LinuxCNC Install using MX Linux 19.4 - Geared Toward New Users - Discussion

Hi Rod,

good to be back a bit. Haven't had much time at the plasma table since getting a fishing boat LOL, but a job came in and I had to read up on how to use it again.

Realised I missed the old girl, and after doing the cut, ripped the PC out to do the MX install. Ha ha, life can't be that simple can it.

I feel sorry for Snowgoer after he's put the effort into writing that tutorial for us, and now it doesn't seem to work like it used to.

I'll give your tutorial a shot tomorrow, got nothing to lose right now.
Thanks very much for that.

This is really making me realise how "fragile" a setup can be with Linuxcnc when you are basically a layperson with Linux. I'm starting to wonder if there's a "safe" way to have a backup. Example, instead of relying on updates, new Python versions, etc and downloading the latest off the web whenever you do a fresh install, can a user store all the install files that are known to work on a storage device and simply re-use them if they want to set up a spare PC years down the track. Is that what a RIP install is. Damn I feel so clueless with Linux.

Hi Snowgoer,

I think the problem is something to do with Qtvcp.
In both MX and Debian installs everything goes OK until it comes to that.

As per Rods suggestion I've just installed Debian Bookworm and am also having issue with it. Axis sims seem to be fine but when I start a Qtplasmac sim, there are screen display issues and after closing Qtplasmac an error box is displayed. I've attached the "linuxcnc.report" file.
 

The main window in Qtplasmac where the part to be cut is shown, I can see the main Debian desktop. If I go to a different window within Qtplasmac, then go back to the main window, the part window shows what was showing in the previous window. Hope that made sense.

As can be seen from that report, the issue seems to start here:
Starting DISPLAY program: qtvcp
Shutting down and cleaning up LinuxCNC...

And further down in the report:
Debug file information:
Can not find -sec DISPLAY -var INTRO_GRAPHIC -num 1 
Can not find -sec DISPLAY -var INTRO_TIME -num 1 

And yes you are right, I do like MX better, it seems easier to get around. I'm only trying the Debian route out of desperation so I can get my plasma table up and running again

Beefy, can you try typing
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/qtvcp/designer/install_script
as mentioned in the qtplasmac docs?
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/plasma/qtplasmac.html#qt-dependency

Hey, I never said I like Debian, I just use it for linuxcnc!

phillc54 wrote:

Are you running Wayland?
If so the package in Bookworm is older than the fixes. As a workaround you can open a terminal and enter export QT_QPA_PLATFORM="xcb" and when that completes run Linuxcnc from the same terminal.

If you followed my instructions you should end up with XFCE which isn't on wayland. If you are uncertain, go back to the logon screen, click in the password field and a gear icon appears at bottom right. Select something like Gnome on xorg or xfce and login. This is discussed in my instructions.

Rod, I entered the command you gave:
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/qtvcp/designer/install_script

and it appeared to have completed that process OK.
However, same problem with Qtplasmac.

So I then checked the gear icon at login and Gnome was selected.
I changed it to your suggested "Gnome on xorg" and then Qtplasmac sim started without the aforementioned screen issues, but when I closed Qtplasmac it give an error box on close again.

So back to that gear icon and changed from "Gnome on xorg" to "Xcfe session".
Again Qtplasmac sim started and appeared OK, with none of the earlier mentioned display issues, but once again when I close Qtplasmac, still getting an error box.
This is the error report: 


No idea if the error message on Qtplasmac close is significant or not.

EDIT !!!!!
Regarding the installation and GUI selection. I remember a graphical window where I think Debian and Gnome where already selected, plus something like "standard accessories".
I've just started re-reading your instructions and realised it said DE-SELECT gnome and Debian. I missed that bit and left them selected, but also selected the Xcfe box.
So a thousand apologies for that.

Awesome, cheers Phil.
So hopefully I can just enter my config and I'll be up and running again.

Rod,
thanks very much for the assistance.
I went away from "Xcfe sesssion" and back to "Gnome on xorg" because the Xcfe session kept the Debian desktop icons at the bottom of the screen when I started Qtplasmac. Those icons then cover info at the bottom of the Qtplasmac screen.

snowgoer540 wrote:

I do think someone recently used this guide though with success.
Are you sure you didn’t miss a step maybe? Or a copy paste error? I’ll report back once I get some time to check it out.

I don't think I stuffed up anywhere. 

When doing "sudo apt upgrade" the install paused asking me whether I want to update grub. I selected "Y" every time, so no idea if I did the correct thing there LOL. 

To avoid typo errors with terminal commands I also went through each of your PDF files, and copied the commands to a text file, so I could copy and paste in the terminal window, seeing as I couldn't copy and paste from the PDF files.