2.8, Mesa 7i96, uspace and documentation

PCW wrote:

LinuxCNC 2.8 has full driver support for the 7I96

Getting more and more frustrated with the lack of documentation and outdated information.
Made a big investment (for me at least) in a Mesa card, servo drives and a big spindle. I already have a functioning cnc machine with a Chinese parallel bob. It works good and I had fun getting it to work with LinuxCNC.

So now I build a new machine, with ballscrews and flat linear rails. I have again a gantry and want to use the gantry options in 2.8 as I used in the previous machine.
So 2.8 is a must for the new machine, but I also want the Mesa card working in the new machine. So I need a preempt kernel. I tried to find information about the 2.8 version from the repo (master rt) and how to get it working. It does not work, there is no uspace LinuxCNC in the master rt repo.
That information is nowhere to be found, I found out the hard way by trial and error and reinstalling numerous times.

Would be nice if options that are possible with LinuxCNC would be documented. Would attract many more users, especialy now MACH3/4 users are fed up with their supplier.

ps: I am really thankful for people like PCW (and many others) who answer questions and come up with solutions!

replying to myself.......

Found some hidden info, scattered around.

uspace:
use the wheezy iso at www.linuxcnc.org/testing-stretch-rtpreempt/
for uspace follow the instructions at buildbot.linuxcnc.org/
(and yes duh, it should not be master-rt for uspace but master-sim, never made the connection between simulation and uspace)
then install linuxcnc-uspace for the Mesa capable version 0f 2.8 LinuxCNC

Very frustrated but happy it is working now (and yes there is support for the 7i96 in the master-uspace 2.8 version.

I am sorry you had a frustrating time. I am glad you got it working.
Yes linuxcnc has a steep learning curve.
Believe it or not linuxcnc is actually really well documented compared to many other open source projects.
99% of work done in linuxcnc is volunteer work.
maybe later on, you could donate a page of documentation or answer some forum questions, to help other new comers.

Welcome to the community.
Chris M

Same here. It would be nice if the forums weren’t crammed with outdated or outright incorrect instructions. I have fought through 4 consecutive procedures for this that all claim to be correct and I still do not have anything working.

Hi JT,
I’ve followed these instructions carefully, multiple times on an HP 6300 (i7). Links are broken and I am unable to get through the process

Still having issues with 2.8, cant find a repo that will let me download, all the keys are saying "gpg: keyserver receive failed: No name"

Anyone got a easy way to install 2.8 so i can get this 7i96 card working?

thought i had it working on a rebuild kernel and 2.9 linuxcnc, but that was a epic fail, so i'm hoping to try 2.8...

Nevermind, got it working with Debian stretch 9 and the main repo for it. Wish there were better tutorials out there, probably going to make one here soon once everything is up and running. Now onto THcad setup, if it's anything like before, this will be fun..