E-box/Install manual

This page contains the neccesary step to install a realtime linux system with EtherCAT

Installing a linux distribution

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Ubuntu is an operating system developed by the Ubuntu community. Based on Linux and GNU software Ubuntu is perfect for most PCs and laptops. It contains all the applications you need, a modern web browser, email package, programs for photo editing and important to us: all the tools for programming. Ubuntu is developed with focus on security. For the LTS (Long Term Support) versions will be three years provided free security updates for desktop. These LTS versions are free and available for everyone. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu will always be free.

This part describes how to install and configure Ubuntu 10.04LTS with rt-kernel. The last LTS (Long Term Support) version with rt support during the writing of this document is Ubuntu version 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). It is also possible to install Ubuntu Studio. This version for audio- and video editing is still equipped with the Linux kernel-rt

Download and install ubuntu-desktop-amd64.iso 10.04.2 (64 bits) or ubuntu-10.04.2-desktop-i386.iso (32 bits):

http://www.ubuntu-nl.org/getubuntu/download/LTS  or  http://releases.ubuntu.com

Download the latest updates via the Synaptic Package Manager. Package updates are allowed. Do not upgrade e to a higher Ubuntu version eg 10.10. Download and install Linux-rt via the Synapic Package Manager. Restart Ubuntu and repeatedly press the Shift button. You'll come into the Grub boot manager. Select the rt kernel version.

Check the kernel version in a terminal with:

uname -r

respons: kernelversion-rt

2.6.31-11-rt

Required packages

Download and install via the Synaptic Package manager:

Nautilus file browser. (This is useful as superuser)
gcc and g++ 4.1 (For Matlab 2007b)
java-1.6.0-sun or sun-java6-bin (using Matlab and  smartSVN)

Some packages are not available with the default settings. Check also: Pre-released updates (lucid Proposed)and unsupported updates.

Check java version:

java -version

Two versions of gcc and g++ are installed. These are gcc and g++ 4.1 and 4.3. The default version is probably the highest 4.3. Matlab2007b MEX only works with gcc and g++ version 4.0 to 4.2.

Check the default used version:

gcc --version
g++ --version

Force a symbolic link to version 4.1 in the /usr/bin directory:

cd /usr/bin
ln -sf gcc -4.1 gcc
ln -sf g++ -4.1 g++

Installing Matlab

Currently two versions of Matlab are supported: 2007b and 2010a (experimental support only). Choose a supported version.

Getting the software

Install smartsvn

https://e-box.wtb.tue.nl/svn/e-box/

After updating your local copy, run

make_all_clean
make_all_install

in Matlab to obtain a fresh copy of the latest verion.