Off topic ... Some help with Linux please

[Julian]

Hmm, that went well.  Tried to download the software having given them my life story to register, only to get a message saying that I'm unable to download and to contact customer support.  Now waiting for customer support to come back.

Mean time I've done some Googling and have seen a suggestion that to run 32 bit on a 64 bit machine all you need to do is download the 32 bit library (just one command).  That seem a little bit too easy ... does it sound viable to the experts?

[Julian]

Heard back from customer support ... not being too supportive though ....


Hi Julian,

Thank you for contacting VMware Global Support Services.

My name is Vijesh Mithran,and I have been assigned to work on your support request. The Support Request No. is 13414650812.

I understand that when you download product software in your My VMware portal, you are getting the error 'Unable to process your request. Please contact Customer Care'.

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.

We are already aware of this issue, and our VMware Product Engineering team is working on this towards resolving it as soon as possible.

At this time, there is no estimated time for resolution.

Regards,
Vijesh Mithran
VMware Global Support Services

[Tony]

I would say the library is worth a try - no reason why not if it's supported!

[therecklessengineer]

Yeah, 32 bit Java might do the trick.

[Julian]

Well, a lot of water under the bridge since the last post, but still no working software!

I tried the 32 bit librarys thing and that didn't work.  The nice man at VMware came back to me both by phone and email (all credit to VMware) to say his downloads were working and I downloaded the package, but installing it looked to be more difficult than perceiving with the 32 vs 64 bit issues.

I went back to the reprap installation instructions ( http://reprap.org/wiki/Installing_RepRap_on_your_computer ) and had another go at them.  I seemed to get a little further but hit a wall with the "gentoo amd64 ... "  instruction.

I was a little confused by exactly what was meant by "cd /path/to/your/host/software".  I used the "su" command which I think put me in the right location and gave me higher level access ... Appreciate some one confirming this please.  (often information on basic stuff isn't readily available on the web ... I did try and look)

Any how this Gentoo seems to be yet another version of Linux (there are so many) and when I run the instruction above I get ...

Code: [Select]

julian@julian-HP:~$ su
Password:
root@julian-HP:/home/julian# gentoo amd64 ...

** (gentoo:2706): WARNING **: The connection is closed
gentoo: To run as root, envoke with the '--root-ok' option
root@julian-HP:/home/julian#
Can't find what '--root-ok' is, searches don't seem to bring up any helpful info (at least none I understand!)

The next command ...

Code: [Select]

emerge sun-java3d-bin
tells me that emerge is not a valid command and makes some suggestions that don't appear relevant.

It would appear that emerge is something special to Gentoo and I'm missing files of directories in, I think it was the bin directoryin which they are located ... I'm still searching.

I know it's an imposition but any assistance in this line of enquiry would be welcomed ... I'm really struggling!

[Julian]

Hooray, a small success at last ... I've got the Arduino working.  A small step for mankind, a giant leap for Julian. It's sitting here with a flashing LED and I can change the frequency of the flashes by changing the code on the computer.

Oh, the wonders of technology!

[Tony]

Yes Gentoo is another linux.  Replace emerge xxx with apt-get install xxx

Ignore the # gentoo line, the # means comment in that case.

Actually their page is very confusing, because in some places they appear to use hash as "type at the command prompt" and sometimes as a comment as the line would appear in a text file.

[Julian]

No luck I'm afraid ...

Code: [Select]

root@julian-HP:/home/julian# sudo apt-get install librxtx-java
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
librxtx-java is already the newest version.
librxtx-java set to manually installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded.
root@julian-HP:/home/julian# ln -sf /usr/lib/librxtxSerial.so .
root@julian-HP:/home/julian# apt-get install rxtx
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package rxtx
root@julian-HP:/home/julian#


To my simplistic brain it looks like rxtx is already downloaded (unsurprising as I run the first part of the instructions several times before) but the get-apt install rxtx can't find it.  I'm a little confused with the root@ julian ... #  and the julian@julian ... $ stuff.  Am I performing these operations in the right place?

[Julian]

As far as I can gather rxtx is a way of getting Java to use ports.  I found this page if it's any help ... http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ

I have this version of  java JDK installed ...

Code: [Select]

java version "1.6.0_27"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.12.6) (6b27-1.12.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.4)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode)
julian@julian-HP:~$

Looks like rxtx installation instructions are here ... http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_on_Linux

A little more complicated that described on the reprap page  should I have a bash at following those?

[therecklessengineer]

I think you're digging yourself into a hole here.

The software is written in Java - so Java must work. Which is difficult on a 64 bit machine for reasons that are beyond me (true of Windows installations also).

I suggest you try this:  http://reprap.org/wiki/Portable_USB_Ubuntu_RepRap_Host

[Julian]

I think you're digging yourself into a hole here.

The software is written in Java - so Java must work. Which is difficult on a 64 bit machine for reasons that are beyond me (true of Windows installations also).

I suggest you try this:  http://reprap.org/wiki/Portable_USB_Ubuntu_RepRap_Host

Good find with that page, I've done a lot of searching but missed that.  I'd sort of had a similar idea.  I have an old Toshiba lap top, knackered battery, so has to run off the mains.  It runs XP very slowly, so  I was thinking of wiping that, installing a 32 bit Linux version and having it as a dedicated machine for the printer.  The printer will always need power so no big shakes if the laptop does too.

Is this a viable route to take?
If so, what flavour of Linux and what version is most likely to be best suited?

Any 3D design work could be done on a faster machine and transferred to the Reprap software on the Tosh. as an STL file (whatever that is).

Having done much surfing today, only a few people seem to have cracked this 64/32 bit issue for reprap. 

PS  I've been merrily excavating large holes since this stuff arrived in the post!

[Julian]

Also, I guess, what version of Java should be installed if it makes a difference.

[therecklessengineer]

This is my favourite flavour:

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Any version of Java should be fine. Again, my default flavour is Oracle. But then I haven't tried anything else for ages.

[Tony]

Mint is my favourite flavour too, based on Ubuntu so full of apt-get lovelyness.

[Julian]

I remember you saying that when I was looking at dual booting this machine.  Aesthetically (that’s' about as technical as I get) I think it looks great, but I went with Ubuntu because it seemed the most commonly used and best supported (not in this case though!)

I'll give Mint a try then, assuming what applies to Ubuntu applys to Mint too, I just haven’t seen Mint mentioned on any of the reprap pages.

It looks like reprap was put together concurrent with Java 5 so that might be the best starting point, similarly with the flavour of Linux, I should, perhaps choose a build of a similar age.

The Toshiba is a 1.5GHz, 128MB SDRAM, with a 20GB hard drive.

Do you think I'll have a fighting chance with that set up?