RPI4 - Debian / LinuxCNC / EtherCAT / XFCE

Yeh, I am trying it on my chromebook but it predates your last commit
One of the roadblocks I have had before was not being able to run QTPlasmac which uses QTVCP or stuff running on QTPVCP.
I think the issues is missing VTK. There is a 32 bit pi version so I am exploring how to install the 64 bit version

Good luck! I strongly suggest using my latest commit. I've done a clean git pull and build - works fine on Bullseye AMD64 host and boots on hardware. I'd love to be able to boot the img in qemu. How do I do that?

I'm now trying to write a a linuxcnc-ethercat for the meca500 robot.

github.com/djsftree/linuxcnc-ethercat/co...8bddb940402ee689cd2c

Looking at the other devices in src for inspiration.

Looking around rpi-image-builder the develoepr already has a firstboot service in /files/scripts

That's super awesome! I think I can add this

This worked!

I used your latest commit.
I have not fully tested yet until I get it  home to my ethercat lab. 
I had to install a browser so used Chromium. (sudo apt install chromium) Then the default XFCE icon opened chromium.
I had to update ethercat.config with the mac address. There was something there but made no sense against my hardware
Ethercat is definitely installed but without hardware to test it out at this location.

Linuxcnc is there, latency seems OK, spiked out to about 90000 as I opened chrome but mostly < 50,000. That is perfect for mesa hardware or ethercat.

I tried opening the QTplasmac sim but it crashed as expected. I think that is something to do with QT and VTK. I know QTPYVCP needs VTK. We need a 64 bit version!

I left a pi at home compiling VTK. I heard it took 13 hours.... I think it will likely run out of SSD space. as its only got 16 gb.
I've uploaded the image to my Google Drive. But I'll wait until you say its stable before sharing it.

Its awesome what you have done! Thanks for sharing!


 

Glad it worked!

This might help?

www.kitware.com/rethinking-debian-packag...ake-projects-part-2/

apt.kitware.com/ 

archlinuxarm.org/packages/aarch64/vtk/files/PKGBUILD
 

Ok, I have now confirmed it works perfect and I can find my ethercat slaves!
(after I fixed my silly error in my ethercat.conf file.)
I connected to wifi at work but for some reason I can't now connect to the wifi at home.
It says device unmanaged when I try at the icon on top right.

Thanks for the links. I am way out of my depth but the last one looks interesting. How do I use it?

This page installs QT5
I have not got QTVCP running yet baserd on this script
forum.linuxcnc.org/qtvcp/38414-installing-qtvcp

rodw wrote:

This worked!

I used your latest commit.
I have not fully tested yet until I get it  home to my ethercat lab. 
I had to install a browser so used Chromium. (sudo apt install chromium) Then the default XFCE icon opened chromium.
I had to update ethercat.config with the mac address. There was something there but made no sense against my hardware
Ethercat is definitely installed but without hardware to test it out at this location.

Linuxcnc is there, latency seems OK, spiked out to about 90000 as I opened chrome but mostly < 50,000. That is perfect for mesa hardware or ethercat.

I tried opening the QTplasmac sim but it crashed as expected. I think that is something to do with QT and VTK. I know QTPYVCP needs VTK. We need a 64 bit version!

I left a pi at home compiling VTK. I heard it took 13 hours.... I think it will likely run out of SSD space. as its only got 16 gb.
I've uploaded the image to my Google Drive. But I'll wait until you say its stable before sharing it.

Its awesome what you have done! Thanks for sharing!

 

Can what I have done here help you?

forum.linuxcnc.org/qtpyvcp/39127-vtk-bac...pi-4?start=40#242880

Excellent, thanks!

Fixed the ethercat.conf now, correctly sets at first boot.

Fixing screensaver, display and some power things.

elovalvo wrote:

Can what I have done here help you?

forum.linuxcnc.org/qtpyvcp/39127-vtk-bac...pi-4?start=40#242880

 

Thanks, I will give installing this a try. It should work by the kernel version...

ftree, I am wondering once we get this all working if on first boot, the script should offer the user some options to install different features like ethercat and qtpyvcp and ethercat. Something like what James has done here for Linuxcnc and qtpyvcp on Bullseye. github.com/joco-nz/lcnc-bullseye-installer

But then maybe it just installs everything. If the ethercat service is disabled it probably won't get in the road if say you are using a mesa 7i96 or similar.

In my earlier testing I thought "isolcpus=2,3" made a difference but I have not wanted to do that yet becasue  the pi might need to compile 9 hours worth of code! You could try this manually. grub_customizer should be in the debian repo.