Lcnc on LMDE6 with rt 6.1.0.18/20 -- realtek problem --- solved by krn. 6.10.6

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FIRST TO READ STORY AND WASTE TIME .... CHECK IF YOU HAVE INSTALL LMDE6 WITH THESE STEP
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clean your partition (ex. sda) from previous install and set your space in FAT32
install with iso in usual way LMDE6
after these install immediately grub2 "sudo apt-get install grub2" ... maybe you have an error or some ....
1- add source list ->

deb deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

2- try again sudo apt-get install grub2 ... these time things all go well reboot
3- use terminal and write: sudo apt-get update .... than -> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y ....... these install all new package detect .....
4- reboot
5- on teminal ... uname -a
6- .... note you are on SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC kernel and not in preempt one ... now need to activate rt-preempt SO .... so try to launch these command:
sudo apt install linux-image-rt-amd64 ..... reboot
7- sudo apt install linuxcnc-uspace for install linuxcnc ... think you need -dev install and ethercat install .....
check these link at page 1 and than from from page 4 : forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...n-edition-6?start=40


After these your system is pefectly udate .... so you can proceed with less panic ..... BUT... actually (from 8-9-2024 ) repository on kernel 6.10 headers have some problem about some loses lib or firmware .... so impossible to start a preempt SO ..... I update you when these problem was solved ....

At 15-09-2024 I find find all packages needed .... after these you can install freely linuxcnc. Think open a post as guidance. Actually for right SO for modern application need to solve problem with utf8 encoding and qt6 .... after we can have a complete modern LMDE6 SO working for many different modern industrial like applications. Think all is applicable for bookworm too.

linuxcnc-ethercat work only for standard Intel210 ethernet port ... for all other need to install etherlab 1.6 and build right module driver .... generic driver install with linucnc-ethercat is ok too ... but can have sono more packet looses than right driver for right port as example r8169 realtek .... or i915 or other inside module folder of etherlab repo.

After is only a story of my difficult to have r8169 working on LMDE6 .... at the end it work but kernel 6.6.3 is real buggy so i have a lot of loses packet during ethercat working .... So i start a new and plain install using 6.10 .... no so buggy like 6.6.3 ...


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I discovered at my expense and through my own distraction that the Realteck ethernet ports do not go well with Linux in general..... please google: RTL8169 linux problem..... or RTL8168 Linux driver.... or the 10 more search suggestions from Google now that it uses AI.

It is clear that having a PC that requires RL816x drivers is not something to be taken lightly.

My experience with LMDE6 and with rt-preempt 6.1.0.18 is that I got a good kernel with very good results on an N95 but it started to give problems with ethercat.... in fact the master managed port kept disconnecting .... similarly to what is written in the various posts on Google .... so I tried to install dmks-r8168 as most people suggest .... with the result of no longer having any Ethernet ports visible from the system ... ..I then took a step back to the old drivers....installed original realteck drivers and blacklisted the r8169 drivers to only use the r8168 drivers....got a working system....but with ethercat blaming constant disconnections.

I then upgraded to kernel 6.1.0.20..... a disaster.


I reinstalled LMDE6 non-rt version all over again, I tried installing the dmks-r8168 drivers first and then switching to an rt system with kernel 6.1.0.18.....everything seemed to work great.....so I tried to upgrade to kernel 6.1.0.20 rt ...... excellent latency in tests ... better than the previous one ..... but once again the ethernet ports have disappeared.


I then try to reinstall everything from scratch again.... I'll write the steps here... let's see if luck will help me.

I use an LMDE6 usb istallation disk, dowloaded directly from Linux Mint dowload page .... at genuary 2024 we can find an install with pre-ready rt-preempt system. rt-preempt kernel avaiable at that time was 6.1.0.18 .... you need first install not rt-preempt SO.

I choose english language during process .... on debian every time I choose my language (italian) I have some issue that disappear if I choose english american. These from 2015. Keyboard language seem not to be a problem So choose italian type.

After the install process ended->reboot.

After install process is ended and reboot pc I run:

sudo apt update

these update source list .... and these time update source list bookworm from 12.x to 12.5

After these I use Update manager that ask to me to upgrade these app to new version .... ok done!

Now can see all software list to upgrade .... 313 packet .... and new kernel 6.1.85-1 (normal kernel not rt-preempt one that is not install yet).

Ok .... I run upgrade process .... after these reboot.

Update Manager advice that Linux-headers-6.1.0.20-amd64 / common / image and some python3 add-on is install (ok for all .... the new rt-preempt must be 6.1.0.20 so is a good things to do) ... upgrade all proposed.

N.B.: firefox in the proposed version appear unstable ... can be realtek board the problem .... but can be some bug. After these upgrade we can make some other consideration on these ....

Ok ... at end of process Update Manager ask to reboot ....

After reboot -> uname -a (on terminal) and obtain Linux xx 6.1.0.20-amd64 # 1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.85-1 ....

So now we try to install rt-preempt .... but for first try to run -> dmesg

these installation is new and dmesg show all problem until first install .... I have some error ... some is well know some is new:

and these one is well know .... after the new one:

so seems we have some trouble with bluethoot .... we have r8169 driver that not helps us ... but seems not have other problem ... on ACPI Error we try to solve later .... for now erase dmesg for discover future differences better ...
so -> sudo dmesg -C

now dmesg is clean ..... becase problem of these post is realtek driver and suspicious is a general problem .... we try to run firefox youtube with some exiciting video music for some hours so we can check again dmesg.

For not we not install rt-preempt.

So I restart a couple of time for sanity check ... and every time launch dmesg .... I obtain the same messages .... and after sudo dmesg -C if run youtube for 30min not discover other enp1s0 event ..... so now after 30mins of youtube music video

-> sudo dmesg | grep "enp1s0"
Seems there are not a problem with r8169 driver in these newest SO ...... not try to install rt-preempt ( tese link is still valid  forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=407613 )

-> sudo apt install -t bookworm-backports linux-image-rt-amd64  (because we have the last one bookworm istalled)

at the end we need to reboot .... after can be all ok .... and we can have last rt-preemp avaiable ....

but in my case have these:

so now try to solve these error ....


 

for first things try to start the second command  ...

->sudo apt install linux-image-rt-amd64

and these time compile whitout error and seems  linux-headers-6.6.13+bpo-amd64 these time become processing .... good news ... so reboot.

-> uname -a

so we have rt-preempt ... now install Lcnc.

->sudo apt install linuxcnc-uspace 

and start installation process but stop because these error ....

that is not so good because need to install latest versione 2.9.2 ..... so need to istall it manually ....

for do these need to download  linuxcnc-uspace_2.9.2_amd64.deb from here linuxcnc.org/downloads/

NOT INSTALL FOR NOW WAIT ...

Important things: as Tommilight advice, installing lcnc can remoove some packets ... so after my first installation fails i run:

-> sudo apt udate
-> sudo apt upgrade

so obtain the packet loses fron first lcnc install .... than reboot

After these I istall Chromium .... because firefox was unstable ... and dmesg shoe is not rtl drive related .... after boof enp1s0 is linked and never go dows ..... using chromium neve see other web page go dow at all ....

I remeber some week ago need to install something for can install Lcnc 2.9.2 ... so  i check and discover need to install these packets


sudo apt-get install libgpiod2
sudo apt-get install libtool
sudo apt-get install autoconf 


reboot .....

After I use GDebi for istall previous dowloaded Lcnc ..... than reboot 

After try to have a latency test ..... good result whitout nothing do... see image above .... first and same after some time:
 
 

quite good result ... enought for servo pourpouse at least. Surely with some trik we can do better than these ... but my intentio is to use 2ms realtime so in these case is perfect.

Now need to install ethercat .... 

For these I use instruction of CORBETT here ... forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/49771-etherc...ce-full-instructions SERACH FOR PART3 ... these is our point .... module config probabily is the most important things .... we have realtek NOT other easy ethernet card.

 

we are in kernel 6.6.13+pbo because it promised to solve problems related to the realtek card.... unfortunately I had doubts ethercat/etherlab supported the 6.6 kernel... but I also saw that either Shasa or Christian wrote something about the kernel 6.6 from the changelogs of the gihub etherlab repo....so I went straight with the test without looking too much...like a happy child.

however, to do things properly the ethercat modules should have been compiled in this way... I'll repost it for completeness:

CONFIGURE TO THE TYPE OF MODULE NEEDED
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc/ --disable-8139too --enable-userlib --enable-generic --enable-r8169

I didn't do it... instead I followed a guide by jjdege on an Italian forum so I used these source list:


deb [allow-insecure=yes] download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:...rLab/Debian_Testing/ ./
    
sudo apt-get update

KEYRING=/usr/share/keyrings/ethercat.gpg

curl -fsSL download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:...:/science:/EtherLab/           
Debian_Testing/Release.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee "$KEYRING" >/dev/null


Before this I made my own suggestion to configure the port with a fixed IP.... something I had never done before for ethercat which has always worked well. As usual I disabled IPV6 leaving IPV4 with mask 24 and address 10.0.0.1... nothing else configured outside the standard.


sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install ethercat-dkms libethercat libethercat-dev ethercat-master

I made the usual settings of the mac address ... also using the MODULES macro this time:

MASTER0_DEVICE="xx:aa:yy:zz:bb:cc"
DEVICE_MODULES="generic r8169"

so the system can choose whether r8169 or generic


Now I have given the usual permissions:

sudo systemctl enable ethercat.service
sudo systemctl start ethercat.service
sudo systemctl status ethercat.service
sudo chmod 666 /dev/EtherCAT0

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-ethercat.rules

KERNEL=="EtherCAT[0-9]", MODE="0777"

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

NOW REBOOT.

all that remains is to check the latency test and check the dmesg

Latency seems quite good but firefox have some problem ...

 

dmesg show me that firefox have some problem but enp3s0 that is ethercat have no disconnection now ..... thats all and is good enought for me ....

 

NOW need to discover firefox problem where is and why ACPHI error see at start of post.

ACPHI problem is not solved for now .... and with more and more test ...

But work on increase latency result simply for self learn about these theme. Now try these:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash snd_hda_intel.dmic_detect=0 nosmt acpi_irq_nobalance nohz=off nowatchdog " ... after these read linuxfoundation guidance and tatel post