Using LinuxCNC With a Mesa 7i76ED, Questions about which version to install.

Hi, so before I was using LinuxCNC with a parallel port, so I used Debian Wheezy version of LinuxCNC. Now I want to upgrade to using an Ethernet cable and a newer computer. I with Mesa's engineer and he recommended for me to install the Debian Stretch ISO of LinuxCNC. There are quiet a few different options, what are the different options for, what are the differences, and which one would work best for me? When I go to the LinuxCNC downloads page and click on the Debian 9 Stretch link, there are 12 different iso files to chose from. Some with a zsync suffix, some with amd64 in the filename, some with r12 others r13. I downloaded and installed the iso on the top of the list, and it seems to work fine, but I don't have my Mesa board or motor drivers yet so I don't know. Thanks for the help.

Anyway, I am trying to learn more about the setup of the 7i76ED I ordered. Specifically, after hooking up the ethernet cable and a 24V power supply to the terminals, what should I do next? I've been reading the manual, and what I understand is that I will need to have my computer recognize the card by entering the IP address of the Mesa card. After that it should be as simple as going through the PNCconfig tool right? I want to get my machine going as quickly as possible, is there a "quick start guide" for the Mesa 7i76ED? Thanks again.

You might read the hm2_eth manual page about setting up the host Ethernet IP address

man hm2_eth

(in a terminal window)

Hey I can't seem to succesfully install the Debian 9 Stretch version of Linuxcnc. Any tips? I get through all the steps, but when it's time to load in, I just get a black screen.

At what stage are you getting a black screen ?
Before grub ?
After selecting the OS with grub.

What is Grub? So I go through all the steps of installing Debian 9 iso, and after it successfully partitions the disk and suggests I remove the USB and restart, the system shows up with a black screen with a blinking line at the top left. I don't know why this happens. I was able to install Wheezy ISO on another system with ease.

Grub is the boot loader

I guess you don't get a screen like this or similar to

Hey, I went through all the steps again and LinuxCNC Debian 9 Stretch installed successfuly. Now I am going to set up my Mesa 7I76ED!

Ok Cool

Hey, new problem. The install went successfully, I can reboot and everything. I'm even able to test out the Mesa 7I76ED. Unfortunately, if I walk away from the computer and come back an hour or 2 later, the install totally fails, as if the hard drive has no operating system installed. Super disappointing. I have no idea why this is happening. It's not the hardware that's the problem either.

I have had no issues with the Debian Wheezy install of Linuxcnc. It all loaded up smoothly and in the end the computer worked just fine with the parallel port. But now I want to use a 7i76ED that uses an Ethernet cable. I try to install the latest version of Debian 9 Stretch ISO, and the install went fine, but after leaving the computer running overnight and starting it back up in the morning, the computer screen lit up like normal for a second, then went completely black. I don't know why this happened, the install was working perfect the night before! Anyway, I was tired of using a slow HDD, so I put an SSD in and went through the install procedure again. Perfect, everything works. I set up my Mesa board. At this point I eat dinner and take a break from things, come back 2 hours later and tap on the keyboard and move the mouse. The screen lights up as normal for just 1 second, then it goes black. Totally unresponsive. like it just stopped working. I don't know why. I try turning it on and off, and I'm met with a black screen again. As if the hard drive didn't have linux installed. I mess around with it again for a while, and then decide that there is no way I'm going to be able to get this to boot up again so I plug in my USB drive with the Linuxcnc AMD64 Iso and reinstall Linuxcnc. This time, at the very last step, I get an error. "The ext4 file system creation in partition #1 of SCSI2 (0,0,0)(sdb) failed. Basically I can't finish the graphical install. F U C K. This happened before to a HDD I tried this on before. I guess I should format the HDD and SSD and try again. Maybe there is a problem with the ISO file I have on the thumbdrive? Maybe I didn't go through the steps correctly when I installed Linuxcnc? I'm not sure. I've done more troublshooting than I've written down here of course. I don't know. Has anyone else had this problem?

You are saying there is nothing on the hard drive and you have to reinstall ?

Or is the screen just blank ?