Ethercat installation from repositories - how to step by step

UPDATE: 26 August 2023 do include deb files for the linuxcnc-ethercat driver

Ethercat installation instructions from repositories that are maintained by the IgH Etherlabmaster team

If installing on a new PC, Grab my Linucnc live installler which includes the required third party repositories pre installed.
drive.google.com/file/d/16nprK_5HeURoNGd.../view?usp=drive_link
This will let you install all required software with one line of code and skip most steps that follow
open the spoiler if you wish to do it manually


If you want to build the linuxcnc-ethercat driver yourself, open the spoiler and follow the instructions




Check the NIC you are using for ethercatSave the MAC address of the NIC to be used for ethercat
Update the ethercat config file to use that MAC addressset your Master0 device to your MAC address and device modules to generic. Make these edits
NOte at this stage only the generic driver is available under the 6.1 kernelsave and close geany
Note, we have found in some circumstances ethercat master wants to use the first NIC listed in ip a if multiple NIC's are installed
If you experience problems after installation is complete, swap your network cables around and edit the MAC address in ethercat.conf

Enter these commands to start the ethercat service.Ethercat should be running. If the above command is not found, you have a problem
You can list the slaves if you type


If you are using cia402 compatible drives:so to test its working from Linuxcnc
If you don't have an xml config file yet (preferred), download an ethercat config file of mine from
github.com/rodw-au/linuxcnc-cia402/blob/main/ethercat-conf.xml
in that folder type:You should see this and hopefully a few other pins displayed
To ensure the ethercat port has permissions on startup. Create a udev rule

Add the following:
Save and exit, then type
and reboot your computer.

Without this, on a restart, you always needed to chmod the ethercat port.

Let us know how you get on.
 

It should not be necessary to continue on this thread as the instructions above have been updated in October and November 2022 to include further ammendments.

Checked in March 2023 and confirmed its still working correctly.




A slight update. Sometimes the ethercat master gets confused about the kernel version and looks in the wrong folder.
This can happen if you install preempt_rt or upgrade your copy of Linux to a later version

So we can use uname -r to get the exact kernel running when we install the headers

Install the headers and the ethercat master

One more update to ensure the ethercat port has permissions on startup. Create a udev rule
Add the following:
Save and exit, then type
and reboot your computer.

Without this, on a restart, you always needed to chmod the ethercat port.

In the two steps above where we wget the security key and edit sources.list, you will see we used Debian_10 (which is buster)
For later Debian distros, If you get security issues, replace Debian_10 as follows
For more info review the repo notes (click on show more):
build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:bon...hes:science:EtherLab

 

Hello.
Tell me, is there a description of the rules for compiling an xml file or a schema? Intuitively, of course, it is clear what data is described in xml. But if there is a scheme, this would help to avoid mistakes in names. It would be nice to know what names are available for description. For example, there is a line in xml <dcConf assignActivate="300" sync0Cycle="*1" sync0Shift="0"/> 
Probably dcConf is Distributed Clocks, very similar. It would be nice if didn't have to guess.

For me, this topic is new, maybe I do not know the obvious things. Please be understanding.

Regards, Dmitry

hello!!

EtherCAT installation is in progress using LinuxCNC 2.8.2 Debian 10 Buster PREEMPT-RT ISO provided on LinuxCNC official website.

EtherCAT was installed by referring to the well described installation process.

After that, the systemctl start ethercat.service command was executed, but an error occurred.

If execute the sudo systemctl status ethercat.service command, the following error message is displayed.

● ethercat.service - EtherCAT Master Kernel Modules
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ethercat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2022-07-27 14:08:46 KST; 4min 14s ago
  Process: 2355 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/ethercatctl start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 2355 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jul 27 14:08:46 192 systemd[1]: Starting EtherCAT Master Kernel Modules...
Jul 27 14:08:46 192 ethercatctl[2355]: modprobe: FATAL: Module ec_master not found in directory /lib/modules/4.19.0-17-rt-amd64
Jul 27 14:08:46 192 systemd[1]: ethercat.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 27 14:08:46 192 systemd[1]: ethercat.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jul 27 14:08:46 192 systemd[1]: Failed to start EtherCAT Master Kernel Modules.

Is there any way to solve the following error?

Thank you!!

Did you read this post earlier in this thread?

forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-etherc...-step-by-step#237567

That should fix it.

Rod,

Things have changed in the last year or so... Yesterday was my birthday so I decided to do a full EtherCAT build from scratch. Put on Buster 10, then RIP of LCNC, Started to build the EC-Debianize and then found that the Mercurial servers were not there.... Got confused..

Then looked up that it has migrated to Gitlab.

So, I decided to follow your path and it was seamless, very easy. Put the master on in no time and have slaves recognized. Will build the driver tonight.

Anyway, will be hard not to do a
sudo update-ethercat-config
after adding the hardware address... it's burned in my brain LOL


Robert

Hi Rod,

I followed these instructions several times  and, everything worked perfectly. Tried to install today and I get an error saying that no public key is available. Any idea if something has something changed? This is a fresh install of the Debian buster Linuxcnc iso.

Kind regards,
Dan