Trey's Notes on Working in QNX

For the RiSE project, the robot platform operates under the QNX operating system (mostly because of its real-time advantages, I believe). So, in getting accustomed to working in this environment, I am compiling notes/tidbits that I have found useful.

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Installation

For the RiSE project, we must compile test-worthy code on a QNX machine, since the robot is QNX based. We had typically used a compile host at CMU, but due to wierd connection issues, we recently created a local compile host. These are the basic steps that I took to get QNX up and running in our lab.

• Download ISO image of the version you want from somewhere like this or another QNX source
• Burn the image to a CD
• Reboot computer with CD as 1st first boot option, and the QNX install CD in the drive
  • Hopefully your system is supported - this did not work for a abandoned Dell GX50 we have in the lab, but works fine for a Dell GX270 (which is now an official "tri-boot")
• Follow the install instructions and you should be fine
• To make a multi-boot computer:
  • With Windows already installed, try bootpart
  • For Linux, the boot loader (grub or lilo) should give you an option on install
• For a text based bootup (ie. not starting the Photon windowing system), place a blank file called nophoton in /etc/sysinit/config/
  • ie. Use touch /etc/sysinit/config/nophoton as root
• Set up the network, and use the 'Installer' application to find QNX applications available for download/install
  • Installed: PCL-CVS, Mozilla (latest version), OpenSSH, Emacs, and XPhoton (for emacs to work properly in Photon)

Use Notes

• Use ESC-ESC for text completion (rather than TAB in Linux)
• For the text environment, I have only had access to vi, so try the preceding link for a cheat sheet
• For keyboard shortcuts, try this link if you ever want to operate without a mouse
• For an Emacs cheat sheet, try here
• To enable incoming ssh, start the daemon by using (as root) /usr/sbin/sshd (haven't figured out how to start this automatically yet)
• To add new users, use passwd [newusername] as root, and the script will guide you through the setup.

Links

-- AMcClung? - 25 May 2005