FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


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Nomad 200 Questions

Can I upgrade my Nomad 200 to a new version of Linux?

The limiting factor in upgrading the Nomad 200 is the kernel version currently supported by the drivers for the Intellisys 200 motor controller board, the Intellisys 100 sensor control board, and the Galil motor controller board on older robots. Currently the I100 and I200 support Linux kernel version 2.2.x. The latest version of RedHat GNU/Linux which shipped with a 2.2-series kernel was version 6.1.

Source code for the drivers is available in the Sourceforge CVS archive, eagerly awaiting some ambitious developer with a copy of Linux Device Drivers to port them.

General Questions

My Hard Drive stopped working. What should I do?

If a robot experiences a particularly hard jolt, it may cause the write heads of the robot's hard disk to crash, possibly corrupting data. In this case, at the very least you should reformat the partition, if not install a new drive. In either case, see the production release notes specific to your robot for information on reinstalling Linux and the necessary device drivers.

My sonars / motors / widget stopped working. What should I do?

Unfortunately, Nomadic Technologies no longer exists and as such cannot provide technical support. Your main recourse is to post to the mailing list in hopes of receiving advice from some hardware-savvy Nomad robot user.

Can you recommend (insert peripheral here) for my robot?

In general, you should use the same guidelines you would use for choosing hardware for any Linux-based computer system: check online recommendations for the product, and check that it's well-supported in Linux. The only additional consideration should be that it will be installed on a mobile platform.


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Last modified 13 July 2001 by jake