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My GladeVCP panel fails to launch intermittently. The only errors that are found in the report are:
GladeVCP.QTVCP.QT_ISTAT][^[[33mWARNING^[[0m]  INI Parsing Error, No MIN_SPINDLE_0_OVERRIDE Entry in DISPLAY, Using: 0.5 (qt_istat.py:532)
**** GLADE VCP ERROR:    With xml file: crosshair_panel.glade : 'gi.repository.Gtk' object has no attribute 'glade'

and:

crosshair_panel.hal:7: Pin 'crosshair_panel.crosshair-ctl-active' does not exist

The second error is thrown because the panel fails to launch.  The reference to the pin is in my postgui_hal file.

How do I diagnose and repair this issue.

Regards,

Ok, graphical.target is correct. This tells me it is configured to start to graphical, but apparently something is breaking it.

Lets try:
(run this before startx, then let me know what it answered:)
sudo lspci -nnk | grep -A 3 -i vga

maybe also run it again in a terminal after you ran startx and see if anything changed.

  I'm automating a parallel lathe with a 9-speed gearbox selected manually using two levers, each with 3 positions: lever 1 has positions A, B, and C, and lever 2 has positions D, E, and F. The possible combinations are as follows:   Direction changes are achieved by activating two electromagnetic clutches.This gives me the following truth table: I'm using the gearchange component for up to 32 speeds created by Andy Pugh, which can be used in this case. The first problem I encountered was creating the logic to detect these combinations, as I needed to detect the positions of the 6 switches I'm going to install to control the lever positions. Of the 6 bits, two will always be true. The component I found and was able to use was LUT5, but the problem is that it's only valid for 5 bits, and there are 3 combinations where bit 5 is one. Therefore, for these 3 combinations, in addition to LUT5, I had to use an additional AND2 gate to detect them.I read on the forum that for some automatic gear shifters, like the Maho MH400E, they created a component with an array that detects each gear by the switch positions.I also used the generic mux component to identify which gear was selected using a number between 1 and 9. Since it's 9 bits, it gave me a combination of 512, of which I only used 9 so that the mux output was a number between 1 and 9.I don't know if there's another way to detect the switch combination for the two levers.I've attached my HAL file to detect each lever position so I can send the correct speed to the VFD.

Hi Bari,

I came across your February discussion about Xenomai 4 and LinuxCNC and just wanted to provide a quick update, especially regarding Mesa.

In the meantime, Hannes has implemented Xenomai 4 / EVL support in LinuxCNC, as well as OOB networking for Mesa HostMot2. PR #4199 was merged into master on August 5, 2026.

More information here:

forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...core?start=10#348629

So the question of Mesa support that you mentioned back then seems to have been resolved now.

One option is to run LinuxCNC in a virtual machine on your Windows PC. You can use the simulator (SIM) configuration, so you don't need any actual CNC hardware. This gives you the same G-code preview as in LinuxCNC, including things like G83 peck drilling and the individual pecking steps.

Basically just run LinuxCNC in a VM in simulation mode.

Hi cgy,I came across your old discussion about Xenomai 4 / EVL and LinuxCNC and thought you might be interested in how things have progressed since then.Using Hannes'repository, I managed to get the complete Xenomai 4/EVL + LinuxCNC stack running: github.com/hdiethelm/xenomai4-linuxcnc LinuxCNC actually reports:So this is not just an experiment or a build that happens to work — I have it running on my actual machine.Hannes is getting really impressive results, especially with an Intel I350. I bought an I350 recently and I'm still tuning it, so my results are not nearly as good yet. But things are moving in the right direction.My current results and histograms are here: github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/4087 Another important development is Hannes' PR #4199: github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/4199 It addresses Xenomai 4 EVL OOB networking for Mesa HostMot2 and was merged into LinuxCNC master on August 5, 2026.So, just a quick update after all these years: Xenomai 4 + EVL + LinuxCNC really does work now, and it can be used with a Mesa card. ?Hannes has done a tremendous amount of work preparing the Xenomai 4 environment and integrating the necessary support into LinuxCNC.

No worries Greg. I have not used Qelectrotech before but for my wiring diagrams I use old school 2d AutoCAD. I looked at Qelectrotech and it looks good. I have used TinkerCAD and CircuitLab for some university courses I have been studying and they work ok, but I am sure you could do some good drawings with Qelectrotech.

Right, and up there is also the value of 7.3728 inches. But one thing does stand out to me... the distance to the tabletop remains virtually constant when I move along the X and Y axes.

This was without j2 and j3 +- 5.49
J2 upper arm J3 lower arm.

J5 5. Deg offset:

youtube.com/shorts/0iBH6llVtzk?is=Uy8PDOtG_uMjC4hk

You are very welcome!

you calculate a different arm length for upper arm.. i got a drawing where the 0.75" are not realy present.

Note though that the line from center to center is not parallel to the underside of the upper arm, so there is also a vertical offset when the arm is horizontal. But, yes, the center distance is given here as 8" so you might want to check that on the actual arm and adjust the A2 value accordingly.

Thanks Heaps Stefan and Rod I just received the THCads and am about to draw up my Transition drawings from masso to linuxcnc.
Have either of you used Qelectrotech for drawing before as I am about to give it a go. Supposedly there are libraries for Mesa boards available.

1. I will try other pins.( tests on both the ICEBreakerV1.0e and Tana Nano9k yielded the same results)
2. I will set an inverter/modifier to the step pin
3. Pulse_LEN => 10us and Dir_Delay => 25us
4. There is a 74HC245 on the breadboard.

I have used many DM542 stepper motor drivers (see the photo above), and  no problems when using GRBL and 7i92.

   

I do not use Debian, except on some industrial machines.
I use Mint Mate,
-and no i do not use it because it is similar to windows (someone here wrote that a while back),
-and no i do not use it because it looks better (been told several times on youtube) as i rarely see it - i have everything i use start at boot, so i never see the desktop,
-and no i will not use Debian as long as they do not fix the "repository self destruction",
-
I use it for a very simple and very important reason: It just works, and never fails.

With a new dual NIC PCIe intel 350 CPÜ intel i5 6 cores
I test this file to isolate some cpu tasks . Please have a look on it, make you comments please

this script acts as a fail-safe backup. It sweeps up the parent application threads, locks them to Core 3, and ensures that the human-machine interface (HMI/GUI) stays back on Cores 0–2 so it cannot starve the machine loop of processor time.
Automation Script
Open or make a script file (sudo nano /usr/local/bin/linuxcnc-rt-tune.sh)
#!/bin/bash
### ========================================================================
### LinuxCNC Real-Time Optimization Script (6 Threads, 3 Isolated Cores)
### Core Mapping: Core 3 (LinuxCNC), Core 4 (EtherCAT IRQs), Core 5 (Mesa IRQs)
### ========================================================================

# 1. Wait for network interfaces to fully come online
sleep 5

# 2. Bind EtherCAT Port Interrupts (Port 1: enp1s0f0) to Core 4 (Hex Mask 10)
for irq in $(cat /proc/interrupts | grep "enp1s0f0" | awk '{print $1}' | tr -d ':'); do
echo "Routing EtherCAT IRQ $irq to Core 4"
echo 10 > /proc/irq/$irq/smp_affinity 2>/dev/null
done

# 3. Bind Mesa Port Interrupts (Port 2: enp1s0f1) to Core 5 (Hex Mask 20)
for irq in $(cat /proc/interrupts | grep "enp1s0f1" | awk '{print $1}' | tr -d ':'); do
echo "Routing Mesa IRQ $irq to Core 5"
echo 20 > /proc/irq/$irq/smp_affinity 2>/dev/null
done

# 4. Wait for EtherCAT Master Daemon to launch, then pin it to Core 5 (Hex Mask 20)
for i in {1..30}; do
ETH_PID=$(pgrep ethercat)
if [ ! -z "$ETH_PID" ]; then
echo "Found EtherCAT Master (PID: $ETH_PID). Tasksetting to Core 5."
taskset -p 20 $ETH_PID
break
fi
sleep 1
done

# 5. Continuous Loop: Safely lock any running LinuxCNC instances to Core 3 (Hex Mask 08)
# This loops indefinitely in the background to catch LinuxCNC whenever it is started by the user.
echo "Starting continuous background monitor for LinuxCNC instances..."
while true; do
# Find the process ID for the real-time interaction layer (linuxcnc or rtapi)
LCNC_PID=$(pgrep -f "rtapi_app" || pgrep -f "linuxcnc")

if [ ! -z "$LCNC_PID" ]; then
# Check if it is already pinned to Core 3 to minimize CPU usage of this script
CURRENT_AFFINITY=$(taskset -p $LCNC_PID | awk '{print $NF}')
if [ "$CURRENT_AFFINITY" != "08" ] && [ "$CURRENT_AFFINITY" != "8" ]; then
echo "LinuxCNC instance detected (PID: $LCNC_PID). Locking safely to Core 3."
taskset -p 08 $LCNC_PID >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
fi
# Sleep for 5 seconds between checks to keep system overhead near zero
sleep 5
done

exit 0

Because we added an infinite loop to the end of the script to monitor for LinuxCNC starting up at any time, we need to change the systemd service type from oneshot to simple. This ensures systemd knows the script is intentionally running in the background.
• Open the service file:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/linuxcnc-rt-tune.service
• Update the contents to match this configuration:
[Unit]
Description=LinuxCNC EtherCAT and Mesa CPU Thread Affinity Tuner
After=network.target ethercat.service
Wants=ethercat.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/linuxcnc-rt-tune.sh
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
• Save and exit the file, then apply the changes and restart the background tuner:
• sudo systemctl daemon-reload
• sudo systemctl restart linuxcnc-rt-tune.service

.hal fiel
And adding cpu_affinity=3 into your .hal file tells the internal motion controller what to do
loadrt motmod servo_period_nsec=1000000 cpu_affinity=3
addf motion-command-handler servo-thread
addf motion-controller servo-thread

and delate any: loadrt base-thread ( this is not need any more and takes more pc resources )

that is what everyone gas been telling me (the part about home_ignore_limits). that other line i dont understand because i am not a HAL programmer. but there is probly several ways to accomplish this. if your one line per axis accomplishes the same thing, it is certainly more elegant and efficient.

the problem, which is really just an annoyance, is that even though ignor_limits is set to yes, when the axis is homing and touches the switch, it flashes the hard limits tripped error on the status bar for several seconds (At least on my machine it does, apparently im the only one). it doesnt actually stop the machine though, so the logic is properly ignoring the limit switch. I just wanted to cleanup the screen a bit, try and learn some HAL, and yeah even try out this AI thing since ive never been a big fan. its actually kind of cool.

oh, one more thing, i'm using QtDragon

wow.. it works... now i understand my failure with the signs...

interesting part:

you calculate a different arm length for upper arm.. i got a drawing where the 0.75" are not realy present.

but yes its first time the moves are correct. thats so nice... i was fighting with the right hand rule and know i understand my failure... the rotations arround the X axis are not correct.. and thats why i have the TCP upside down.. and the signs for the d3 and d5....

now i am near to get the real ratios... issue are the encapsulated gearboxes.. my solution... add a second encoder to the outputshaft and work with the index signals of the encoder on the motor to get a start and end point for counting but the mesuring with the incinometer was a good starter.

aciara!!! thank you...!!!!!!!! nice lesson!