FlatCam in Ubuntu 10.04 and LinuxCNC

[John Torakis]

I, just like many CNC users, use the LinuxCNC operating system to run my CNC and my CAM-CAD programs. But trying to install this CAM in LinuxCNC (a version of Ubuntu 10.04) gave me an error at the very beginning:

The python-gi package is not available in this version of Ubuntu and so the gi.repository can't be imported in python, so the CAM is unusable (won't run at all).

I won't (and can't) upgrade because LinuxCNC program (EMC2) won't run in any newer version of Ubuntu unless you install a new kernel to it (a Real Time on), and that is something not tested. Also the updating messes up many things and I am happy with my system right now (I have an Ubuntu 12.04 too in multiboot).

Again, I am not alone using Ubuntu 10.04 and LinuxCNC. About the half of CNC users use this exact configuration (the other half is with windows and Mach3). So for this CAM to be useful its is ultimate need to run in this configuration.

If there is someone that has installed this succesfully in LinuxCNC then he has to post it right here and in the documentation of the site...

[jpcaram]

John,

Ubuntu 10.04 is not supported by the Ubuntu community any more. You will have problems for every new software that you try to install. It's probably not just python-gi that is not available, but probably every other dependency has obsolete version in 10.04.

It makes more sense that you work around this limitation instead of us rewriting the software using obsolete libraries. Here are some ways you can approach the problem:

1) Run FlatCAM in your Ubuntu 12.04 boot configuration.

2) Install Ubuntu 12.04 in a virtual machine like KVM, VirtualBox or VMWare. This is probably the easiest option.

3) Run the Windows version using Wine.

• You will probably need the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package
  

4) Compile the required libraries from source in your machine. 

• For example, python-gi is here: https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/PyGObject
  

Let us know if you make any progress or if we can help further.

JP