Help : Layman configuration for Raspberry Pi 5, Linuxcnc 2.9. and Mesa 7i96

Hello Senior Members,

I have begun working on my 2nd linuxcnc project. Previously, i have successfully set up 2 CNC machines with Linuxcnc and parallel port combined with a lot of help and learnings even for the most basic things from you all.

This time i have:
> Rpi 5, installed with LinuxCNC 2.9.4  Raspberry Pi 5 OS based on Debian Bookworm  Raspberry Pi 5 on a SD card through Raspberry pi imager.
> Mesa 7i96 board (fresh out of the box, w5 and w6 jumpers set on Down position)

I have read through forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...l-images-only#320270 and rest of the topics, hm2_eth , network manager, and youtube videos. I am still unsure what to do and how.

> i cannot make a wifi connection with menu-config. i dont really understand it to be honest. what information to put and where?
> i cannot edit the etc/network/interfaces file, it does not let me save the changes. and what shall i change and not change in it?
> with network-manager-gnome im still not able to connect to a wifi or ethernet. also what is eth0 and wifi0 they cant be used?
> what is mesaflash? do i have to flash my mesa card or update it or whatever during my first boot? or does it work out of the box

If only somebody could just walk me through the barebones setup so that i can simply make a connection to the mesa card, and have wifi connection too.. from scratch. it would be very helpful for me and anyone like me. 

Best regards
Sk

Please read the major thread regarding the RPi, it's a sticky.

Regarding editing files under
/etc you will require super user privileges, please use your favourite search engine to learn how to use sudo.

Once again it is not very helpful when a user says that something doesn't work without any error messages or the sort.

Once in the main RPi image thread I have written examples,covering many circumstances regarding network setup and what needs to be addressed in the network file.

There is even a sticky thread that is an index to the main RPi image thread.
forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...l-images-only#325007

what is the root id and password sir? i only know the default user credentials "cnc" with password "cnc"

As the image is there is no root password, it is too easy to mess up the system when using root. As I stated in my first post you need to use sudo. It would be best for you to search to how to use the sudo command for tasks that require elevated privileges.
Teaching one how to use Linux is not something that I am willing to do on the forum and quite frankly there are many quality tutorials on the net.
This one www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#debian-handbook whilst it maybe for an earlier version of Debian it is a good start, and you should be able to find something in your native language.

ah great! i managed to get connection to the mesa card and wifi simply through the sudo menu-config . like i said, i had gone through all the posts mentioned above, but going through them with index page you mentioned helped quite alot. now i can ping the card at 10.10.10.10 and get responses.

my next question is,

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 10.10.10.100
netmask 255.255.255.0

is sufficient in the interface file or shall i also add

hardware-irq-coalesce-rx-usecs 0 after netmask? and whats the significance of this line? Thanks again!

Generally only suggested for Intel NIC, RPi uses a Broadcom NIC.

I would also recommend the zswap mod if you intended to use an interface other than Axis, there is a reference to that in the index.

Once you have networking setup you can configure your Mesa card as you would for a normal PC, there are plenty of threads on the forum regarding this subject, there is nothing particular to the RPi platform in this respect.

quick question, why does my network manager look like this? im still connected to wifi, and also have the connection to mesa card, but those options dont show up. i also set up a new wifi connection 1 to a different source, but im not able to switch into it or make it run. 

If you setup a network interface in the interfaces file,
that particular interface is no longer managed by
the network manager.

Hello Sir, i did read about that in the wiki.debian.org/NetworkManager
how may i make it visible and editable through the network manager. specifically the wifi connection.
also as i pointed above, i tried to make a new wifi connection to my mobile hotspot, but as you can see, i cannot connect to it or use it.

what is the go around?

Remove the setup for the network you want to manage from the network file.
Leave the wired connection in the network file and use network manager for the wifi. I turn the wifi off whilst running a job.
May help with latency, stops Bad Guys from messing stuff up.