Title: RTLinux Installation Notes
Keywords: rtlinux install installation linux
Date: March 25, 2002
KDB: KDB-281
Revision: 0.01
Author: Stuart MacDonald
Distribution: External/Internal
RTLinux is available from FSMLabs. It’s a set of extensions to the stock Linux kernel.
The freely available, downloadable version’s installation instructions are a little out of date, vague or generally incorrect. Below are the basic steps to correctly installing RTLinux. These steps assume a working knowledge of the internet, downloading, patching a Linux kernel source code tree, making and installing a Linux kernel.
- Download RTLinux from FSMLabs.
- Unpack the files. This will often meaning using tar and gunzip.
- Examine the patch files in the newly created RTLinux directory. They will specify exactly which Linux kernels they will apply to. Usually this is done by name; rtlinux-3.1 includes kernel_patch-2.2.19 and kernel_patch-2.4.4.
- Download one of the specified Linux kernels.
- Unpack the Linux kernel.
- Patch the Linux kernel with the corresponding RTLinux patch. If you downloaded linux-2.4.4, patch it with kernel_patch-2.4.4. The easiest way to do this is:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# patch -p1 < /usr/src/rtlinux/kernel_patch-2.4.4 - Make and install the patched Linux kernel. Make sure to install it separately from the existing kernel, instead of over top of it. This will give you a known good backup should the new kernel fail to boot.
- Boot the new kernel. The new kernel will still function as a regular Linux kernel in all aspects; the patch has added some code that will allow it to run as a preemptible RTLinux task, once you start RTLinux proper.
- Make RTLinux proper. This is done with the following commands:
# cd /usr/src/rtlinux
# make menuconfig
# make
Menuconfig can be replaced with any of the standard Linux kernel config methods, I find menuconfig easiest however. - Start RTLinux proper with the following command:
# scripts/insrtl
The versions of the script I’ve seen are location dependent, they must be run from /usr/src/rtlinux. - Enjoy RTLinux.
Once the above steps have been followed, RTLinux can be started by booting the patched kernel, and running the insrtl script.
NOTE: The serial driver installation procedure for CTI products should be done after the RTLinux installation procedure, not before.
NOTE: The serial driver for CTI products will run as part of the stock Linux kernel, not as an RTLinux real time task. However, the RTLinux real time serial driver can be extended to support CTI products. If you need this, please contact Support for help.
End of KDB-281