What is the roboRIO's OS?

[Hsifeulbhsifder]

I want to know exactly what is running on the roboRIO. I know it is Linux with real time extensions, however, I would like to know exactly what what distro of linux, and what extensions. Also, is there a way to get the source code to this, as it would benefit a small side project my team is doing, where we are trying to use a Rasberry Pi 2 B as the CPU for our robot. Thanks.

[Peter Johnson]

I want to know exactly what is running on the roboRIO. I know it is Linux with real time extensions, however, I would like to know exactly what what distro of linux, and what extensions. Also, is there a way to get the source code to this, as it would benefit a small side project my team is doing, where we are trying to use a Rasberry Pi 2 B as the CPU for our robot. Thanks.

It runs a custom distro called "NI Linux Real-Time", which uses the PREEMPT_RT (aka -rt) real time patch set. Relevant links:
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/14627/en/
https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/ni-linux-real-time
https://github.com/ni

In particular, I would read their FAQ: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-35053

[virtuald]

You'll find anything open source that you need here: https://github.com/ni

[jds2001]

If you're thinking of using the Pi for competition - remember that anything that controls motors must come from the RoboRio only. Of course, off board processing is allowed (or at least it was last year - interesting to note that this year in FTC offboard processing is illegal - I just went through the FTC inspector training - probably has something to do with the new Android-based control system), but it can't be wired to the CAN bus, PWM cables, or anything else that could be seen to control a motor.

[Hsifeulbhsifder]

If you're thinking of using the Pi for competition - remember that anything that controls motors must come from the RoboRio only. Of course, off board processing is allowed (or at least it was last year - interesting to note that this year in FTC offboard processing is illegal - I just went through the FTC inspector training - probably has something to do with the new Android-based control system), but it can't be wired to the CAN bus, PWM cables, or anything else that could be seen to control a motor.

I am aware, this is strictly for off-season testing.

[defied]

'uname -a' at the shell will tell you the kernel version.

[GreyingJay]

I am aware, this is strictly for off-season testing.

There are a number of similar projects underway, have you looked at (or are you advancing) any of them?

For example team 1425 seems to have made some progress, though I haven't yet looked at it personally:

https://code.google.com/p/fourteentwentyfive/wiki/porting

I would be very interested in hearing about your progress, as my team is hoping to build up competency on Raspberry Pis for various things as well.

[Joe Ross]

Much more important then matching the exact OS version is implementing the functions that the roboRIO FPGA does.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

For example team 1425 seems to have made some progress, though I haven't yet looked at it personally:

https://code.google.com/p/fourteentwentyfive/wiki/porting

It looks like that was for the cRIO.