No success at installing linuxcnc on RPi 4

[biker67]

The following declaration:
The "-rt" branch has been assembled in such a way that mainline Linux commits and downstream RPi patches all appear without modification (using Git "merge" commits), and the RT patches are modified ("rebased") to apply on top of them. We aim to only add new commits on top of the existing ones - we won't rewrite history, there is no going back - so only the differences between patch sets will appear with each release. ]

The "-rt" branches will by necessity lag behind the non-rt branches, and this whole exercise is an experiment. In particular, we have no plans to switch our kernel builds to use PREEMPT_RT or to ship them as alternative kernels.

Articles about the PREEMPT_RT kernel tend to be very technical, but this Arch Linux page is more readable than most.

Tends to sum up the difficulty in finding understandable instructions to install Linuxcnc on RPI of any species.
I have tried several ISO's that will not boot, Several X32 & X64 versions of Debian followed by a "build" that usually ends in file not found.
Why can't the working version of Linuxcnc on a RPi 4 be duplicated with SD card copier and shared with the less fortunate. It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're working with chicken droppings for more than a year.

[ame]

The following declaration:
The "-rt" branch has been assembled in such a way that mainline Linux commits and downstream RPi patches all appear without modification (using Git "merge" commits), and the RT patches are modified ("rebased") to apply on top of them. We aim to only add new commits on top of the existing ones - we won't rewrite history, there is no going back - so only the differences between patch sets will appear with each release. ]

The "-rt" branches will by necessity lag behind the non-rt branches, and this whole exercise is an experiment. In particular, we have no plans to switch our kernel builds to use PREEMPT_RT or to ship them as alternative kernels.

Articles about the PREEMPT_RT kernel tend to be very technical, but this Arch Linux page is more readable than most.

Tends to sum up the difficulty in finding understandable instructions to install Linuxcnc on RPI of any species.
I have tried several ISO's that will not boot, Several X32 & X64 versions of Debian followed by a "build" that usually ends in file not found.
Why can't the working version of Linuxcnc on a RPi 4 be duplicated with SD card copier and shared with the less fortunate. It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're working with chicken droppings for more than a year.

Which instructions were you following?

This article from July seems fairly up to date:
https://all3dp.com/2/linuxcnc-raspberry-pi-tutorial/

These instructions are also dated July this year:
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/getting-s ... uxcnc.html

Just out of curiosity, is bCNC on the Pi in conjunction with grbl on an Arduino no good for your application?

[Gavinmc42]

LinuxCNC on Bullseye misses out on the improved GPU/Mesa drivers.
I did try LinuxCNC on a Pi3 years ago and it sort of worked.

The big advantage of Bookworm is more of the Pi hardware drivers are now mainstream.

If the Kernel needs recompiling then that is next level expert capability , usually comes with a T-Shirt.
"It has been 0 days since Kernel Compiling"
Get it in Red to hide the blood from the Bleeding Edge methods needed too do this.

Hmm, looks like LinuxCNC is Buster only.
https://www.linuxcnc.org/downloads/
Raspberry uspace version?

I would say the best forum to ask questions is the LinuxCNC forum.
Hmm, follow this post
https://forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing ... -pi-4b-400
Only 3 days old so it is pretty current
Downloading now, will find spare uSD and try in out

[Gavinmc42]

Looks like I got a Debian 12 Bookworm with LXDE desktop OS.
I tried the usual user/passwd logins but none of those worked

Boot of my normal OS and reading the uSD card there is a cnc folder in the home folder, so maybe the user name is cnc?
Reading the build notes, maybe the password is toor.
BRB.

Edit - user - cnc, password cnc

Now have a brand new Bookworm OS with LinuxCNC
Lots more to learn
It will be cool if I can use a gamepad to control my 3018.
Does LinuxCNC know about grbl?

[redvli]

The "-rt" branches will by necessity lag behind the non-rt branches, and this whole exercise is an experiment. In particular, we have no plans to switch our kernel builds to use PREEMPT_RT or to ship them as alternative kernels.

For certain things/software, RPiOS is behind the normal stable Linux stuff already available for months. You should use stable Debian, that has various kernel flavors available out of the box. The RPi kernels are both stripped and patched tailored for certain use-cases, not necessary yours. I have no experience with linuxcnc, but if I read: https://linuxcnc.org/2022/03/03/LinuxCNC-in-Debian/, I would not waste my time on adapting RPiOS into something newer that can also be achieved out-of-the-box. It is not an RPi1 with 256MB. RPI4 is great for generic aarch64 Linux, if you want to experiment, use Debian Testing aarch64, you get a very recent kernel (6.4 currently) that includes also the various PI specifics things if you would need them. 'no plans' is maybe the reason you got stuck, make plans, otherwise others will do for you and take over.

[Gavinmc42]

If you follow that LinuxCNC forum post it leads to two Debian 12 Bookworm imgs that have LinuxCNC on them.

Code: Select all

Linux raspberrypi 6.1.54-rt15 #1 SMP PREEMPT_RT Wed Sep 20 20:36:44 AEST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

I know LinuxCNC on Pi's have the gpiod daemon so that probably means GPIO pins for step/dir/en etc.
Hardware interfacing on Pi's has more options than just bCNC'S grbl.

Basically this is a very up to date OS now.

Edit - Soon to be even more up to date with kernel 6.5?
https://forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing ... ?start=330