After switch to Mesa 6i25 (5i25), home switches not recognized. [Mis-configured]

Earlier I wrote:

...I truly believe that I have .hal and .ini files which match the wiring.

After sleeping on it, I came at the problem with fresh eyes and found that I--STILL--had confused P3 function numbers with DB25 pin numbers. (ohforpityssake)

One thing I learned was that, despite all my fears about and preparations to guard against powering up with signals on the wrong pins, I did it anyway--AND nothing smoked.

I started ironing them out, one-by-one by looking, first, at the output of:
mesaflash --readhmid --device 5i15
again, to see the matchup between DB25 pin numbers (col. 1) and GPIO functions (col. 2). I immediately noticed, this time around, that I'd used gpio15 where I wanted db25pin15.  (It's difficult--but not always impossible--to save someone who keeps shooting themselves...)

Another thing I'd done was to add # Trailing Comments to lines in the .ini--to help my future self understand what I'd done.  LinuxCNC didn't complain--in some places, but crashed-on-start with ambiguous errors on others.  Best to give #comments their own lines.

PCW wrote:

Did you verify that the home switches work by using halshow?

in axis: Machine --> Show Hal Configurattion --> Watch --> Signals --> home-x
 

Peter, I actually had done this, and that's where I woke up to the fact that my .hal file was still incorrect.

I put a bunch of Signals into the Watch tab, and I saw CRAZY things lighting up where I expected other things. That's what tipped me off to go back to verifying the mesaflash --readhmid/.pin file.

I've got home switches recognized now. Finally. Just need spindle-enable and probe-in and I'll be back-to-normal.

Spindle-enable is sorted now too. M3 turns spindle on and sets speed.

Halshow indicates that the two probe signals (probe-in and probe-in-not) are lit Yellow/Brown when not contacted and toggle to Brown/Yellow when contact is made.

So the probe-in "should" work too, but I've yet to find my handy-dandy utility routines folder that I used almost daily a year and a half ago.

Editing later: it was. In fact, everything worked, finally: axes, spindle, home switches, and probe.

I was so giddy from the fact that I immediately tried to run the model I was working on in March 2021, when the old controller machine's motherboard expired, and I began my "two-to-three-week" quest to set up a more future-proof replacement. Cue the Alice-in-Wonderland music...  (I started to run the G-code and shortly discovered that the new setup with the Mesa 6i25 is losing steps too. ...but that's for another post.)

Thank you again, all, for all the information you sent my way. I certainly couldn't have gotten this far without you.