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I have been reading a lot about options with the RPi and LinuxCNC, and am just getting more confused so I thought I would just ask a couple of hopefully simple questions.

I have a 3-axis (sometimes 4 axis) mill currently running LinuxCNC on an OrangePi. It has been run with GRBL on an arduino, and an old PC with LinuxCNC. The current setup works okay with the OrangePi but the interface lags and I have some mods I want to eventually do to my mill. I have the newest official RPi image running on a RPi 4b. I need to eventually marry this to an external motion board but I decided to start off with software stepping using a Pi hat, but I know that won't last long. Basically I'm done screwing around and want to setup a system that is capable and expandable EASILY.

I've been looking at the Mesa 7C81 but that is probably overkill for my purposes, but if it is truly as easy as it seems it may be my final choice. So first question is if setup of the 7C81 is as easy as it seems with the PNC config wizard?

Second question I have is whether I have missed another option that is less overkill.  Here is what I eventually "complete" my mill

• LinuxCNC running with touchscreen interface without lag or problems. Would eventually like on-screen keyboard with a wireless keyboard/mouse usable if needed.
• 4 closed loop steppers (XYZ and a rotary table)
• 7 home/limit switches (2 each on XYZ, 1 on rotary table)
• Spindle control (VFD)
• Spindle encoder for tapping.
• 3 encoder wheels (for using the machine as a pseudo manual machine)  
• Maybe a dozen or so switches/buttons for input to LinuxCNC
• Only need about 40 kHz stepping rate max.
  
  Should I just stop thinking about it and buy the 7C81 when it comes back into stock? Or is there an almost as easy solution that will fit the above needs.
  
  BTW, I am also planning to CNC my lathe and would want to duplicate the setup the mill has on the lathe so I don't have to relearn anything.
  
  Thanks in advance.

Hardware RPi 5 8gb
IMAGE rpi-5-debian-bookworm-6.12.11-arm64-ext4-2025-01-27-0140 (1).img.xz

On a fresh image install i get failure to start service in the boot.log below is from the journalctl

i formatted and tried again same problem any ideas?Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting zramswap.service - Linux zramswap setup...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit zramswap.service has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: www.debian.org/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit zramswap.service has begun execution.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 119.
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi root[738]: Starting Zram
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi zramswap[738]: <13>Feb 20 14:49:54 root: Starting Zram
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi zramswap[734]: /usr/sbin/zramswap: line 53: echo: write error: Invalid argument
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: zramswap.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: www.debian.org/support
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit zramswap.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 1.
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: zramswap.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: www.debian.org/support
░░
░░ The unit zramswap.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Feb 20 14:49:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Failed to start zramswap.service - Linux zramswap setup.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit zramswap.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: www.debian.org/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit zramswap.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 119 and the job result is failed.

tried this numerous times.
i get so far and then mouse won't work after a reboot. curser won't move and no light on bottom of mouse.
tried a powered usb hub.
any other suggestions?
hugh

You never specified the resolutions of your monitor nor your make\model of monitor so kind of hard to diagnose.

I think your best bet would be to google something along the lines of "RPi4B skewed login screen" if you get asked what operating system on any forums tell them Debian Bookworm with a kernel built from Raspberry Pi kernel sources. If you mention Linuxcnc their heads will explode and tell you to come back here. The thing is this is the first time I can think of this issue has come up on the forum, so not a lot of knowledge.
Whilst we can diagnose some issues others are out of out league, whilst we could offer suggestions we've searched for not having your particular monitor makes it a bit hit & miss.
The images we provide are just a Raspberry Pi kernel built for realtime plus some binaries need for the RPi, a minimal Debian Desktop install, ie no packages for editing images, playing music, chatting or office stuff, ie packages not essential to controlling a cnc machine. On top of that there is Linuxcnc installed which needs nothing special as it is a debian package, but updated from what you'd find in the Debian repos.
To be perfectly honest these current build method has only been in use since about late 2023. So far we haven't had any major bugs, and your issue seems particular to your site.
So far I've tested both the current Rpi4 & RPi5 images with a small HDMI touch monitor and a 4:3 17" monitor using a HDMI to DVI Monitor, none have shown this behavior.