Hurco KMB-IS CNC update

YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT!

Since there's interest in this topic, I'll give a little more detail.

The RPi4 was originally set up to boot off the USB/SSD. I did this for the better performance of the SSD over the SD card, and because I felt like the SSD would be more robust than the SD. The system was running without an SD card. At the time of install, booting off USB/SSD required some experimental boot ROM. I think the USB/SSD boot has since become mainstream.

When it was refusing to boot it would hang with this on the screen:


After I added the "total_mem=3072" to config.txt, it would hang there for a while and then boot up. With this fix, I could actually use the system as it was... but I'm not going to. Now is a good time to start afresh.

I've imaged an SD card with the latest RPi OS. When I boot off the SD card, the old file system is conveniently mounted on /media. All my data and linuxcnc configuration stuff can be easily copied on to my shiny new image

I'm going to proceed with installing the RT kernel, LinuxCNC etc on the SD card. Once I get that all done, I'll copy the SD image over to the SSD and boot/run from there. I'll keep the SD card around as a backup.

I read somewhere that apt update/upgrade updates the boot ROM on the RPi. If this is true, that's a departure that what I'm used to on x86 systems. My guess is that something strange happened around the boot ROM, RT kernel, ???

Looked at "dist-upgrade". "Smart conflict resolution". Could be better, but in my experience "smart software" is usually an oxymoron .

And, just for the record, that scary message appears to be an artifact of the real time kernel install.

It appears that installing linux-image-4.19.71-rt24-v7l+ real time kernel breaks the USB.

I backed out the RT kernel with an rpi-update. Got my USB back, but no real time of course.

Then did:
apt-get --purge remove linux-image-4.19.71-rt24-v7l+
apt-get install linux-image-4.19.71-rt24-v7l+

Real time kernel is back, but again no USB.

I do most of my admin on this system via remote-desktop. But its impossible to use the LinuxCNC milling machine without a keyboard and mouse.

Any clues?

Realized I had used Raspberry Pi OS and not Rasphian 10.

Raspberry Pi OS is not Rasphian. In fact, I think Raspberry Pi OS is 64 bit and Rasphian is 32 bit. Broken USB drivers.

Now... to figure how to install Rasphian 10.

YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT!

And so the colossal adventure continues.

For whatever reasons, the Raspbian folks have removed their bits from the internet with prejudice. If they're out there, I can't find them. I guess you get what you pay for.

The good news is my original Raspian 10/LinuxCNC image is still on the SSD and is fixed with the "total_mem=3072" hack. Thanks to andypugh. Using the old image is about my only alternative now.

I would like to get back to something with a semblance of support. Which means the Raspberry Pi OS, not Raspbian. Raspberry Pi OS is 64 bit and version 5 of the kernel. At the very least, I need a version 5 ARM Linux RT kernel.

Don't know the LinuxCNC plans going forward. Will there be a port to Raspberry Pi OS?

And, maybe somebody knows where I can download Raspbian buster for the RPi??

Thanks for any help/advice.

Just made my first cut with the new image. Thanks Andy Pugh.

If you try to start Chromium, it gives some message about lack sand box. Something to do with the kernel.

But that doesn't matter to me. In my experience, Chromium doesn't work well on a Pi4. I use Firefox.

In case you never figured it out, that round socket is most likely for a rotary indexer. As far as I know, all hurco machines with the B control came with a port for one. It is simply a set of contacts telling the indexer to index, then an input from the indexer to let the control know when it's finished indexing.
The old hurco controls came in two variants, the B and BX. The B control had a programmable resolution of 0.001", and included no RS-232 ports. The BX control was an upgraded control that had some advantages. It was programmable to 0.0001", had two RS-232 ports, included G-Code support, and had an extra 8k of memory. The BX MPU board is recognizable from the B board by the presence of two ribbon headers on the top of the card, and a block of jumpers in the lower right of the card to set serial port baud rates.

The original hurco control is excellent for conversational programming, and is easy to learn. However, it is limited if you don't have the BX.

I'm pretty sure this unit is/was a "B" control.

The computer, console, and the cable the runs in between them has been removed. Before they were removed, I could sometimes get a prompt on the display, but could never get the tape to load.

And BTW, all this stuff was removed intact. Its all still in one piece in the machine owners (not me) attic. If somebody needs B series computer parts, they might be available.