LinuxCNC / News: Recent posts

You are invited to a small LinuxCNC and free software fabrication
workshop/gathering in Norway this summer, over the weekend starting June 26th,

1. As last year, the gathering maintain a slightly broader scope and
   welcome people outside the LinuxCNC community. It is organised as an
   unconference, where participants create the program upon arrival.

The location is a metal workshop 15 minutes’ drive from Gardermoen airport
(OSL), with plenty of space and a hotel just 5 minutes away by car. We plan
to fire up the barbecue in the evenings. Please let us know if you would like
to join. We track the list of participants on a simple pad for food capacity
planning. Please add yourself to the
pad if you are interested in
showing up, and join the Signal group.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.8 has been released.

This is a minor update release, mainly of interest to those using the
hal_gpio HAL driver (mainly Pi users)

Changelog:

• backport #3516 to fix #3679
• Only initialize python if not yet initialized.
• hal_gpio: Adapt to use libgpiod3 or libgpiod2 according to what is installed
• Merge pull request #3671 from smoe/docs_image_handling
• core-components.adoc remove duplicate descriptions
• Merge pull request #3642 from LinuxCNC/2.9_#2460
• Update LinuxCNC RTAI Install instructions
• Merge pull request #3555 from smoe/lintian_warnings
• Merge pull request #3588 from f355/2.9
• [ci] publish releases with artifacts
• debian: Addressed lintian warnings
• axis.py: restore mdi queuing provision #2460... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.7 has been released.

This is another bug-fix release to fix an unexpected interaction in a previous
bugfix. (In this case the driver for the popular XHC pendants was
incompatible with changes made to HALUI pin creation)

In addition changes to the CI (continuous integration) in Github mean that
the install debs will be available from the LinuxCNC Github repository under
the “releases tab”... read more

There will be a meeting of LinuxCNC developers, users, and enthusiasts in
Stuttgart, Germany, during the weekend from Friday October 31th to Sunday
November 2th 2025.

This will be a pretty informal meeting, there is no registration, no entrance
fee, no badges, no speakers, and no set agenda. It is a chance for people
interested in LinuxCNC to meet each other, show off their projects, and talk
about issues, fears, hopes, and dreams.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.6 has been released.

This is a bug-fix release. Shortly after the release of 2.9.5 it was noticed
that a fix for a graphics bug in Gmoccapy had resulted in the Axis touch-off
dialog box no-longer working for non-zero entries.

This update is for all users, but especially users of the Axis GUI.

Packages for 2.9-uspace for amd64 (PC) for Debian Buster, Bullseye, Bookworm
and Trixie and for arm64 (Raspberry Pi 4/5) for Buster and Bookworm have
been added to the linuxcnc repository. If you installed from one of our live
images or Pi SD-card images then the update should be available immediately.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.5 has been released.

This is mainly a bugfix release, but includes a new modbus driver for the Mesa
UART (update/replacement for mesa_modbus with more flexibility and
configurability)

Packages for 2.9-uspace for amd64 (PC) for Debian Buster, Bullseye, Bookworm
and Trixie and for arm64 (Raspberry Pi 4/5) for Buster and Bookworm have
been added to the linuxcnc repository. If you installed from one of our live
images or Pi SD-card images then the update should be available immediately.... read more

We just completed a LinuxCNC-intense weekend, kindly hosted by Petter in his
shop near the Oslo airport and also kindly sponsored by NUUG
Foundation and Redpill-
Linpro. Petter’s shop is quite a
mechanic’s resort.

(If you are upset to have missed it, then it is very likely that the event
will be repeated next year at around the same time)... read more

Mentioned on the LinuxCNC Discord, a very small LinuxCNC robot designed for
soldering PCBs.

link

LinuxCNC 2.9.4 has been released.

This bugfix and enhancement release. Highlights include:

• Backport the hm2_spix driver for Raspberry Pi 3, 4 and 5 to the 2.9 branch.
• Fixes for issues #2482, #2939, #2939
• Gmoccapy: many updates (see the full changelog below)
• Follow symlinks in config dir
• Fixes to allow 2.9 to compile in Debain Sid
• Add clearer info on ini entries containing lowercase chars
• Quite a lot of typos in the docs.
• Backport fix hm2_spi driver. This was discovered in master and fixed in PR #3225.
• qtvcp -cam align panel: fix setting x and y scaling
• docs: improve “HAL Component Generator” doc page (halcompile)
• Remove remaining use of deprecated distutils. Addresses #1080668
• QTVCP: Several updates
• gscreen: several updates
• Merge pull request #3083 from hansu/gtk-sourceview-4-migration
• qtplasmac: fix file load after single cut
• Merge pull request #3049 from mark-v-d/2.9
• Added new man pages to debian/linuxcnc.install.in.
• fix restoring of locale setting in interp
• Merge pull request #3035 from sensille/litehm2-2.9
• Allow uniq_id to be used to select hal_input devices. (#3015)... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.3 has been released.

This is a bugfix release. Highlights include:

• Fix unintended move when using G42 for G70.
• Pass generated component man pages through preconv for UTF-8 support.
• Make it easier to figure out where the current G43 values are stored.
• QtVCP - Many updates
• Gmoccapy - Many updates
• QtPlasmac - Many updates
• QtDragon - Many updates

Packages have been prepared for:... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.2 has been released.

This is a bugfix release, with the most obvious change being that run-from-
line in the Axis interface should now be working again.

Packages have been prepared for:

Buster - uspace - amd64 (PC) armhf (Pi) arm64 (Pi with 64-bit kernels)

Buster - RTAI - amd64

Bullseye - uspace - ams64 (only)

Bookworm - uspace - amd64, arm64

Bookworm - RTAI - amd64

For existing users of 2.9.1 on the above platforms this should be offered as
an automatic update.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.9.1 has been released

(there was no 2.9.0 release)

This marks a major new release of LinuxCNC.

Due to the difficulty of supporting both Python3 and Python2 and various out-
of-date libraries the 2.9 release of LinuxCNC is only supported in Debian
Buster or later, Ubuntu Focal and later and Rasbian 12 and later. Furthermore
we are no longer building any 32-bit versions of any packages.... read more

There will be a meeting of LinuxCNC developers, users, and enthusiasts in
Stuttgart, Germany, during the weekend from Friday October 6th to Sunday
October 8th 2023.

This will be a pretty informal meeting, there is no registration, no entrance
fee, no badges, no speakers, and no set agenda. It is a chance for people
interested in LinuxCNC to meet each other, show off their projects, and talk
about issues, fears, hopes, and dreams.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.8.4 has been released.

This release, unusually soon after the 2.8.3 release, is mainly to address a
side effect of the ongoing chip shortage. It has become difficult to build
most of the popular Mesa hardware interface cards. One card that is reasonably
available, the 7i96S is not supported by LinuxCNC 2.8.3. This release adds
support for the 7i96S to the 2.8 branch.

We also welcome a new language to the translations, a Czech translation is now
available for Gmoccappy.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.8.3 has been released.

This is, again, mainly a bugfix release, but includes a new GUI
(“Craftsman”)built on Glade.

All users are encouraged to update.

A new ISO is likely to follow in time, but this should be an automatic update
for most installed 2.8 systems.

Note that at the moment there is no kernel-space RTAI (2.8.3-rt) package for
Buster. It is likely that a 2.8-rt package will be made available in a few
days, but it is possible to run linuxcnc-uspace on an RTAI kernel if the
additional package linuxcnc-uspace-rtai is installed.... read more

After many months of work by Petter, Jérémie, Steffen and Hans the LinuxCNC
documentation has been restructured into a format that can be cloud-translated
by Weblate.

This allows anyone to translate the docs from English into another language
that they also speak.

You can help!

https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/linuxcnc/linuxcnc-docs/

link

After many months of work by Petter, Jérémie, Steffen and Hans the LinuxCNC
documetation has been restructured into a format that can be cloud-tramslated
by Weblate.

This allows anyone to translate the docs from English into another language
that they also speak.

You can help!

https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/linuxcnc/linuxcnc-docs/

link

Spotted on Hackaday, a packing robot for Raspberry Pis controlled by LinuxCNC
running on a Raspberry Pi.
The blog post gives quite a detailed description of how the system is
controlled using a mixture of Ruby scripting and the linuxcncrsh remote
control interface.

Blog Post
linuxcncrsh
interface. (linuxcnc.org) ... read more

Spotted on YouTube, LinuxCNC integrator Halász Attila has retrofitted a
sizeable Heckler and Koch BA25 machining centre. The tool changer looks to
have been very neatly integrated.

YouTube Link

link

LinuxCNC has been accepted into the main Debian
distribution. This means it is
now possible to install a fully functioning LinuxCNC system, including a
Preempt-RT realtime kernel
suitable for running real hardware, entirely from official Debian package
repositories.

This is a huge milestone and I’m very grateful to Steffen Möller and Petter
Reinholdtsen from the Debian project for joining us and providing extensive
help and support in this effort.... read more

LinuxCNC 2.8.2 has been released.

This is mainly a bugfix release, though it also adds a new HAL component
(“sendkeys”) for creating input device events from HAL pins.

All users are encouraged to update.

In addition there is a new RTAI kernel based on 4.19.195. This comes with a
new version of RTAI 5.3. Both should be automatically installed with the
2.8.2-rt version of LinuxCNC. If you are using the ISO install or know that
you are running the preempt-rt kernel this need not concern you.... read more

Following the example of many prominent projects including
Centos, Fedora, FreeBSD,
Gentoo,
Wikipedia, and
Ubuntu,
the LinuxCNC project is shifting its primary real-time chat presence to the
new Libera.chat IRC service. See the community
page for information on how to connect,
including directly in your web browser.... read more

Recently mentioned on the forum is a bioprinting BCN3D Moveo robot controlled
by LinuxCNC. The hope is that one day a similar system could print replacement
body-parts in-situ.

Forum Link

link

Skunkworks has been experimenting with axis offsets calculated from spindle
position to bore holes of various shapes using a single-point tool.

Forum Link

link

LinuxCNC 2.8.1 has been released.

The full changelog:

• Docs: Updated Chinese “Getting Started”
• plasmac: fix conversational path error
• hostmot2: Add support for Mesa 7i95, 7i97 and 7c80
• qtvcp -qtdragon: updates
• plasmac: Bugfixes
• qtvcp -many updates
• Forgot to add source file to Makefile
• Fix for pre-c99 compilers
• hm2_rpspi: remove and reinstate the kernel spi driver at startup/shutdown
• plasmac: Don’t pierce spotting operations and many other updates
• carousel: changed pocket_number to mod_pocket in direction logic
• motion.9 motion.feed-inhibit gcode only (not jogs)
• command.c for consistency, allow jogs if feedhold
• control.c joint jogs inhibition if feedhold
• userkins.comp (new) userkins using halcompile
• gs2_vfd: Fixes how many registers that is written to Closes #506
• Update internal names after file renaming in 2004 Closes #922
• Fix gpio and pin relationship on rpi2 and later Closes #955
• qtvcp -update camview
• pncconf -allow different home switch offsets on tandem axes
• added hal pin to allow preview refresh
• pncconf -raise spinbox limits in tune test
• pncconf -fix PID maxerror setting in the tune test for metric machines
• Docs: Pi links should be http not https
• Docs: Add links to the Raspberry Pi SD card image to the install docs
• dbounce.comp (new) alternative debounce component
• docs: plasmac user guide update... read more