Does That Crane or Drilling Rig Run mainline Linux?

Linux 4.11 has just been released, and as usual I looked into the changelog especially checking out work done on ARM architecture, and some newly supported SoCs or board. One line in the log caught my attention: “Liebherr (LWN) monitor 6 based on i.MX6 Quad, no idea what this is”. So I had a look, and Liebherr-Werk Nenzing GmbH is a swiss company specializing in construction machines and maritime cranes such as “crawler cranes, duty-cycle crawler cranes, as well as piling and drilling rigs”.

The DTS file for LWN Monitor 6 shows an NXP i.MX 6Quad processor is used in a product with an LVDS display and various interfaces such as I2C, PWM, SPI, and so on. So it could be some kind of control panel for one or more of their equipment. After looking into some PDF documentation, we can see on page 10 that the company mentions Litronic control system based on a CANBUS system with “all information, warnings and failure indications required displayed on the monitor in the operator‘s cab and stored” on a PCMCIA card. The system also includes a modem for remote diagnosis which may partially explains why they may have wanted to support the board in mainline.

That means it’s quite possible Liebherr (LWN) monitor 6 board is found inside Libtronic control system, and is capable of running mainline Linux, although there’s no way to tell if any rig in operation runs the latest Linux kernel.

Sorry, no Aliexpress link for today 🙂

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.