Running Under Linux with a Virtual Machine

I have been running my SO3 on a win 7 laptop. The latest Win 10 debacle with Edge has done it for me with MS stuff. I would like to get advise about migrating to Linux (distro undecided at this time) and running C3D software under a virtual machine (Wine). Am I asking for trouble, what are the gotcha’s, will I experience grbl/cutting problems, etc. I use Vectric Desktop for my design and tool pathing–any problem here, etc?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Be well, please.

Allen

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I’d be wary of running Carbide Motion under a Wine type emulator, emulators and comms such as USB is frequently a recipe for trouble, perhaps look at CNCjs to actually drive the machine if you’re going Linux anyway?

As for the CAD tools, have you considered just putting Windows in a VM using KVM? I have successfully run development environments and countless (literally, created and destroyed on demand) test machines for Windows software under KVM and other hypervisors. Yes, you still have Windows but you only use it for the app that has to have Windows…

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I might add, a real attraction to keeping Windows boxed up in a Virtual Machine is snapshotting, you can snapshot the VM, then do an app update or allow Windows to update itself and if stuff doesn’t work, just revert the snapshot from outside. I do this when I have to use some particularly untrustworthy software like Zoom, snapshot, install, use, shutdown, revert, clean machine.

Are you married to the idea of running CarbideMotion on a VM? I am running a cncjs server on a raspberry pi connected to the SO3. I am able to control, load G code, and monitor remotely from a separate computer.

Hi and thanks for the response. What I am close to being married to is dumping all Microsoft products. I know a little about virtual machines but nothing about raspberry pi. The idea sounds really cost effective but requires a big learning curve, I imagine. Whereas, years ago I was a Linux administrator (just not a particularly good one). I’ll give your suggestion some thought. One more issue, How do you monitor remotely?

Best regards,

Allen

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Liam,

Thank you for the response. Wow, my query is opening up new horizons in ways for me to mess things up. I know nothing of CNCjs nor KVM. In my mind I was thinking I might enjoy a simple solution falling under my current knowledge base. Now I’m wondering how long I can continue to run with Win 7, but just not let it touch the web to avoid viruses. Do you happen to know if anyone is trying to maintain Win 7, or is it totally locked up by Microsoft copyrights, etc.

I appreciate you giving me some things to research and think about.

Be happy and safe,

Allen

I’ve been running on 7 since the non support started. No internet connection. Lap top dedicated to the router. So far so good.

I actually run Win7 with Carbide Motion because It is a dedicated machine for mostly that alone. I keep it disconnected from the internet almost all the time unless I I need to update carbide motion.

Thanks Phil. Since I already have the laptop setup for my SO3 operations, it seems like a no brainer. However, I wonder how long the setup will last with an unsupported OS. I just don’t know enough to figure that out. Any idea?

Best,

Allen

Brian, many thanks. I sorta’ leaning that way since I’m already setup with Win 7 and my SO3. I guess I can keep running this setup until it dies. Then figure out a new setup.

Be safe,

Allen

debacle with Edge??? Huh? You mean to say you’d rather have Internet Explorer?? Huh?

Have you even TRIED the new edge browser? It’s actually quite good. Just like chrome but uses a lot less memory and resources.

Yes, but like Chrome it disables text selection with a stylus, which gets dumbed down to an 11th touch input and scrolls.

Allen,

Having read some more of the discussion my suggestions would be;

If you have some previous Linux experience then I agree with the others that a good way to try things out would be a raspberry Pi, otherwise a cheap laptop with a mainstream desktop distribution such as Ubuntu or Mint (if you learnt on CentOS like me then Fedora).

You can put CNCjs on the raspberry Pi or any of the common desktop distros. I did the equivalent for my 3D printer, Octoprint on a Pi, cheap old webcam plugged in so I can time lapse the prints and watch how they’re doing from downstairs or anywhere else I like wouldn’t dream of going back to directly connecting my 3D printer to a machine now. Separating the responsibilities of designing stuff from sending CAM to the machine makes a lot of sense, and you can do control pendants and other stuff with CNCjs.

As for Windows, MS is supporting Win 7 Professional and Enterprise through 2023 for an annual fee, for business customers only. If you can keep the machine properly off the Internet and it’s not already infected then yes, run it till it dies, but figure out a way to download new versions of Carbide Create / Motion etc. and sneakernet them to that machine plenty of hackers and ransomware merchants will be attacking unpatched Win7 machines as high ROI targets.

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Allen,

If you are familiar with command line Linux, you should be able to configure a raspberry pi and install CNCjs in an evening. Take a look at the setup up guide to gauge the difficulty: cnc.js.org/docs/rpi-setup-guide/

I have a cheap USB webcam that I can monitor directly in CNCjs. I’ve been running this server for 3 years now without issues.

Thats a good question - how long C3D will be making software that runs on Win7?

For my part i have yet to make the jump to cncjs simply because right now I need CNC that ‘just works’ as opposed to a machine I can have offline for a while messing about with the software.

When Carbide Motion stops working with Win7 it starts becoming a question of do I stick with the last compatible version of Carbide Motion or do I upgrade to Win 10 on a PC I have no desire to sink money into.

So lots of options going forward but given C3Ds non-subscription model for software at the moment feeling more comfortable with it than I am with the dynamic state of Fusion360 CAD/CAM subscription model

We no longer support Windows 7.

Older versions which ran on Win7 are still available and folks use them, but we don’t recommend that.

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Liam,

Looking at the responses to my question, here’s what I’m thinking…

  1. Dust off the Win 7 laptop and give it a through check for viruses,
  2. No problem keeping it off the Win 7 machine off of the internet
  3. Get back to cutting in the Fall (currently I’m totally reorganizing my garage wood shop)
  4. Explore raspberry pi options
  5. Get setup to make the move to raspberry pi when the Win 7 solution no longer works

Seems to make sense to me, unless others have another suggestion.

Be well

Allen

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Will,

The Win 7 laptop has been working great. So I’m wondering why it is recommended to get off of it?

Thanks,

Allen

Omar,

Thanks for the cncjs link. I’ll look it over ASAP. Yes I have command line experience from about 30 years ago (Xenix). If the knowledge has not completely faded, I imagine I can get back up to speed with lots of Googling. Since my current plan is run Win 7 until it dies, this should give me time enough to get comfortable with cncjs and raspberry pi. Thinking I’ll be ready in the Fall.

Best,

Allen

My understanding is current versions of Windows (and Mac OS X) require that code be signed, which required moving to a new compiler which made compiling to support Windows 7 (and older versions of Mac OS X) problematic.