Linuxcnc & the Rpasberry Pi (4 & 5)

First lets talk about the images.
1: They are based on Debian repos built by a collection of custom scripts.
2: Whilst some images have been written to SD card via RPi Imager Balena Etcher is recommended.
2a: If you use Linux there are plenty of other tools, Ubuntu\Mint has USB Image writer.
3: If you use the RPi Imager any adding of user or wifi info does not work. As the image is a custom one, only the kernel is built from RPi Sources.
4: If you are using an Rpi5 & a 7c80 0r 7c81 the driver to be loaded is hm2_spix
5: If you are using an RPi4 & a 7c80 or 7c81 the driver to be loaded is hm2_rpsipi
6: The images now have the SPI interface enabled by default.
7: Location of config.txt  /boot/broadcom/config.txt once again this is a custom build.
8: raspi-config is not in the image, the tool to use is menuconfig.
9: The default username is cnc.
10: The default password is cnc.
11: The images are not meant to be a fully fledged daily driver Operating System, the are just enough to run Linuxcnc.

Links to images:
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-5-debian-bookwo...25-01-27-0140.img.xz
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-5-debian-bookwo...7-0140.img.xz.sha256

www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-4-debian-bookwo...23-11-17-1731.img.xz
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-4-debian-bookwo...7-0404.img.xz.sha256

Pinium it

Thank you! Have you tried to install ethercat on these images? I can't get it to work. However on a older image (with older kernel) you have posted it works without issue.

You know, that's not really helpful at all. Why is it no one wants to give any info that may help others diagnose a problem ? It's like pulling teeth, some kind of demented game.

As of Feb 4th 2025 the the 6.12.xx series kernel is not supported by Ethercat, so installation will fail. Those wanting Ethercat are encouraged to use the previous version. This is one of the pitfalls of creating images, if a older kernel is used people get upset, if a newer kernel is used people get upset. Eevn if we had of used the Rpi kernel that is "current", 6.6.x series, Ethercat would have the same issue.

Rodw is on to it and has raised the issue on the github repo.

www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-4-debian-bookwo...23-11-17-1731.img.xz
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/rpi-5-debian-bookwo...23-11-17-1520.img.xz

"Does not work" is useless without further information. We do not read minds, I at least don't like playing 1000 questions.

If you have issues writing the image to an SD card, try extracting the image from the downloaded file (don't ask me I don't use windows), as the file is compressed to save space and time downloading, then try writing the image. If that fails check the sha256 sum. Tho if the file is corrupt extracting file will likely fail anyway. So check it first.
www.linuxcnc.org/iso/

unknown wrote:

As of Feb 4th 2025 the the 6.12.xx series kernel is not supported by Ethercat, so installation will fail. 

Only installation of Ethercat will fail. I have raised an issue with etherlabmaster on their gitlab repo asking if they have a time line for 6.12 support.
I alos pointed out they should get their finger out as Debian Trixie is only a few months away and it is currently running 6.12

Thanks for clearing that up Rod, it made sense in my mind, which was probably a bad sign.

As a band aid solution I extracted the files from the ethercat-dkms package and ran the update script in the directory for the boardcom stuff, which is a pain as the whole linux sources are need, not just the headers. Anyways some of the patches failed so I gave up on the theory.

Regarding GPIO drivers.

For the Rpi5 please use hm2_gpio
For the RPi4 hal_pi_gpio or hm2_gpio (this looks like the easier option to setup) , should be no need to mess with permissions

linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/drivers/hal_gpio.html
linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/drivers/hal_pi_gpio.html