2.9.0.45 to 2.9.0.49 Broke Me

Hi there!

I'm pretty new to LinuxCNC and have been working on getting my machine up and running over the last couple of weeks. So far things have been going really well. I've got the machine jogging, homing, spindling, all that you'd expect of a newly minted LCNC machine; I've been super happy with it all so far. I've even got my VistaCNC pendant fully functioning, a tool setter set up and some primitive tool setting macros all good to go.

However, it all fell apart today, and for the life of me I can't figure out what went wrong.

I was on version 2.9.0.45 and late last night noted that there was a new version available, 2.9.0.49. Today I updated LinuxCNC via apt (debian bookworm) and all of a sudden, homing does not work. This is an AvidCNC 60x60 router with a Mesa 7i92TH card in it. The Z axis will home at the top of Z travel as I would expect, however X and Y never actually do anything like they did before. Once the Z axis homes I'd expect Y to kick in but it just sits there. If I try to keyboard jog, I get an error message that states that I cannot jog the machine while the homing procedure is running, which I would expect.

So it seems to me that LinuxCNC thinks the machine is in the process of homing, but nothing is actually moving. I could also be grossly wrong.

A few things I've tested. Most of this is probably irrelevant to the issue, but it has been one of those days where I'm willing to explore any avenue, especially since less than 20 hours ago the machine was working beautifully.

• Reviewed my configuration files to look for something I may have fat-fingered to break things. I manage my entire configuration in a git repository, so the comparison is trivial; no configuration or code changed between working and then not working.
• Rolled back to 2.9.0.45 from the upgraded 2.9.0.49 version - no effect
• Fully uninstalled linuxcnc, including settings, cached files, etc. - no effect
• Reinstalled linuxcnc from a fully cleaned and autoremoved debian repository - no effect
• Reverted to an older version of my configuration from Git, on the off chance I remember working and someone did my brain a trickery - no effect.
• Connected to the 7i92TH card to make sure it actually works. the output of mesaflash looks legit.
• In the middle of the non-moving homing cycle, manually tripped the homing sensors to trick the machine into thinking it finished homing, which worked. Once fooled, I could jog the machine around with no issues. This tells me that the sensors, motors, and motion control are all working properly.
• Rebooted more than a 90's windows computer
  
  I don't think this is a hardware issue since if I fool the system I can jog around as if nothing is wrong. The sensors all work, which is how I get it to let me jog around, the motors all sound good, that kind of thing. What I'm leaning toward is maybe how I'm handling pointing to various directories in the subroutine path and I HAVE noticed that the python files in the cache change. That being said, I've been leery of changing too many things at one time considering the situation.
  
  I'm not really sure what to try next or what type of troubleshooting processes or debug configurations to try. There are no error messages, and for all intents and purposes it feels like it shouldn't be broken. 
  
  Even more mysteriously, rolling back to an older version of LinuxCNC AND older versions of known good configuration don't provide a different result; homing is still broken. I've attached my configuration files for reference.
  
  I'm stumped.
  
  Thanks for reading my super long sad first note

2.9.1 was officially released today. It is on the linuxcnc downloads page.
There is a script Andy did that may upgade you.
Download, ensure it has execute permissiions and try running it
www.linuxcnc.org/linuxcnc-install.sh
Otherwise download the ISO. 
 

Thanks for sending that over, I was unaware of the update to 2.9.1.

I executed the script and the install went fine, however the issue still stands in that the Z axis will home, but the x and y axis do not (they don't move at all).

Does individual homing work?

Z axis homing worked, but that's it; was a big bummer.

Ultimately (I just finished this btw) I decided to take the nuclear option and blow away the entire Debian install and reinstall from the 2.9.1 iso image. The machine is back up and running and working as expected with no changes to the configuration that I was running originally.

So here's my theory, and I'm guessing you guys have more perspective than I will.

I updated Debian with your standard apt update & upgrade and something became incompatible with LinuxCNC and manifested as this odd behavior on the machine. Once I rebuilt the machine with a fresh Debian instance things went back to normal.

Just sucks to take the nuclear option without really knowing the root cause.

If I'm right, is there a preferred or maybe more proper way to keep debian up-to-date without breaking LinuxCNC?

Debian gets updated infrequently except for the odd security updates.
Linuxcnc 2.9.x updates will also be infrequent.
But there could have been a fair few changes leading up to the relaese of 2.9.1 so its probably good you reset from scratch.

Yeah, looking at it all, I'm glad I started from scratch as well.

Are there any best practices for updating these machines with apt, other than doing it? Skip certain things? Accept everything?

Also, thanks a ton for your help and support, I really appreciate it.