7GB linux part that is 93% used. Basically, only openoffice and multimedia applications were sacrificed. I now have a fully solid state EMC2 computer with wireless internet, card reader, etc, that boots fast. And EMC2 works great with my machine!

I could probably provide the 2GB image if people are interested.

[cyclestart]

Originally Posted by piedpiper Hey, cyclestart, thanks for the reply as I said in my Email, I think to you?

Hmmm, no Email or PM here. Maybe there's a Mach3 user somewhere with a confused look on his face ?

If you run into issues with that converted Bridgeport , joining the linuxcnc.org user-mailinglist would be a good move. No offense to this forum, but the widest range of experience is available there. Of course nothing says you can't post both places.

guru_florida

Good to see you here. Hope you plan to check in often.

[piedpiper]

I was thinking of going to the Ubuntu forum in another group, but what the heck, I started this, maybe its the best place. I went to the local linux group meeting, this is the ACGNJ, Monday last (took the machine with 6.06 and emc-2 on it to show). Was pretty interesting. Along with some system information I learned that I have been incorrectly refering to the version as 7.1 and it is really 7.10. One thing which they got me hopped up on is this "Synaptic Program Manager". It is really excellent and as opposed to MS where you generally get a complete package on a disk or something else. An Issue which puzzles me is how do you determine a compete package from this list. I think one can select from the list as long as he wants but___? My objective as I need to write some routines and I am fairly literate in C++ , I would like to assemble a Ubuntu compatible package of that ilk and hopefully operate it to put togeather a operating program. It would be nice if it included the tools to assemble a program with a graphical interface -- UH, like a windows app. I was admonished to not just grab all the programs presented in "SPM". But I guess i'm not smart enough to understand how to select a complete group at this point . So that is the question. Given an application like g++ or gcc or what ever how does one assemble a comlete component list. I've got a lot of programs to install using the Add/Remove feature but there is some gaps.

Thanks
piedpiper

[cyclestart]

Uhhh, can you repeat the question? Translation: this is probably several fathoms beyond my depth

You might want to check for a package called "build-essentials" for starters. Take a look at the dependencies using the properties option. Synaptic will install these automatically.

If you want to make a debian style package from a compiled program, there is a bit of a cheat called CheckInstall. This is really just a convenient way to maintain a system. Some old school type linux users don't use package management at all. Getting the feeling I'm misunderstanding this part of the question.

Component list? Not sure. Do you mean the files that will be installed if you choose to install a package? What other packages (dependencies) which will be dragged along, if not already installed, is always displayed.

I'm impressed by your ambition level. Also curious to see what other responses this question gets, especially from people with packaging or programming experience.

edit/ If you do post this question elsewhere, would you please provide a link? Two of the better forums are LinuxQuestions.org and the official Ubuntu forums. I'm curious how others field this.

[piedpiper]

I'm going to just study for a while and see if I can get some of the details down. These packages are so complex that its difficult tracing down a factoid one may want to play with. For example today, I have been looking at the graphical interfaces, one in particular would seem to meet my needs if I can figure how to increase backplot size make it cover more territory. In regard to the previous message, I can tell I have confusued the Hell out of you. Yes, I am thinking of doing some things some quite comples and having a C++ compiler is required but I think I'm going to have to just study the problem and maybe get a book or two!!! I'll be back.