the holy grail...

yes there is a lcec_conf file.. (which i got from a git hub i think )

Hmm, thats not possible getting from github.....

Did you compiled  (make) and installed (make install) linuxcnc-ethercat ?

Without Informations i am not able to help.
Please answer the questions in the two posts above rodw  in detail.

thanks again ..

i have run all the stages as i understand to install the ethercat bits and bobs..

like i said... is there a way i can validate my installation... this process does seem fraught... and I've been very methodical about when following instructions that i get the expected results from each step... (which is not always as simple as it appears.. ) so i'm very much trying to feel my way ... with the final goal being that I produce a set of instructions that cover my install, both for me.. and anyone else who has a similar configuration ..

I'm not on my linuxcnc machine at the moment, so I can't change the permissions.. and also like I said... what should the permissions be, I'm running as a root user... but I've never seen anything about permissions before... so what level of permission is required.. and like i said.. what folders are involved... both of them ... or is that depending on what version of the build you are running..

I'm trying to be as helpful as I can with my replies.., but please understand, this is not a straightforward process, so confusion is often involved inadvertently, not intentionally


Pb

OK.. so what I have currently is some Backhoff ethercat IO.. and that was working... (whoop whoop.. ) well i was able to toggle one of the outputs on and off using the Hal tools...


caused by this statement, i would resume that ethercat is right installed...

If not, simple try to install it again.

go to your linuxcnc-ethercat folder ->
"make clean" ->
"sudo make install"
if you got no errors messages, it will be installed in the right way.


but there is an strange thing:
4 1:0 PREOP + Savch SDA2-E(CoE) Drive Rev1.3
your servo drive is not listed as slave 4, it is listed in the way if it is connected to an second master.
So please descripe you physical ethercat wiring, to check for errors.

it should be in this way:
Network Card -> EK1100 -> Servodrive

the list above for example tells this:
Network Card ->EK1100
Network Card2 -> Servodrive  (an thats not right...)

 

If you downloaded some ready-made lcec_conf from github then it won't have execute permissions. But don't mess with that, build and install linux-ethercat from source instead.

That said, at least if you are using a run-in-place install of linuxcnc I believe there is a vital step missing in the instructions you followed: before building linuxcnc-ethercat you must go to your linuxcnc build dir and run '. scripts/rip-environment' to set up the environment variables that linuxcnc-ethercat uses to install its built binaries.

Edit: For reference, the correct install locations for linuxcnc-ethercat in a rip install is:
lcec_conf -> <linuxcnc-build-dir>/bin/
lcec.so -> <linuxcnc-build-dir>/rtlib/

Edit 2: If you have already built linuxcnc-ethercat before sourcing the rip-environment, make sure to run 'make clean' in the linuxcnc-ethercat folder before running 'make' and 'make install'. Otherwise the files will just be installed to the already "detected", wrong, locations again.

Also, again at least for a rip install, the installation of cia402 using halcompile won't work unless you first source the rip-environment - and you should not use sudo when installing linuxcnc-ethercat and cia402 in a rip install.

... and if you are wondering if you are running a rip (run-in-place) install: if you followed rodw's instructions then yes, you are (which is fine). It's just that the instructions are pretty broken, unfortunately.

I think, no rip...

Error report created by /usr/lib/tcltk/linuxcnc/show_errors.tcl:

Print file information:
RUN_IN_PLACE=no
LINUXCNC_DIR=
LINUXCNC_BIN_DIR=/usr/bin
LINUXCNC_TCL_DIR=/usr/lib/tcltk/linuxcnc
LINUXCNC_SCRIPT_DIR=
LINUXCNC_RTLIB_DIR=/usr/lib/linuxcnc/modules
LINUXCNC_CONFIG_DIR=
LINUXCNC_LANG_DIR=/usr/lib/tcltk/linuxcnc/msgs
INIVAR=inivar
HALCMD=halcmd
LINUXCNC_EMCSH=/usr/bin/wish8.6
LINUXCNC - 2.8.2
Machine configuration directory is '/home/pad/linuxcnc/configs/PB_Mill'
Machine configuration file is 'PB_Mill.ini'
INIFILE=/home/pad/linuxcnc/configs/PB_Mill/PB_Mill.ini

Uh-huh. Well if he installed grotius' EtherCAT image then linuxcnc-ethercat should already be installed? If so, the lcec_conf permission error is an error in grotius' image?

Padstar: How exactly did you install linuxcnc? Which image file did you start from and what have you done since?

good question ..

i started with an ISO of debian 10,
then installed Linuxcnc

then followed rodw's script... and then just fiddled and faffed until i got here...

but I'm totally up for starting again ... but I've not found an ISO / build anywhere that's got ethercat installed

Pb

Okay, then you have both a system install and a rip install in place. You need to decide which one to use. I can't really advise you there except to say I'm running a rip install of master and it seems to work with EtherCAT. The system install probably works fine, too.

The things to remember are that to use the rip install you need to run the '. scripts/rip-environment' in your dev/linuxcnc folder before doing anything else (after each boot, and in each terminal window you open!). AND you shouldn't use sudo for any of the 'make install' commands.

If you want to use the system install then you mustn't source the rip-environment, and you must use sudo for all 'make install' commands. (Again: I haven't installed EtherCAT on a system install myself so take my advice on this with a grain of salt.)

So: decide which one to use, then redo the linuxcnc-ethercat install with the above points in mind. If you have been running as root all the time then perhaps you need to delete the source folders altogether and start over as a normal user for things to work.

In general, before you even install LinuxCNC you can concentrate on getting etherlabmaster up and running. You'll know this is correctly installed when you can run 'ethercat slaves' and get a list of the connected slaves (but see db1981's comments about the weird bus numbers above: that is strange!). LinuxCNC isn't needed for this at all.