Help please - trying to get started

spumco wrote:

Except pncconfig now doesn't recognize the 7i73. -readhmid shows the 7i73 ports, but pncconfig won't create the 7i73's ports when I run it.

I would have to fire up pncconf when I next get to a Linux machine to see where (or if) you would expect to be able to configure a 7i73 in pncconf. The source-code is definitely aware of their existence (having just checked)

I download the mesa firmware (again, 'cause I greased the PC). I unzip it to the linuxcnc folder. Mesaflash throws up because it cant find any files. Fine, i copy the 7i76 and sserial folders to the mesaflash directory.
And then pncconfig complains that it can't find the .bit files because they aren't in some lib/hm2/whatever folder. And that folder doesn't exist. So I try to make one, only I have to root to make a damn folder.

i can explain that, but not necessarily excuse it. The reason is that kernel drivers (such as the LinuxCNC realtime layer) are not allowed access to the file system. There is one exception, and that is the lib/firmware directory (as obviously drivers need to be able to read firmware). The older generation of Mesa cards (5i20, 7i43 etc) needed to upload a firmware the FPGA every time they booted, so the firmware _had_ to be in lib/firmware.
The newer cards (5i25, 7i76E, 5i23 etc) store the firmware on a flash chip and automatically load it. These need programming with Mesaflash. I am a little surprised that Mesaflash doesn't look in lib/firmware/hm2 though.
For the cards that don't need firmware PnCConf can sometimes use internal data, but only for firmwares that have been specifically converted and included. Otherwise it uses the ,pin files.

So I copy them there. And now pncconfig shuts up about the missing bit files, but the firmware doesn't show up in pncconfig and it doesn't recognize the 7i73.

Probably simplest to have the bitfiles in both places, sadly.
You actually only need to have the old-style ones in /lib/firmware and the newer ones where mesaflash can find them. But the only way to know which is which is to be PCW

spumco wrote:

unless you already know that "SSERIAL-P1-TX" means "add-on option cards" in English.

I knew it was my fault. We'll see how this goes now

No, I don't think that is reallly your fault. That header really could be a little clearer. Though I doubt that your name is in the top ten of what others would be looking for. "smart serial card 1" would work for me. I have no idea if that would be obvious to anyone else.