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Well if you used the new buildbot I linked to, you could set your APT up as per chapter 9 in this doc I wrote for 2.9 and Debian 12.
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...etting-linuxcnc.html

I used ths technique to build the installer and almost every time I built it, the linuxcnc version changed
I'm not set up to run a buildbot. I would like to build a cross compiler for the Raspberry Pi 4B so images for it don't have to be built on a Pi.
Now that would be an interesting buildbot project for you!
 

Ok, I'll do some reading before continuing.

As an update, it looks like I'm pretty close.
The only changes I applied so fare are to the cia402 component:
- I wait for the ECT60 to confirm homing- I lie with the current position to linuxcnc during homing
Current tested behavior is:
- I press "home all"
- joint sets cia402 home (joint.0.index-enable => cia402.0.home)
- the drive follows the homing sequence and finds the edge of the home sensor
- the drive exits the homing mode
- at that point, the next "write all" sends again the current pos_cmd and the drive moves back to the position before the homing started

I'll study homing.c - I was hoping to find a solution that didn't involve rebuilding linuxcnc (I'm running off of the 2.8.1 raspberry pi image right now).

 The following is on Rpi4B-4GB.  (the aforementioned fail was on both 8GB and 4GB Pis. )
As you suggested.  
(Beginning with  linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html  section 3 “install Debian Bookworm on a Raspberry Pi)   
Downloaded the Debain 12 bookworm compressed file titled rasp-4-bookworm.img.xz.

Used imager on freshly reformatted SD to burn zipped bookworm Ssuccessfully.
Here are some oddities that happened en route.....
After “apt update” .... 4 warnings..  see attached
After “apt upgrade” .... 2 error reports:
and later 
E: Unable to locate package task-xfce-desktop
and finally... startx command not found
so after my first Linux lesson, I rebooted and it came up: 
Debian GNU/Linux 12-.....and I logged in
It gave me a few gripes I think can be ignored: “ journal out of date...., Journal header limits reached....

So have we got a foundation here or a mess?
Corrections, redo, or continue to sections 5, 1 and 7.

I have been using LinuxCNC for 10 years and the old console gave up on me.  Really hope this gets me back to the machine.
Tnx for sharing your knowledge.  This stuff's hard.

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adding....
E:  Unable to locate package task-xfce-desktop
seems to be the show stopper.   I never got the mentioned request for input (kbd layout/lang). and did not boot to a gui. 
Can you point to the missing element such that I could still load it?


  

Thank you, for your answer.

I'm not using the address 10.10.10.10. I set it according to the address range used on our LAN. The address of the 7i96s board is: 192.168.3.81. Raspberry PI 192.168.3.80; the desktop computer 192.168.3.82 the laptop 192.168.3.20

The 7i96s board works with a local monitor, mouse, and keyboard from the desktop computer, but the whole thing stops only with remote access. I tried this on the desktop machine with VNC, remote desktop, X-SSH forwarding, all of them gave the same result. The axis simulator works. At the moment, I don't have the opportunity to test whether it works with a local monitor, mouse and keyboard with the Raspberry.

Dear all,
Here is my problem. First I tried with a Raspberry PI, then now with a desktop computer. I have installed LinuxCNC on the Raspberry 2.8.  The Raspberry works acceptably over GPIO, only slow on one axis. If I set it to faster it misses step. So I installed a MESA 7i96s board. When I want to use it not on GPIO but on 7i96S it stops.

I tried it yesterday, with a new desktop computer. I installed the new debian and linuxcnc 2.9 recommended here. I would use both remotely, on the Raspberry with VNC, on the desktop I tried VNC, Remote Desktop, X via SSH (I would manage it from a windows laptop).

On the raspberry it works with the GPIO on VNC. As soon as I would use the 7i96S board at that moment the whole thing "freezes" and only by turning off the power supply the system can be restarted.

Yesterday I tried the same with a new desktop computer. The axis simulator works perfectly fine via remote desktop. If I select the 7i96S it also "freezing" and only responds to anything after power off. If I use the desktop's own keyboard, screen and mouse the 7i96S board works fine. If I want to access it remotely it stops immediately.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Has anyone tried this? Or does anyone have any ideas of what else I could try.

Gabor Vid

cakeslob wrote:

Tommy, did you put all those words in there, or are the spammers using chatgpt to look legit then hiding links in the post?

LOL, no i did not type all that!
Most probably GPT, from a quick glance looked like OK info so i left it and edited out the links.
Same person, 3 user names, even putting several hours between posts, posted all from the same IP address.
Took 10 minutes of my coffee time to figure out and ban and edit on a mobile phone with my huge hands!
He also owes me a coffee...

Tommy, did you put all those words in there, or are the spammers using chatgpt to look legit then hiding links in the post?

Lauryfriese got banned for spamming, embeded links.

The 2.9 docs outline how to install Debian for the Pi 4b using ARM64.
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...etting-linuxcnc.html
But the gpio is not working in Bookworm.
It has been fixed per this issue
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...etting-linuxcnc.html
But currently, there are no automatically built debs to get that change.
The only way to update Linuxcnc on a Pi is to build from source. That's not very hard and its well documented here
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/code/building-linuxcnc.html

LinuxCNC is a popular open-source software for controlling CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines. While LinuxCNC is primarily designed to run on x86-based systems, there have been efforts to port it to the ARM architecture, which includes the Raspberry Pi.

Running LinuxCNC on a Raspberry Pi and controlling the machine using GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) pins is indeed possible, but it requires some additional steps and considerations. Here are some resources and steps you can follow to get started:

1. LinuxCNC on Raspberry Pi: The official LinuxCNC website (linuxcnc.org) has a section dedicated to running LinuxCNC on Raspberry Pi. You can find information, guides, and forums discussing the process and considerations specific to running LinuxCNC on the Raspberry Pi platform. Visit their website and search for "LinuxCNC on Raspberry Pi" for more details.

1. Preconfigured Images: Some community members have created preconfigured LinuxCNC images specifically for Raspberry Pi. These images come with LinuxCNC pre-installed and preconfigured for GPIO control. Search for "LinuxCNC Raspberry Pi image" or similar keywords to find such images and instructions on how to use them.

1. GPIO Configuration: To control your CNC machine using GPIO pins, you'll need to configure the GPIO pins for specific functions like stepper motor control, limit switches, and other inputs/outputs. LinuxCNC provides configuration files and documentation for setting up GPIO control. The LinuxCNC documentation and community forums can be valuable resources for understanding and implementing the GPIO configuration.

1. Hardware Considerations: While the Raspberry Pi can handle simple CNC tasks, it may not be suitable for more complex or demanding CNC applications. Factors like real-time performance, processing power, and I/O capabilities should be carefully considered. Make sure to review the LinuxCNC documentation and community discussions regarding the limitations and best practices for using Raspberry Pi with LinuxCNC.

Remember that the information and resources mentioned here are based on my knowledge cutoff in September 2021. It's always recommended to refer to the latest documentation, forums, and community resources for the most up-to-date information on running LinuxCNC on Raspberry Pi and controlling the machine using GPIO pins.

Awesome work Corbett!

Everything has moved forward at a great rate and linuxcnc users have always been working with experimental or out of tree code to use ethercat. That is now stabilising. The good thing is there is a lot of shortcuts available now in terms of installing linuxcnc on Bullseye and Bookworm so compiling from source may not be required but such is the complexity of ethercat, building linuxcnc from source should be a prerequisite!

Here are a few notes to consider

Choosing a version  of Debian
The Linuxcnc ISO on the forum is using Debian Buster which is depreciated. (Debian 10). The current version is Debian Bookworm (Debian 12)
Corbett suggests ethercat users use Debian 11 (Bullseye) or above. However until recently, there was no buildbot for Bullseye so this implied Linuxcnc had to be built from source. A simpler approach would be to folow the v 2.9 Getting Linuxcnc documents and install Bookworm (Debian 12). linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...etting-linuxcnc.html Then building from source becomes optional but definitely encouraged for anybody considering installing ethercat.
Here is a video tutorial for building linuxcnc


But for the lazy, here are some shortcuts to avoid compiling from source

I already have Debian 11 (or 10) installed
Thats completely fine if you wish to continue using it.
Simply follow Step #9 in the bookworm docs linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...an_bookworm_x86_only
and replace the line starting with echo with:
For Buster - Debian 10

sudo echo "deb buildbot2.highlab.com/debian/ buster 2.9-uspace" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxcnc.list

For Bullseye - Debian 12

sudo echo "deb buildbot2.highlab.com/debian/ bookworm 2.9-uspace" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxcnc.list

[/b]But I want to use Linuxcnc master (V2.10)[/b]
Sure. JUst use master-uspace instead of 2.9-uspace as follows:

sudo echo "deb buildbot2.highlab.com/debian/ bookworm master-uspace" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxcnc.list

When done, to get the latest version of linuxcnc you chose, remember to:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Why would I install Ethercat from repositories?
Because its easier!
Because after a period of instability, the current method in this thread uses the final etherlabmaster repositories that were released in August 2023. This thread outlines how to install them
forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-etherc...-how-to-step-by-step
The etherlabmaster team is exploring submiting these to the Debian repositories
However there are some restrictions where buiding from source is required:
There are no ethercat .debs for arm64 (eg Raspberry pi 4b)
Only the generic network driver is installed. Some higher performance network drivers are available if built from source.(Ethercat uses its own custom network drivers when communicating with slaves)

Regardless of if you build from source or take some of the shortcuts above, the first post here outline in detail how to get ethercat devices working with linuxcnc. Be sure to follow it.

Ok, so much has changed but the good thing is you have Linuxcnc installed on Bullseye.
There is an ethercat Deb for that
Can you follow these instructions I did here
forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-etherc...step-by-step?start=0
Where I said Create an ethercat sources file can you change Debian_12 to Raspbian_11

Everything else should work.
Note this method has only been updated on 10 August (3 days ago) following final release of Deb files by the iGh EtherCAT team to their mainline repositories. Using it to run on a Pi is untested but from what I see, it should work.
Please report back on the thread I linked to with your feedback. Once its confirmed working, I will update the instructions.
Note in the instructions, there is a link to my git repo with a xml file for the rtelligent stepper drives you can use. There is also a hal file too.

Note that ethercat is very advanced and adds an order of complexity to a Linuxcnc config. Then to add a raspberry Pi into the mix adds a whole new level of complexity and likely disappointment into the mix.

COFHAL wrote:

I don't understand why I discard the PI4, I have my lathe working with one with 7i92, 7i88, 7i73, raspian 11, 64 bits, GLADE and everything works fine.

And I'm putting together another one with 7c81, 7i88, C10 and BOB 5 axis China.
 

There's nothing wrong with you using a Raspberry Pi. You have Glade working and that's great.....But you cannot use Glade-GTK3 to open a file made with gladevcp for glade-GTK2

That wasn't a tough concept but some people have a problem with that fact and aren't willing to learn the environment. Those people are better off doing something else with themselves.

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/drivers/hal_pi_gpio.html

Hiya all,
Im trying to modify a small milling machine to CNC using LinuxCnc and Rtelligent EtherCat Closed loop stepper drivers.
New to Linux and i am finding it out the hard way trying to get ethercat to work on my raspi 4B.

I tried following the Installation notes by Hakan ( forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/42048-notes-...at-on-raspberry-pi-4) but version 2.8.1 does not boot with the "start4.elf is not compatible. This board requires newer software" error.

It then tried the 2.9.0 image posted by elovalvo on page 16 of this thread. This one booted no problem.

The problem is the dkms_build failing and me not knowing what exactly goes wong.

If there is anyone who can spare an image of 2.9.0 with ethercat installed im really interested.