[johnh]

Been tinkering under the hood a lot, thought I'd pass on some lessons.

It's easy to break PP real fast to the point an upgrade doesn't fix it, it will get stuck in a controller broken loop , then you have to start from scratch, a lot of work

Assuming you have a stable setup with the latest update, networked etc.

assuming you have a HD bigger than 60 gb

Download from this page and burn

Clonezilla download

boot up PP, hold down left shift-alt keys on past the TORMACH splash screen, this will bring up the Unbuntu desktop

right click on the desktop,create a launcher, name it GNOME, browse to the usr/bin folder and pick the gnome_panel file, then close. You should have an icon on your desktop labeled GNOME, this will be needed to relaunch the menu bar later.

right click on the desktop,create a launcher, name it PATHPILOT, browse to the home/operator/ folder and pick the operator_login file, then close. You should have an icon on your desktop labeled PATHPILOT, this will let you launch PP from the desktop.

open system/preferences/application launcher, unclick PathPilot

reboot.

your system will start up at the Unbuntu desktop without a menu bar, double click on the GNOME icon to bring your menu bar back.

open system/administration/disk utilities here you can pick your HD and it will show that PP has only formatted 30gb and a 2bg swap file. this is Linux partition sda1, if you have a big drive you will see the un allocated space to the right. click on it and choose create partition, just make another 30 if you like, or even 4, the basic install not counting CNC files on the controller its under 3 gb, use the ext4 file system. this will become sda3

Once this is done, you can reboot with the ISO you burned in the CD drive. this will launch the cloning software, just follow the instructions for working from partition to partition, real easy, pick the beginners mode. you will be cloning sda1 to sda3. once completed you will have a complete backup image of your main drive that you use all day, if you hose it beyond repair, just pop in the CD you made and do the same thing only from sba3 to sba1. once done you will have restored the hosed partition, then avoid the tweak that buggered it up to begin with.

with this method you could have multiple partitions with other backups.

hope this helps speed up the process.

Have my Series ii XY at 200 ipm and Z at 120ipm
Also have the commanded rpms matching my custom pulley arrangement output to the spindle

now onto the harder stuff.

Im sure there are more and better ways, but this is for the newbie like me. Have not had to do a restore yet but at the rate I'm going it will be very soon!


jh

[pickled]

Have my Series ii XY at 200 ipm and Z at 120ipm
Also have the commanded rpms matching my custom pulley arrangement output to the spindle

now onto the harder stuff.

Im sure there are more and better ways, but this is for the newbie like me. Have not had to do a restore yet but at the rate I'm going it will be very soon!
jh

Is your Series II bone stock (other than the pulley arrangement)? Wise move making a partition to un-hose yourself. Still in catch-up mode here after an extended outage, but I am looking to optimize my Series II on PP as well. Just loading the PP and Mesa has made a night and day difference with repeat positioning and smoothing of the stepping. Having feedhold that actually works and other dynamic features is a wonderful thing!

[johnh]

Yeah, it's been sweet. I did get the spindle upgrade when it came out, it started life as a series I. I made a stand and full enclosure back in 2006 for flood cooling, and remote mounted the manual control panel using 2 CAT5 cables back then. When I have some spare cash I'll do the series III steppers I think. heard they are even better for finishes.

Been through some axis bearings and spindle bearings, general maintenance stuff.

About ready to install my 5hp head on it.

jh

[MichaelHenry]

jh - thanks for going to the trouble of documenting this. It should make it much easier for us Linux neophytes to explore a bit.

[popspipes]

I am having trouble getting to the desktop with the control, shift keys, once in several tries it will work, today I cant get it to work at all.

Im all ears for any other options.

thanks

[popspipes]

I let the PathPilot software boot up, then hit the exit button, the immediately hit shift alt and it went to the terminal screen and desktop was selectable from there............. I will check it out as it may not always work??


Edit: This does not always work either.................

[MichaelHenry]

open system/preferences/application launcher, unclick PathPilot

reboot.

your system will start up at the Unbuntu desktop without a menu bar, double click on the GNOME icon to bring your menu bar back.

I had trouble with this instruction until I realized that "System" was the name of a menu item and that "application launcher" referred to "Startup Applications". No doubt that was obvious to most, but Linux is still new to me and 20 years of running Windows has taken it's toll on the brain cells.

Mike

[popspipes]

Mike,

I got mine running with the two launchers, in less than an hour................ after my grandson showed up, he had never seen the software before.

talk about making an old man feel really stupid..................................I guess there is more difference between 16 and 76 than I realized??
I can now have my clock showing after I figure out how to resize the monitor window, hopefully I can get that done before he comes over again.

[quarky42]

I'm glad someone started a summary thread. I was going to when I started to mod mine, but someone did it first and that's great Johnh, is this something you might be interested in revising over time and cleaning up a bit and/or adding to so it can be more of a guide for people willing to take the plunge? Your advice on making a backup is spot on! I plan on making a bone-stock partition that I can boot to so that I can install updates there first..then I can migrate the updated files over to the modified partition keeping an eye out for changes to things I might have tweaked.

[popspipes]

I made the gnome launcher a startup application, now on bootup it goes straight to desktop with the header showing automatically, with the pathpilot icon on the screen. Clicking the exit button on PathPilot will show the desktop at the top of the screen, clicking the cancel button reverts it back to pathpilot full screen.

I would like a better graphic on the PathPilot icon button, something to work on this week ha............

the restore disc I made awhile back does work that I made with the imgburn software on a windows machine, thanks to one of the guys on this forum.

PathPilot does work in this configuration, I have actually used the program without a problem.

Thanks to all the guys with input on this!

[johnh]

I made the gnome launcher a startup application, now on bootup it goes straight to desktop with the header showing automatically, !

that's better than my suggestion, I'll do that!

As I learn more I'll update. right now I'd digging into the python files to eliminate the forced shutdown of the computer when choosing to hit the EXIT button in PP. That and the spindle slaved to the Z axis for ridged tapping.

[popspipes]

that's better than my suggestion, I'll do that!

As I learn more I'll update. right now I'd digging into the python files to eliminate the forced shutdown of the computer when choosing to hit the EXIT button in PP. That and the spindle slaved to the Z axis for ridged tapping.

I would be interested in how to just close the pathpilot window and not shut the whole thing down.

Hitting the exit button on Pathpilot will let me see the title bar on the gnome panel and I can use it from there, to go back to pathpilot just hit the cancel button.