Leith,
Yeah I was in the same boat... holidays and work have me busy, and unfortunately the holidays fly by too quick to get a real break. We did a very small capacity Christmas but still a lot of work.
It is good that you figured it out so quick and did not have a huge headache... I have almost bashed my face into the monitor before over problems.
Excellent, that you posted your fix as that helps anyone in need. Yep definitely need the RT kernel... if you ever decide to build LCNC from source code, you would be checking out what kernel you had installed and then patch a RT kernel, good that you quickly found the kernel problem.
I don't think LCNC will complain, because I want to say that you can build a RIP without RT for development, but I always patch the kernel for my builds as I am building for use.
Yes when you get a "LinuxCNC Errors" box, you can scroll down to the "Debug file information" and in that section it will usually give you a clue as to what the problem is. Especially if you corrupt your HAL file for some reason... or if you are tweaking your HAL file and get the code wrong, it will usually give the line number to look for in your HAL file. I use EtherCAT so I am very very familiar with that box, LOL.
The one thing I can say about the LCNC developers is that they are a God send to people like you and me. 15 or more years ago I would complain when it was EMC as I was still young and dumb... but then my Dad told me to be grateful as it was free. LCNC has came a long way from the old days. Plus honestly until the BDI (brain dead install) came along it was rather challenging to install EMC and get working. I remember being very frustrated as I was use to UNIX and NOT Linux. Then a guy built the BDI and man that was huge for me and the bulk of every non-Linux user. That was gold back then, I still have mine from way way back put up, and several other versions over the years. Seems like the guy's name was Paul Commer that I bought it from, got it on eBay in early 2000's as I joined back in 1998. I could be wrong on name, as it was a long time ago... I got real busy and stopped messing with EMC2 and then when I came back years later it was called LinuxCNC. Honestly I did not like the name at first as I always knew it as the "Enhanced Machine Controller" from NIST, and I don't like change LOL, but I am super happy with LCNC.
With that said, I know the developers have a lot on their plate. You can go check out the NARKIVE as that is where they generally hang out. There are some really good conversations to follow at times. Makes you realize how smart some of those guy's are, and how challenging it is to get bugs worked out...
I know it can get frustrating when LinuxCNC doesn't want to work as I have pulled my hair out a many a times, but I have a huge respect for everyone that helps and makes all this work... plus I cannot emphasize all the help that I have received over the years. I try to help when I can, but I definitely do not want to give wrong or miss-information and I very rarely do interact on the forum because of it... plus I only joined back up on the forum about 3 years ago. I couldn't remember my old account name.
Nothing feels better than when you figure out a harder problem and LCNC fires up correctly... There have been a few times with EtherCAT that when LCNC fired up, I swore I heard Angels "Singing" LOL LOL.
Robert
