LinuxCNC on Debian 10 Buster quick and easy install

I really wanted this to be "quick and easy" but so far it hasn't been. By way of background I've worked with computers for over 30 years and done many support roles as well as recently writing Linux training materials for a major online training organization. I am more than happy to volunteer with improving the documentation for LinuxCNC since I'm a hobby machinist who's recently built a CNC mill from scratch and have worked with Linux since the 1990's.

This is what I get when following the directions in this post.

[john@LinuxCNCTEST:~$ sudo apt install gdebi linux-headers-4.19.0-8-common-rt linux-headers-4.19.0-8-rt linux-image-4.19.0-8-rt-amd64
sudo: apt: command not found
john@LinuxCNCTEST:~$ sudo apt-get install gdebi linux-headers-4.19.0-8-common-rt linux-headers-4.19.0-8-rt linux-image-4.19.0-8-rt-amd64
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package gdebi is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'gdebi' has no installation candidate
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-4.19.0-8-common-rt
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.19.0-8-common-rt'
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-4.19.0-8-rt
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.19.0-8-rt'
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-4.19.0-8-rt-amd64
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-image-4.19.0-8-rt-amd64'
john@LinuxCNCTEST:~$ ]

Thanks you for fixing the links, I was able to download the buildbot files but I still get stuck at the next step. As you can see I fixed the command but then the package isn't found. I have tried several work arounds already but if the goal is for this to be "quick and easy" for an average user I think people will still be frustrated.

BTW, I already have LinuxCNC running on my machine with a parallel port card but am now trying to upgrade to a Mesa 7i96 Ethernet controller card.

I want you to know I really do appreciate all the work you put in here and understand that the opensource world is made up largely of volunteers. Please feel free to contact me if I can be any help improving documentation, I am available and ready to chip in.

Thanks,

John

Did you do
sudo apt-get update ?

Yes

OK, leme give it another try and report back.
Be as it may, i might remove this topic alltogether, Debian still has some issues i really do not like and they keep dragging from release to release, hell that was the reason i moved to Mint after Ubuntu 11.04 made a mess of everything.

Thanks,

I could use Mint if that's better, it really does seem like an issue with Debian rather than LinuxCNC. I just want something that will update and take the 7i96 drivers. Have been very happy with my current system, I just want to be able to use this controller.

john

I just did a full install by copy/paste way of things and it worked perfectly, save for a minor issue, there were two L in one of the linuxcnc-uspace filenames left after editing the links.
Thank you guys for reporting this, i was not even aware that debian changed to 10.4 till someone mentioned it here.
Since i am not using debian for another year or two, i will leave this topic active till further notice.
Personally, if i check the box for "automatically login at boot" i want the damn thing to login, it does not, never ever, so it needs lightdm edited and yada yada yada debian....... and other stuff i mention randomly.
Those are the minor things that broke everything for me in debian, and that is for me incomprehensible as it has by far the biggest user and developer base, or it had at one point in time.
Moving on ... to Ubuntu 20.04, so more gray hair as it lacks EVERYTHING regarding Python2 and Glade2, so i had to resort to backports from "eoan", and it worked. Barely!

matthewsx wrote:
[john@LinuxCNCTEST:~$ sudo apt install gdebi .................
sudo: apt: command not found

That is something i have never seen on a Debian or Ubutu or Mint as i always use sudo apt and it always works, it did just now, and it did over 40 times today when installing other things on 4 computers.
Most probably not properly set sudo user and added to sudoers group, or you are running as root.

matthewsx wrote: Thanks,

I could use Mint if that's better, it really does seem like an issue with Debian rather than LinuxCNC. I just want something that will update and take the 7i96 drivers. Have been very happy with my current system, I just want to be able to use this controller.

john

Please do use Mint, it just works, and it works properly for years of everyday use.

Thanks, I haven't checked sudo config on this machine yet but if Mint is better I'll just start over with that.

Appreciate the help....

John

Updated original post :
-ready made script to do everything at once, only requires a singe press of Y
-list of commands to copy/paste in terminal, same as in the script for manually installing everything
-will install the latest Linuxcnc build of 2.9 version
-- it does not get much easier than this.