UCam Installation Manual
Contents
1. Examples of configuration files will be framed with each line prefixed with a line number The line numbers are included to aid the reader but are not included in the actual configuration text files The text file data be displayed using Courier font 001 logging loggers root channel class ConsoleChannel 002 logging loggers app name Application 003 logging loggers app channel cl 004 logging formatters fl class PatternFormatter 005 logging formatters fl pattern p t 2 How To Install Debian Linux The GNU Linux OS is a very flexible platform that can be used for all sorts of applications Linux can be used for running a web server mail server DNS server print server firewall and as a desktop computer amongst other things UCam is designed to run on real time Linux and therefore all we really need is the real time operating system In fact in order to achieve the best real time performance RTAI recommend using just the basic real time OS without running any other unnecessary software which may impact on the performance by increasing the latency Therefore it is better to avoid installing the X windows environment required by GUI applications to achieve best performance It is a good idea to consider how you plan to run UCam and integrate into your existing set up for your instrument control system It is safer and more efficient to run the UCam camera controller software on a separate PC to avoid any performanc2. devel Priority optional Maintainer maintainer lt maintainer domain com gt Build Depends debhelper gt 5 Standards Version 3 7 2 Package rtai modules _KVERS_ Architecture any Provides rtai modules Depends linux image _KVERS_ Description rtai modules for Linux kernel _KVERS_ This package contains the set of loadable kernel modules for the RTAI real time extension This package contains the compiled kernel modules for _KVERS_ If you have compiled your own kernel you will most likely need to build your own rtai modules The rtai source package has been provided for use with the Debian kernel package utility to produce a version of rtai module for your kernel Package rtai dev _KVERS_ Architecture any Provides rtai headers Depends linux headers _KVERS_ _GCC_ Description rtai headers for compiling real time modules This package contains the set of headers and helper scripts for the RTAI real time extension 31 Contents of usr src modules rtai copyright 32 This package was debianized by maintainer lt maintainer domain com gt on Sat 15 Sep 2007 00 39 32 0300 It was downloaded from http www rtai org Upstream Authors See RTAI Team at http www rtai org Copyright see AUTHORS License This program is free software you can redistribute it and or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation either version 2 of the Li
3. is a SMP system it has multiple processors or multi core CPU then enable 14 symmetric multi processing support otherwise e Processor type and features gt Symmetric multi processing support gt enable Choose the most suitable processor family for your machine For example for a Pentium III processor e Processor type and features gt Processor family gt Pentium III Celeron Coppermine Pentium III Xeon If you have a dual cores CPU or SMP system don t choose a processor family which has no TSC time stamp counter This means that for example you can not choose 586 K5 5x86 6x86 6x86MX as Processor family if you have a dual cores CPU In conclusion choose the most suitable processor family for your machine 3 2 6 Compiling The Linux Kernel and creating Debian kernel packages After we have configured the kernel we need to build it The best way to do this on any Debian based distribution is to use the Debian package command for making kernel packages We will create Debian kernel packages for the kernel image kernel header files and the kernel source files make kpkg clean time make kpkg append to version ucam revision r1 A initrd kernel_image kernel headers kernel_source 3 2 7 Installing The Linux Real Time Kernel Now we have created the Debian kernel packages we can install them We only need to install the kernel image and kernel headers packages for running UCam The kernel sources package is create
4. our newly created data as the mount point sshfs observer ucamserver home observer ucam data data This means we can now seamlessly interact with the remote files being securely served over SSH just as if they were local files Try this moving to the mounted directory point and listing the contents cd data ls 29 8 Useful Web Pages Astronomical Research Cameras ARC http www astro cam com Debian Linux OS Main web page http www debian org Download the network installer version of Debian http www debian org distrib netinst Debian installation manual for the x86 platform http www debian org releases stable 1386 Enhanced Machine Controller EMC Knowledge Base Wiki How to compile and install RTAI on Debian Lenny http wiki linuxenc org cgi bin emcinfo pl Debian Lenny Compile RTAI IRAF installation instructions on Debian Ubuntu http geco phys columbia edu rubab iraf iraf step by step installation Real Time Application Interface RTAI https www rtai org UK Astronomy Technology Centre UK ATC http www roe ac uk ukatc 30 9 Appendix A Contents of usr src modules rtai debian changelog rtai 3 5 unstable urgency low Initial Release maintainer lt maintainer domain com gt Sat 15 Sep 2007 00 39 32 0300 Contents of usr src modules rtai debian compat Contents of usr src modules rtai debian control modules in Source rtai Section
5. IL switch 4 to the ON position 6 2 Preparing the Kernel Sources Since the driver module is linked into the kernel it is important that the module is compiled using configuration and version information that matches the running kernel If you followed the quick install instructions for real time Linux kernel installation then you will need to perform the following instructions su Log in as the root user by entering the root password cp boot config uname r usr src linux config cd usr src linux Edit the Linux kernel make file usr src linux Makefile and add the ucam version name to the EXTRAVERSION variablke near the top of the make file EXTRAVERSION ucam Now configure the kernel sources with the updated version information using the following commands make oldconfig make prepare 6 3 Building And Installing The Meinberg GPS Driver Extract the source files from the Meinberg Linux tarball and then build and install tar xzvf path to mbgtools 1x 1 1 6 tar gz C root cd root mbgtools 1x 1 1 6 make check 23 make make install Create a udev rule file for creating device links and modifying permissions so the UCam applications can read the captured time stamps Create a new file with the following file name and path etc udev rules d 10 meinberg rules and edit it with your favourite editor to include the following rules KERNEL mbgntp SYMLINK refclock 0 MODE 0666
6. KERNEL mbgclk MODE 0666 Now every time you reboot your system the rules will be applied on boot up 6 4 Rebuild UCam With Meinberg GPS Support Go to source directory where you installed the UCam source code and reconfigure the build before rebuilding the UCam software Please refer back to section 4 if you are unsure cd home ucam ucam 0 9 7 configure prefix home ucam ucam with mbggps S make make install 24 7 Trouble Shooting And Other Tips 7 1 Checking The Memory Usage Big physical memory is the Kernel extension for allocating a large contiguous memory block which is used for writing image data buffers You check the big physical memory area usage by issuing the following command This will provide information about the total size of big physical memory allocated the amount of memory currently being used and the amount of memory that is still free cat proc bigphysarea Normal system memory usage can be check by using the following commands cat proc meminfo free m 7 2 Checking The RTAI Environment 7 2 1 Checking RTAI Modules List the RTAI modules currently loaded in the Linux kernel using the following command lsmod grep rtai You should see a list of RTAI modules including rtai_hal rtai_sched rtai_fifos rtai_sem rtai_shm and rtai_sdsu If any of these modules are missing then please check the kernel boot log messages to find an explanation You can find the kernel boot log at
7. UCam Installation Manual Version 0 3 Stewart McLay 5 March 2010 Acknowledgements Professor Vikram Dhillon who was P I for the UltraCam instrument the project from which UCam was born The UCam development team has involved several members of UK ATC staff Valuable contributions were made by David Atkinson Steven Beard Derek Ives Stewart McLay Chris Tierney and Andy Vick The Enhanced Machine Controller EMC project for their knowledge base wiki which has been a valuable source of information for installing RTAI on Debian Linux Table of Contents E AE E AEE ta OSE eaa 5 ME O 5 LCA BOUL C COMO NOE os eec te caurlt iat la sath cue O 5 1 3A bout UK Astronomy Technology Cemtres ic su ctssisssanccesstazskenaseissananadivacstacdvwe elaccaneedinvertanndasers 6 LAAcronymis And Abbreviations issena iire e Gainer caves asl aan A E TE EE A 6 1 5Stylistic Conventions aneren e i it 6 2How ToTnstall Debian Linux nerigora ae iced A a A E a EE Ne 8 21 Debian Release iia 8 2 2Installing Debian Linux Using The Network Installer oonoonccncncnnncinncnnconnocononccconanononncnonnnos 8 HowTo Install RTALE CTS RS 11 3 1How To Do A Quick Real Time Linux InstallatiON oonoconnnnninccnnnoconccnonaconnconnncnnnccnnnnnnoconnnos 11 3 2How To Do A Full Real Time Linux InstallatiOM ooonconnnnnnnccnnnoconccnonnconcconancncnnnncccronnncnconnnos 11 3 2 installing Essential Debian Packages ness a A As 11 E A A A RT 12 3 23 App
8. Uniform Resource Indicator URL Uniform Resource Locator UK ATC United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre XML Extensible Mark up Language 1 5 Stylistic Conventions Terminal shell commands will be displayed using Courier font with the representing a regular user the shell prompt Everything after the prompt will be a command entered at the terminal shell by a user pwd A shell prompt is used to represent the root user shell lsmod Examples of XML data will be displayed using Courier font lt Logging gt lt Name gt UCam lt Name gt lt Filename gt home ucam logfiles ucam log lt Filename gt lt Level gt INFO lt Level gt lt Logging gt Python shell input and output will also be displayed using Courier font with gt gt gt representing the python shell prompt Again everything after the gt gt gt prompt will be a command entered at the python shell by a user gt gt gt import sys gt gt gt print sys version 2 5 2 r252 60911 Oct 5 2008 19 24 49 GCC 4 3 2 Examples of Python source code files will be framed with each line prefixed with a line number The line numbers are included to aid the reader but are not included in the actual source code files The python code be displayed using Courier font 001 usr bin env python 002 003 from ucam import UCam 004 005 ucam UCam 006 ucam setAddress ucamdev roe ac uk 007 ucam setPort 9980 9981 9982 008 ucam connect
9. cense or at your option any later version This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE See the GNU General Public License for more details You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this package if not write to the Free Software Foundation Inc 51 Franklin St Fifth Floor Boston MA 02110 1301 USA The Debian packaging is C 2007 maintainer lt maintainer domain com gt and is licensed under the GPL see usr share common licenses GPL Contents of usr src modules rtai debian rules usr bin make f PACKAGE rtai modules MA DIR usr share modass include MA_DIR include generic make include MA_DIR include common rules make architecture we re building for DEB_HOST_ARCH shell dpkg architecture qDEB_ HOST ARCH ARCH_TARGET DEB_HOST_ARCH elf ifeq DEB_HOST_ARCH amd64 ARCH TARGET x86_64 elf endif ifeq DEB_HOST_ ARCH powerpc ARCH_TARGET powerpc be eabi endif ifeq DEB_HOST_ARCH mips ARCH_TARGET mipsisa32 be elf endif ifeq DEB_HOST_ARCH mipsel ARCH_TARGET mipsisa32 be elf endif ifeq DEB_HOST_ARCH arm ARCH_TARGET arm9 le thumb elf endif 33 PHONY kdist_config fix cdeps fix cdeps cd debian cp control modules in control modules tmp 2 gt dev n
10. d as a maintenance precaution The dpkg command is used to install the packages It will also automatically add a new entry in the grub boot loader s menu lst file for the new kernel cd usr sre dpkg i linux image 2 6 20 ucam_rl_i386 deb dpkg i linux headers 2 6 20 ucam_rl_i386 deb Select you new kernel image from the boot loader menu after rebooting the system reboot You will have to change the default kernel image setting in menu lst file if you want the your new kernel to become the default kernel used for every reboot of the system Use a text editor to open and edit the file boot grub menu Ilst and set the default value to the menu item number of your new kernel image To search for your kernel image in the list of installed Debian packages use the following command dpkg 1 linux image 2 6 20 ucam dpkg 1 linux headers 2 6 20 ucam To remove your kernel packages use the following command Using a P or purge option instead of r or remove will also delete the configuration files used by the package dpkg r linux image 2 6 20 ucam dpkg r linux headers 2 6 20 ucam 15 3 2 8 Compiling And Installing RTAI Modules First we must configure RTAI before build it cd usr src modules rtai We need to configure the RTAI build options Start up the terminal based menu configuration editor make menuconfig Set the following kernel build configuration options e General gt Enable source compatibility mod
11. e aptitude install dh make aptitude install module assistant aptitude install libncurses5 dev aptitude install autoconf The following packages should be automatically be installed as dependencies Package Dependencies kernel package binutils linux libc dev libc6 dev libgmp3c2 libmpfrlldbl cpp 4 3 cpp libgompl gcc 4 3 gcc make bzip2 libtimedate perl dpkg dev gettext intltool debian po debconf libcompress raw zlib perl libio compress base perl libio compress zlib perl libcompress zlib perl libdigest shal perl libdigest hmac perl libfile remove perl libio stringy perl libmime types perl libmailtools perl libobject realize later perl liburi perl libuser identity perl libmail box perl libsys hostname long perl libmail sendmail perl libstdc 6 4 3 dev g 4 3 g dh make debhelper html2text autoconf automake autotools dev libpoco5 dev libltd13 libpocodata5 libpocodata5 dbg libpocofoundation5 libpocofoundation5 dbg libpoconet5 libpoconet5 dbg libpoconetss15 libpoconetss1l5 dbg libpocoodbc5 libpocoodbc5 dbg libpocosqlite5 libpocosqlite5 dbg libpocoutil5 libpocoutil5 dbg libpocoxml15 libpocoxml5 dbg odbcinstldebianl unixodbc 3 2 2 Get The Source Files Before we can build any software we must download the source files for a vanilla Linux kernel the RTAI extensions and the big physical memory patch These can be obtained using the following commands cd root wget http www kernel org pub lin
12. e gt enabled e Machine gt Number of CPUs SMP only gt lt the number of CPU cores in your system gt You can find out how many CPU cores you have or rather how many CPU the Linux kernel thinks you have by using the following command cat proc cpuinfo Now prepare the files needed to create turn RTAI into a Debian kernel modules extension package mkdir debian cd debian touch changelog touch compat touch control modules in touch copyright touch rules E H chmod 755 rules Edit using your favourite editor and insert the contents from appendix A into the following Debian package management files e usr src modules rtai debian changelog e usr src modules rtai debian compat e usr src modules rtai debian control modules in e usr src modules rtai debian copyright e usr src modules rtai debian rules Compile the Debian kernel packages for the RTAI modules with the following commands cd usr src linux make kpkg append to version ucam added modules rtai modules_clean make kpkg append to version ucam added modules rtai modules image 3 2 9 Installing The RTAI Real Time Kernel Modules Now we have created the Debian kernel packages for the RTAI modules we can install them The dpkg command is used to install the packages cd usr src dpkg i rtai modules 2 6 20 ucam_3 5 r1_i386 deb dpkg i rtai dev 2 6 20 ucam_3 5 r1_i386 deb 16 Select you new kernel image from the b
13. e problems due to conflicts with other resources running on the same PC This means running UCam on a standard Linux installation as a server with your client applications running on another computer on the network But if this kind of set up is too complicated for you needs then you may install a full desktop environment and run UCam as a stand alone system This manual provides instructions on how to install the UCam software on a Debian Linux distribution The Debian distribution was chosen because of its stability large number of packages flexible installation set up and support for multiple platforms The installation process make heavy use of the Debian package management tools You are strongly advised follow the advice provided in this document unless you are a Linux expert and have a strong preference for an alternative Linux distribution Even so you may find it a lot more difficult than you think to apply these instructions across another platform and therefore you should read the whole document first before you undertake such a task to prevent any major disappointment at latter stage 2 1 Debian Releases It is recommended that you install a standard Debian Linux OS as your starting platform The Debian Linux distribution provides a very convenient installer for such purposes There are three types of Debian releases available These are e Stable This is release recommended because it is the most stable and mature e Testing This r
14. eds The installation process includes the following steps 1 Choosing your preferred language Selecting a keyboard layout Configuring the network connection Partitioning the disks Set up Users and passwords Installation of the base system Configure the package manager E OS ON a Ge Select and install software 9 Installing the GRUB boot loader In step 4 you have the option for configuring the partition table of your hard disks Debian provides a number of options where you can have everything on a single partition split system resources across several partitions or manually configure the partitions yourself As well as that there are options for using LVM and encryption The simplest option is to install the entire system in a single partition which is recommended for users who are unsure about which solution suits them best We would generally recommend that you install the system resources over several partitions as this is probably the safest option for a secure and stable system where data is recoverable in the event of file system problems The Debian option for automatically spliting the system over several partitions is very tight with size allocations which can lead to problems when installing other software such as IRAF Therefore we would recommend that you configure your partition table manually using Table 1 as a guide Table 1 Recommended hard disk partition table Partition Type Moun
15. elease will form the next stable release after all major bugs have been fixed and is probably acceptable for use in desktop computers for users who want a more up to date system e Unstable sid This release is used for introducing the latest software packages that may have critical bugs that need fixing before they can make it into the testing branch The fact that it is called Unstable should make it clear that this release is best avoided if you want a system that is stable enough for everyday use The current Debian stable release at the time of writing this document is V5 0 which has the code name Lenny A newer release may be available which may prove easier to install depending on the hardware configuration of the PC you are trying to install 2 2 Installing Debian Linux Using The Network Installer The Debian network installer allows you to install Debian using a connection to the internet You initially download a small portion of Debian required to start the installation process After that you can install whatever else you want from within the installation program There are three options available for network installations which are e Small CDs e Tiny CDs floppy disks floppy disks USB sticks etc e Network boot You may choose the option that suits you the best The Debian installer will prompt you to enter certain information during the installation process so 1t can install and configure the Linux OS to suit your ne
16. entering the root password aptitude update aptitude safe upgrade The following sections described how to turn your Debian operating system into a real time camera controller and data acquisition system They start by explaining how to install a RTAI real time Linux operating system and then how to build and install the UCam software 10 3 How To Install RTAI Real Time Linux The following sections provides two different installation strategies for installing a RTAI real time Linux operating system The first is a quick installation which is the easiest and quickest way to perform the installation using preprepared Debian packages The second provides a full description of the build and installation process which is geared towards users who want to create their own customised versions of the Debian packages or just want to learn more about the process 3 1 How To Do A Quick Real Time Linux Installation This section describes the quickest and easiest way to install the UCam software system It requires as few steps as possible using pre packaged binaries for the hard real time Linux kernel RTAI modules and UCam su Log in as the root user by entering the root password cd lt your_ download _folder gt aptitude install build essential gcc 4 1 g 4 1 dpkg i linux headers 2 6 20 ucam_rl_i386 deb ln s usr src linux headers 2 6 20 ucam usr src linux 2 6 20 ucam dpkg i linux image 2 6 20 ucam_rl_i386 deb dpkg i rtai modul
17. ers available from the Debian repositories can be found be using the following command aptitude search gcc Install the GCC C C compilers using the following commands aptitude install gcc 4 1 g 4 1 aptitude install gcc 4 2 g 4 2 The update alternatives utility can be used for switching between compiler versions First we must add new menu entries for the installed versions of the GCC compilers update alternatives install usr bin gcc gcc usr bin gcc 4 1 41 slave usr bin g g usr bin g 4 1 update alternatives install usr bin gcc gcc usr bin gcc 4 2 42 slave usr bin g g usr bin g 4 2 update alternatives install usr bin gcc gcc usr bin gcc 4 3 43 slave usr bin g g usr bin g 4 3 13 Then can then select the GCC compiler version we want using the following command and selecting the appropriate menu item The GCC version 4 1 compiler is the safest option for compiling the kernel source code if you want to avoid compilation errors update alternatives config gcc 3 2 4 2 Modifying Linux Kernel Build Flags Linux Kernel V2 6 22 or greater We must apply a small fix by editing the Linux kernel make file usr src linux Makefile and adding the following flag to CFLAGS_ KERNEL build variable CFLAGS KERNEL fno tree scev cprop 3 2 5 Configuring The Linux Kernel Create a new kernel build configuration file by reusing the system configuration file as a baseline cp boot con
18. es 2 6 20 ucam_3 5 r1_i386 deb ln s usr src linux headers 2 6 20 ucam usr src linux dpkg i rtai dev 2 6 20 ucam_3 5 r1_i386 deb reboot Select the UCam kernel from the boot menu You should now have a modified Linux kernel with RTAI real time extensions installed Now skip to the section which describes how to install the UCam camera controller and data acquisition software 3 2 How To Do A Full Real Time Linux Installation This section describes how to do a full installation of the UCam software It gives step by step instructions on how to patch configure build the source files and how to create Debian packages This section is particularly useful for anyone wishing to create their own customised packages It involves the following steps 1 Install essential Debian software packages 2 Get the sources files for the Linux kernel RTAI and the big physical memory patch 3 Patch and build the Linux kernel source files and then bundle into a Debian kernel package 4 Build the RTAI modules and bundle into a Debian kernel package extension 3 2 1 Installing Essential Debian packages Log in as the root user and apply any updates for system packages already installed su 11 Log in as the root user by entering the root password aptitude update aptitude safe upgrade Install the software development tools for building software and creating Debian packages aptitude install kernel packag
19. fig uname r config make oldconfig Start up the terminal based kernel build configuration editor make menuconfig Select the following kernel build configuration options e Loadable module support gt Enable loadable module support gt enabled e Loadable module support gt Module versioning support gt disabled e Processor type and features gt HPET gt disabled e Processor type and features gt Interrupt pipeline gt enabled e Processor type and features gt Support for physical area reservation gt enabled e Processor type and features gt Enable kernel IRQ balancing gt enabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt Legacy Power Management API gt disabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt Software Suspend gt disabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Support gt ACPI Support gt disabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt APM Advanced Power Management BIOS Support gt APM BIOS Support gt disabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt CPU Frequency scaling gt CPU Frequency scaling gt disabled e Power management options ACPI APM gt Power Management support gt disabled e Bus options gt Message Signalled Interrupts MSI and MSI X gt disabled e Device Drivers gt Input device support gt Miscellaneous devices gt PC Speaker support gt disabled If your machine
20. hich is a high temporal resolution triple beam CCD camera and has subsequently been used on the WFCAM instrument which is a wide field infra red survey camera These are just two examples of the wide diversity of astronomical instrumentation that UCam can support but there are others The UCam software is primarily designed to make full use of the ARC controller as developed by Astronomical Research Cameras Although it is a highly configurable system and may be adapted in the future for use with other camera controllers The UCam design model is application centric where different applications tailored for specific detectors and readout modes are downloaded and executed on the camera controller hardware This highly configurable application centric design is what has enabled UCam to be an adaptable and reusable solution for several astronomical instruments UCam runs on a real time Linux operating system so it is able to provide fast imaging capabilities for instrumentation where it is needed It is also designed to be a server application so it can be installed and used remotely across a network running on a standard Linux operating system At present UCam supports the HTTP protocol and uses the XML format for sending data packets The interface is simple enough to be accessible through a web browser and there are several client GUI applications and software libraries available for interfacing with the UCam server This document described how to insta
21. ication defines a set of common interfaces to a computer system which system administrators can use to monitor system health and manage the system IPMI operates independently of the operating system and allows administrators to manage a system remotely even in the absence of an operating system or the system management software or even if the monitored system is powered off but connected to a power source The Baseboard Management Controller BMC and can share the on board NIC The MAC address is always MAC address 2 After installing the Debian operating system you may wish to disable this service especially if it is generating DHCP requests that may cause problems with your network switch configuration The following commands describe how to install and load the necessary kernel modules and then use the ipmitool command line tool to reconfigure the BMC You only need to reconfigure the BMC once and it will be permanently set even after reboots aptitude install openipmi aptitude install ipmitool modprobe ipmi_msghandler modprobe ipmi_devintf modprobe ipmi_si ipmitool I open sensor list ipmitool lan set 1 ipsrc bios 7 7 Mounting A Remote File System Using SSHFS Create a new directory in your home directory to be used as the mount point mkdir data 28 We then use the sshfs command to securely mount the data directory home observer ucam data on the ucamserver workstation logging in using the observer account We also specify
22. itor and append the following kernel boot parameter option bigphysarea 32770 onto the default kernel options Please not the following lines are not commands to be entered at the terminal prompt but are taken from the text file 19 HH Start Default Options default kernel options default kernel options for automagic boot options If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt x yz where x y z is kernel version Minor versions can be omitted e g kopt root dev hdal ro H kopt_2_6_8 root dev hdc1 ro kopt 2 6 8 2 686 root dev hdc2 ro kopt root UUID dev hdal ro bigphysarea 32770 This boot option sets the size of the contiguous memory space reserved for the writing image data frames The units are kernel pages whose size is configured during the Linux kernel build The default kernel page size is usually 4K therefore 32770 x 4K gives just over 128MB Of course you should make sure that you computer has considerably more memory than this otherwise the kernel will fail to allocate the memory at boot time Now refresh the boot menu using the following grub command and reboot update grub reboot 4 4 Starting Up UCam There are two bash shell scripts available for starting up the UCam servers The start_ucam script starts up the servers locally using a separate X terminal for each server The start_ucam_remote script starts up the servers remotely from a another Unix like system acro
23. l_i386 deb You can search for a Debian package file name from the installed packages using the following command This example shows how to search for all packages containing linux image in their file name dpkg S linux image Or you can list the packages matching a given pattern dpkg 1 linux image 2 6 20 ucam To remove your kernel packages use the following command Using a P or purge option instead of r or remove will also delete the configuration files used by the package dpkg r linux image 2 6 20 ucam 7 5 3 Debian Language Packs To install another language pack or to change the default language pack you must reconfigure the language package and change the locale settings This can be done by logging in as the administrator root user and entering the following command at the command prompt from a terminal dpkg reconfigure locales This will launch a text based terminal application with a long list of the language packs available on your system Find the appropriate languages and select them by pressing the space bar and then select OK to finish For example if you want to install the American English language pack you would select the en_US UTFS language pack You will be prompted to select the default language for your system from the list of selected packages before the application terminates 7 5 4 Managing User Accounts If you are have the Gnome desktop installed on your workstation then you can manage use
24. levels 2 3 4 and 5 You can install and run this utility by issuing the following commands aptitude install sysv rc conf sysv rc conf 7 2 4 Restarting the RTAI Environment If any RTAI modules or devices are missing then you can always try restarting the RTAI environment by issuing the following command This command should remove any RTAI modules and devices nodes that currently exist and reload the modules and create new devices However 1f any of these modules or devices are currently being used by some process on your system most probably a UCam server you must kill that process first before they can be successfully removed Note that this command can only be run by the root user etc init d rtai ucam restart 7 3 Checking The UCam Servers Are Alive When the UCam servers are up and running you can test their HTTP interfaces by starting up a web browser and entering the following URL into the address bar These URL assume that the server domain name is ucamdev and the camera filesave and demux servers are configured to use the default port settings 9980 9981 and 9982 respectively Substitute the domain name or IP address for your server in place of ucamdev and change the port settings accordingly if you are not using the default configuration You should see a simple web page displaying the time the server was started the current time and the server s uptime http ucamdev 9980 uptime http ucamdev 9981 uptime htt
25. ll a UCam software system This includes how to install the real time Linux operating system and all the necessary software packages required to install and run the UCam system The intended audience for this document are technical staff who are responsible for installing and maintaining camera data acquisition systems The document attempts to give a step by step guide of how to install the software but some prior technical experience of using Linux from the command line is advisable 1 1 About UltraCam The UCam software system was originally designed and developed for the UltraCam instrument UltraCam is an ultra fast triple beam CCD camera which has been designed to study one of the few remaining unexplored regions of observational parameter space high temporal resolution The camera funded by PPARC saw first light during 2001 and has been used on 2m 4m and 8m class telescopes in Australia the Canary Islands Chile Greece South Africa and Spain to study astrophysics on the fastest time scales More information about UltraCam can be found at http www vikdhillon staff shef ac uk ultracam 1 2 About ARC Controller The UCam software system was originally designed to interface with a ARC controller The ARC controller is developed by Astronomical Research Cameras Inc They design develop and manufacture controllers for operating CCD and infra red imaging arrays for astronomical and related applications They can control a wide variety
26. ly Patches To The Kernel Source Fes tia 13 3 2 4Fix Linux Kernel and GCC Compiler Compatibility ProblemM ooonoonnncnnnncnnnncccnnoncccnnns 13 3 2 4 1Configuring Older Versions Of GCC Compilers Linux Kernel V2 6 21 or less 13 3 2 4 2Modifying Linux Kernel Build Flags Linux Kernel V2 6 22 or greater 14 3 2 5Configuring The e A A NE 14 3 2 6Compiling The Linux Kernel and creating Debian kernel packages oooooocconnnnnccnnn 15 3 2 installing The Linux Real Time Keren a i 15 3 2 8Compiling And Installing RTAI ModuleS ooooconccnnncnoocononcconccoonoconccnnncconccnonccnnnnoconananonns 16 3 2 9Installing The RTAI Real Time Kernel Modules ooooconncnnncnncinoccocnnoncnoncnnconccnnncnnccannccnnos 16 3 3 esting RTA Real Mine LM oda 17 4 How To Install UCaM ri e is 18 4 lInstalling Third Party dr A A EA 18 4 2Building UCSI daa 18 4 2 1Building UCam From The Repositorio tee eee 18 4 2 2Building UCam From A Tablada 18 A O E a A A E EE eas 19 4 3 1Setting Up The RTAI Environment Using The Installation Script eee 19 4 3 2Setting Up The RTAI Environment Manmually ooonnccnnccnoccnicccnonaconncconcconncoconancncnnnnocononnnos 19 4AStartne Up UE SA A seh Sead oa AA A AE 20 SHow To Install PyUCam and AU CA za 22 6How To Install eet st eC PS 5 icf rain Ida at bude wea toe gos gen lah pesos eg nian ee 23 A O 23 6 2Preparing the Keine SOURCES ai 23 6 3Building And Installing The Meinberg GPS Driver ooococonocc
27. mpt at a terminal or added permanently to your SHOME bash_aliases start up file so they are always set whenever you start a new login export PYTHONPATH PYTHONPATH HOME PyUCam src SHOME WxUCam src alias wxucam python HOME WxUCam src wxucam WxUCam py 22 6 How To Install Meinberg GPS UCam has support for Meinberg GPS hardware It uses the GPS system as a source for highly accurate timing information during image data readout This information is added as time stamp data in the raw image data files and subsequently as FITS header information in the sampled files If you followed the quick installation instructions for the real time Linux kernel using the preprepared Debian kernel packages you must follow the instructions in section 6 2 But if you completed the full real time Linux kernel installation you can skip ahead to section 6 3 6 1 Hardware Set up So far we have integrated support in the UCam software for the Meinberg GPS 170 PEX PCI express board This software has been tested against version 11 model of this hardware This can be checked by reading the top right corner of the board where it should have the label GPS170PEX_V11 The board contains a DIL switch which are normally all switched to the off position by default Enable the time stamp capture event input signal from the D SUB connector pin 6 by moving DIL switch 2 to the ON position Enable the PPS output signal from the D SUB connector pin 8 by moving D
28. nococoncconcnonnncnnnanonccnonococonnnnncrnnnnnnos 23 6 4Rebuild UCam With Meinberg GPS Supporticess li 24 Trouble Shooting And Other Tip dd ao eat 25 qa Checking The Memory Usage erario pit rada 25 7 2Checking The RATED OO ty E A 25 FP ISheclns I TAN IM GUC ta A ad 25 T2 2Checking REAL Device Nod eructwnanses e aa a a 25 7 2 3Checking RIAL Boot Script Installation coca ii 26 7 2 4Restarting the RTATER YO ie A A A 26 7 3Checking The UCam Servers Are AUS AAA AA oan deans 26 TAMonitonna Processes onner ces a vera wnsvont tends cee beni E EEEE A E ois nce rantarmans 26 7 5Debian Administration aiit aaa a nono no nono nono nono nono nono aei niin 27 3 Debian Software Upa cpots kaienn n iana a a Nena Saltein a s 27 7 5 2Debian Package Mana GS MM Ra 27 Teo Debian Lan CUA Ge Para 27 T 54Managing Us ACEON A sama vert a a it 27 7 6Disabling Intelligent Platform Management Interface IP MD ooooonnccnnoccnocononccnonoccnonancncnonnnnnos 28 7 7Mounting A Remote File System Using SSHFS cccccccsccssessceceseeeseeceeeceesneeeeeeneeeeeenaeees 28 SUseful WebPage Sm ii total 30 DaN aaea A E EA E AEA EE S A E E E iets Eade 31 4 Introduction The UCam software is a camera controller and data acquisition application It is developed for use on camera systems as part of astronomical research instrumentation and is presently in use at some of the leading telescopes in the world today UCam was originally developed for the UltraCam instrument w
29. of imaging arrays in a medley of exposure and readout modes at medium to low speeds with detector limited noise levels The controllers include electronic circuits mechanical assemblies power supplies and supporting software They are variously known as Leach controllers ARC controllers as well as SDSU controllers for their origins at San Diego State University Additionally we can supply turn key customized systems incorporating almost any type of scientific CCD More information about ARC controllers can be found at http www astro cam com 1 3 About UK Astronomy Technology Centre The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is the national centre for astronomical technology We design and build instruments for many of the world s major telescopes We also project manage UK and international collaborations Our scientists carry out observational and theoretical research into fundamental questions such as the origins of planets and of galaxies More information is available at http www roe ac uk ate 1 4 Acronyms And Abbreviations ARC Astronomical Research Cameras CDS Correlated Double Sampling Debian Debian Linux distribution FITS Flexible Image Transfer System GUI Graphical User Interface HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol LAN Local Area Network NDR Non Destructive Readout OS Operating System RTAI Real Time Application Interface UltraCam Ultra fast triple beam CCD camera URI
30. on shell script that automatically installs the UCam RTAI driver module and configures the RTAI environment You must run this script as root su Log in as the root user by entering the root password home ucam ucam bin install_rtai_ucam reboot At this point you will hopefully have real time Linux operating system with all the necessary RTAI modules loaded into the Linux kernel You test for this by executing the following command lsmod grep rtai You should see a list of RTAI modules including rtai_hal rtai_sched rtai_fifos rtai_sem rtai_shm and rtai_sdsu If any of these modules are missing then please check the kernel boot log messages to find an explanation 4 3 2 Setting Up The RTAI Environment Manually If you had a problem in the previous section when running the automated install script or you are interested in learning more about the details of installation process then this section will help you First we must copy the relevant files to their installation directories su Log in as the root user by entering the root password cp home ucam bin rtai_sdsu ko usr realtime modules cp home ucam bin rtai ucam etc init d cp home ucam bin rtai_sdsu ko usr realtime modules Install the RTAI initialisation script so that the RTAI environment is automatically started whenever the system boots up update rc d rtai ucam start 302345 Edit the GRUB boot menu file boot grub menu st using you favourite text ed
31. oot loader menu after rebooting the system reboot 3 3 Testing RTAI Real Time Linux Before we can run the RTAI test suite scripts we must create the pseudo devices for the RTAI FIFO and shared memory modules Create a bash script called rtai_setup sh using your favourite text editor and enter the following bash code bin sh e if e dev rtai_shm then mknod m 666 dev rtai_shm c 10 254 fi for n in seq 0 9 do dev rtf n if c f then mknod m 666 f c 150 n fi done Now run the set up script as root from the command line rtai_setup sh You can test the RTAI modules using the RTAI test suite of applications This is very useful for testing the performance and stability of your real time operating system Pay particular attention to your latency test results as they provide feedback of how good the real time performance is You should hopefully find that your kernel latency test records a maximum latency of around 20 micro seconds Most of the tests provide results in nano seconds units cd usr realtime testsuite user latency time run cd usr realtime testsuite user preempt time run cd usr realtime testsuite user switches run cd usr realtime testsuite kern latency time run cd usr realtime testsuite kern preempt time run E 4 cd usr realtime testsuite kern switches run 17 4 How To Install UCam Installing UCam is a two part process First we must build the so
32. other directory called ucam for installing the products of the build process libraries include files executables etc Run the UCam build configure script and then run make to build and install the executables su ucam Log in as the UCam user account by entering the ucam password svn checkout username lt username gt https forge roe ac uk svn Ultracam UCam trunk home ucam ucamdev cd home ucam ucamdev configure prefix home ucam ucam make install 4 2 2 Building UCam From A Tarball Unzip the tarball file in the ucam home directory We create another directory called ucam for installing the products of the build process libraries include files executables etc Run the UCam build configure script and then run make to build and install the executables tar xjf ucam 0 9 7 tar bz2 C home ucam cd home ucam ucam 0 9 7 18 configure prefix home ucam ucam S make make install 4 3 Installing UCam This section provides two sub sections that explain how to install and configure the UCam environment The first uses the automated installation script which is the quickest and easiest solution The second provides a detailed step by step description which is useful should anything go wrong or you are interested in learning about the installation process in more detail 4 3 1 Setting Up The RTAI Environment Using The Installation Script One of the products of the UCam build is an installati
33. p ucamdev 9982 uptime 7 4 Monitoring Processes Use can use command line tools such as top or htop for a dynamic real time view of the tasks running on your system Both of these utilities show information about memory usage CPU usage and lots of other details for currently running tasks Lookup the man pages to find out more about these utilities You can install and use htop using the following commands aptitude install htop htop Another command line tool called iotop watches I O usage information output by the Linux kernel requires 2 6 20 or later and displays a table of current I O usage by processes or threads on the system aptitude install iotop 26 iotop 7 5 Debian Administration 7 5 1 Debian Software Updates It is important to perform regular checks to keep your Debian operating system software up to date Applying the latest software updates will improve stability and keep your system secure This is a two step process that requires a command for each step First you must retrieve the latest list of available packages and then you must upgrade the installed packages to their most recent version Make sure you are logged in as the administrator root user and perform the following commands at the command prompt from a terminal aptitude update aptitude safe upgrade 7 5 2 Debian Package Management A Debian package file can be installed by using the following command dpkg i linux image 2 6 20 ucam_r
34. r and group accounts by selecting System Administration Users and Groups from the desktop mane 2T bar An application for managing the properties of user settings will start up that provides a user friendly interface However if you do not have a desktop environment installed or would prefer to manage your users and groups from the command line then here are some examples To create a new ucam group with the group ID 335 you would enter the following command addgroup gid 335 alma To create a new user called ucammgr whose primary group is ucam user ID is 3060 home directory is home ucammgr and default shell is the bash shell you would enter the following command adduser gid 335 uid 3060 home home ucammgr shell bin bash ucam Enter ucammgr when prompted to enter the full name or something more elaborate such as UCam System Manager Or you can modify the properties of an existing user account For example if you wanted to add the ucam group to an existing user account you would enter the following command WARNING Make sure you include the a option to append this new group to you current list of groups or it will overwrite the list of groups for the account usermod a G ucam lt username gt Read the man pages for addgroup adduser and usermod to see the full list of options 7 6 Disabling Intelligent Platform Management Interface IPMI The Intelligent Platform Management Interface IPMI specif
35. ss the network using the SSH protocol Both scripts take additional command line options which can view by passing the A option as shown below The start_ucam script has fewer options as it does not need to provide the remote login options start_ucam_ remote h Usage start_ucam_ remote h c configext Options c lt configext gt Configuration file extension where the file name uses the format camera_ lt configext gt properites h Display specific types of command line options u lt username gt SSH login user account default is ucam s lt server gt SSH server domain name default is ucamdev When the UCam servers are up and running you can test their HTTP interfaces by starting up a web browser and entering the following URL into the address bar These URL assume that the server domain name is ucamdev and the camera filesave and demux servers are configured to use the default port settings 9980 9981 and 9982 respectively Substitute the domain name or IP address for your server in place of ucamdev and change the port settings accordingly if you are not using the default configuration You should see a simple web page displaying the time the server was started the current time and the server s uptime http ucamdev 9980 uptime http ucamdev 9981 uptime 20 http ucamdev 9982 uptime 21 5 How To Install PyUCam and WxUCam WxUCam is a GUI application for UCam written in the python programming language It uses
36. t Point File System Size Description Primary ext3 3 GB Root file system and system files Primary swap 2GB Swap partition Logical usr ext3 10 GB Static data and applications Logical var ext3 5 GB Variable data and system files Logical tmp ext3 1 GB Temporary files Logical home ext3 Remainder User accounts and data storage set the boot flag for this partition In step 8 of the installation process you have the option of choosing the type of software installation you would like which determines the main function of your PC This includes several options such as desktop environment web server mail server print server etc We recommended that you disable all options except for the standard system if you are planning on installing UCam as a server based system only This is all you need and it is better to run a minimal system to achieve a better hard real time performance But if you are planning on running UCam as a stand alone system with a full desktop environment then enable the desktop option as well After the installer has finished installing Debian Linux it will ask you to remove any installation media such a CDROM and then reboot the PC Once it has booted the newly installed OS you should log in as using the user account you defined as part of the installation process Execute the commands below from a terminal These commands ensure all software updates have been applied to your OS su Log in as the root user by
37. the wxPython GUI toolkit which is a python extension module that wraps the popular wxWidgets cross platform GUI library As both python and wxPython are cross platform the WxUCam application can be installed and run on most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows Apple OSX and most flavours of Unix including Linux So far WxUCam has been successfully tested on Linux and Windows PyUCam is a python package that provides an common interface API for UCam It is used by the WxUCam application and comes with some example python scripts that can be used and adapted by users for their own purposes Before you can run PyUCam or WxUCam you must have Python and wxPython installed on your computer Python is installed by default on nearly all Linux and OSX operating systems The wxPython tool kit can be installed on Debian by the following command aptitude install python wxgtk2 8 Both PyUCam and WxUCam are distributed in a single tar ball which is a compressed archive file They can be installed in any directory but the following example uses the user s home directory cd HOME tar xzvf wxucam tar gz Once extracted you need to make some minor changes to your environment settings Update the PYTHONPATH environment variable to include the base source directory for each of the packages Then create an alias for wxucam so the GUI application can be started from a terminal The example commands shown below can be entered from the command pro
38. ull sed e s GCC_ CC g lt control modules tmp gt control modules in rm control modules tmp kdist_config fix_cdeps prep deb files PHONY binary modules binary modules binary modules binary modules binary modules kdist_config dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean k Build and install the module MAKE install DESTDIR CURDIR debian rtai dev KVERS Move the kernel modules to the correct location mkdir p CURDIR debian rtai modules KVERS usr realtime modules mv f CURDIR debian rtai dev KVERS usr realtime modules CURDIR debian rtai modules KVERS usr realtime modules copy the Scilab macros in deb mkdir p CURDIR debian rtai modules KVERS usr realtime rtai lab scilab macros cp fr CURDIR rtai lab scilab macros CURDIR debian rtai modules KVERS usr realtime rtai lab scilab macros dh_installdebconf dh_installdocs dh_compress dh_installdeb dh_makeshlibs prtai dev KVERS dh_shlibdeps prtai dev KVERS dh_gencontrol v VERSION dh_md5sums dh_builddeb destdir s DEB _DESTDIR PHONY kdist_clean kdist_clean dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean rm f install log MAKE C CURDIR distclean SHE od e e HE 34
39. urce files to create the executables and then we must install the real time driver and configure the operating system so UCam is ready to run But before we do that we must install the prerequisite third party libraries 4 1 Installing Third Party Libraries Install the Debian packages for the third party libraries that UCam requires as dependencies aptitude install libcfitsio3 libcfitsio3 dev aptitude install libxml2 libxml2 dev aptitude install libpoco5 dev 4 2 Building UCam Software UCam software uses the GNU autotools suite autoconf automake etc for configuring building and installing the UCam deliverables Using autotools helps make UCam portable over many Unix like systems It also allows us to configure many options for customising our build You may wish to view the complete list of options available by entering the help command line argument to the configure script when you build the software There are two ways of obtaining the UCam source files You can check them out directly from the UK ATC source code repository or you can use a tarball distribution file The following two sub sections describe both alternatives Please note that if you want to checkout the source files from the repository then you must have a user account 4 2 1 Building UCam From The Repository Check out the sources files for UCam from the UK ATC subversion repository The source files will be written to a directory called ucamdev We create an
40. ux kernel v2 6 linux 2 6 20 tar bz2 12 wget no check certificate https www rtai org RTAIl rtai 3 5 cv tar bz2 wget http www feise com jfeise Downloads zr36120 bigphysarea 2 6 20 diff 3 2 3 Apply Patches To The Kernel Source Files Extract the source files for the Linux kernel and create a soft link tar xjvf linux 2 6 20 tar bz2 C usr src mv usr src linux 2 6 20 usr src linux 2 6 20 ucam ln s usr src linux 2 6 20 ucam usr src linux Extract the source files for RTAI and create a soft link tar xjvf rtai 3 5 cv tar bz2 C usr src chown R root src usr src rtai 3 5 cv mkdir p usr src modules ln s usr src rtai 3 5 cv usr src modules rtai Apply patches to the Linux kernel source files cd usr src linux patch pl lt usr src modules rtai base arch i386 patches hal linux 2 6 20 1386 1 8 04 patch patch pl lt root bigphysarea 2 6 20 diff 3 2 4 Fix Linux Kernel and GCC Compiler Compatibility Problem On Debian Lenny the latest version of the GCC compiler version 4 3 fails to compile older versions of the Linux kernel due to stricter reporting of bugs There are two ways of fixing the problem The best solution depends on the version number of the Linux kernel you are using 3 2 4 1 Configuring Older Versions Of GCC Compilers Linux Kernel V2 6 21 or less An older version of the GCC compiler can be installed and used for compiling the real time Linux kernel The list of compil
41. var log messages You can find out more about the status of the RTAI modules by looking their profile from the process information pseudo file system All RTAI system information can be found under proc rtai Display the available information using the following commands cat proc rtai hal cat proc rtai fifos cat proc rtai names N NV NN MN cat proc rtai scheduler 7 2 2 Checking RTAI Device Nodes List all of the RTAI device nodes by issuing the following command ls 1 dev rt You should see output very similar to that shown here crw rw rw 1 root root 252 0 2009 01 20 10 59 dev rtai_sdsu crw rw rw 1 root root 10 254 2009 01 20 10 59 dev rtai_shm crw rw rw 1 root root 150 0 2009 01 20 10 59 dev rt 0 crw rw rw 1 root root 150 1 2009 01 20 10 59 dev rtfl crw rw rw 1 root root 150 31 2009 01 20 10 59 dev rtf31 The dev rtf 0 31 devices are the RTAI FIFO pipes used for passing messages between processes The dev rtai_shm is the RTAI shared memory module device and dev rtai_sdsu is the UCam real 25 time device driver device 7 2 3 Checking RTAI Boot Script Installation First of all check that the rtai ucam initialisation script is installed in the etc init d directory Use the sysv rc conf text based editor for checking the services installed on your system and their run levels Run the utility and scroll down the list of services looking for the rtai ucam script and check that it is enabled for run
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