CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxusbreal-time-systems
Amit Ahire
Amit Ahire

Reputation: 313

Can you use USB on RTLinux(Real Time Linux)?

I was wondering, can we use USB on RTLinux? Many people I ask say that you can't. But then I read some articles on robotics, where they were using RTLinux for its operation and USB cameras for the eyes. So that got me thinking, maybe there is a way around it.

Also, does this functionality has anything to do with Kernel? I mean maybe Kernel 2.4 doesn't support it but Kernel 2.6 does? (Just wondering)

Last thing: can anyone please throw some light on RTLinux architecture and its working? I did google about it but there was a lot of muddled results.

Thanks for your help.

With regard.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1965

Answers (1)

BraveNewCurrency
BraveNewCurrency

Reputation: 13065

Are you sure they were using RTLinux? RTLinux is not really Linux, it's a completely different microkernel that happens to run Linux as a "user-space" process. It appears that the commercial entity that developed RTLinux has dropped it, so I'd be scared to use it. And why are you even talking about kernel 2.4 and 2.6? Linux 3.0 came out 2 years ago. We're almost on 3.9 right now.

The modern kernel makes it easy to do real time. Here's a good overview of the various approaches: https://lwn.net/Articles/139047/

Either enable CONFIG_PREEMPT on the stock kernel, get the out-of-tree patch Real-Time Linux patch set (See https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page ) and enable CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT.

Even the stock kernel does very well by itself: https://www.osadl.org/Single-View.111+M59e3481cdfe.0.html

There's even a way to keep much of the busywork of Linux away from one CPU. (It started as the offline scheduler, but the idea has made it into the mainline.. I forget what it's called. But here's the start of it:) http://lwn.net/Articles/350123/

Upvotes: 1

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