Probe Basic deb Install

Warning

Seeing a “Missing key” warning or error when you update? Start here.

Older versions of these instructions installed the wrong signing key. If sudo apt update shows a line like this:

Missing key 50F874571F20C5B0BA225E2F0CDFCCE0388CFA48, which is needed to verify signature.

If you are trying to update and are seeing this warning/error message, the following line will correct the situation by completely removing and reinstalling Probe Basic and its required keyrings cleanly, to resolve the issue going forward.

Please be sure any of your configuration files are backed up before running it – installing rewrites the configs shipped with Probe Basic in ~/linuxcnc/configs/, so any edits you have made to the core Probe Basic shipped configs will be overwritten.

Copy this, paste it into a terminal, and press Enter:

curl -fsSL https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/uninstall.sh | sudo sh && curl -fsSL https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/install.sh | sudo sh && sudo apt install -y python3-probe-basic

Only Probe Basic, QtPyVCP and the packages installed alongside them are affected. When it finishes, sudo apt update will no longer show the “Missing key” message, Probe Basic is installed and up to date – you do not need to follow the steps below – and it will update with new releases cleanly going forward.

Probe Basic .deb Installation Guide for use with Debian Bookworm and LinuxCNC version 2.9 or Later

Important Requirements

  • The Deb file install in this doc page is intended for AMD64 pc installs only, do not try to use for arm64/pi installs.

  • Probe Basic is currently designed for 1920x1080 screen sizes only!

  • Probe Basic requires graphics hardware that supports OpenGL 3.2 and OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) 1.50 or later

  • Probe Basic is tested on xfce4, during install of Debian 12 ISO:

  • DO NOT enter a Root password during installation, leave blank and skip this page.

During installation, this screen below will appear, be sure to uncheck gnome and check xfce as pictured below. No other changes on this page are needed.

../../_images/xfce_check_doc.png

Download the Linux Debian 12 Bookworm ISO Image File

Download from: https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/debian-installer/

Select the Linux Debian 12 Bookworm Netinst CD ISO from the above link. You will need to make a bootable DVD or USB thumb drive depending on how you plan to install. The software below is extremely easy and works flawlessly with Linux Debian OS images:

https://www.balena.io/etcher/?ref=etcher_update

We recommend using a 2-4GB USB drive for quicker flashing.

Installation Steps

  1. Create your flash stick for LinuxCNC and proceed to install and boot the system. (Note: It is advised to have an ethernet cable internet connection during install).

  2. Select the graphical installation option.

  3. Follow the steps on screen to complete installation.

  4. When you reach the Linux Desktop Selection Page, uncheck the GNOME option and check the XFCE4 option.

  5. After installation, open the main terminal and run the following commands:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Installing Probe Basic

Requirements:

  • Debian 12 Bookworm

  • Python 3.11

  • LinuxCNC 2.9 or higher

  • xfce4 desktop environment

  • OpenGL 1.50 or Later graphics support

  • QtPyVCP

  • hiyapyco

Download and Install linuxcnc from deb file:

In a terminal, enter the following lines one at a time and press enter after each:

cd ~

cd Downloads

sudo dpkg -i linuxcnc-uspace_2.9.8_amd64.deb

Once you have installed LinuxCNC, open it and start the axis sim briefly and then shut it down to ensure the installation was successful.

Download the following files:

https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/repo/probe-basic-dev/python3-probe-basic_0.0.0.dev_amd64.deb

https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/repo/qtpyvcp-dev/python3-qtpyvcp_0.0.0.dev_amd64.deb

https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/repo/hiyapyco/python3-hiyapyco_0.5.1-1_all.deb

Installation Commands

Navigate to the download directory, right-click, and select “Open Terminal Here”. Run the following commands:

sudo apt install debhelper-compat dh-python python3-setuptools python3-yaml python3-pyqt5.qtmultimedia python3-pyqt5.qtquick qml-module-qtquick-controls libqt5multimedia5-plugins python3-dev python3-docopt python3-qtpy python3-pyudev python3-psutil python3-markupsafe python3-vtk9 python3-pyqtgraph python3-simpleeval python3-jinja2 python3-deepdiff python3-sqlalchemy qttools5-dev-tools python3-serial

sudo dpkg -i python3-hiyapyco_0.5.1-1_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i python3-qtpyvcp_0.0.0.dev_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i python3-probe-basic_0.0.0.dev_amd64.deb

You should now be able to launch the Probe Basic sim from within the LinuxCNC applications dropdown menu.

Note: When updating/installing the latest .deb files, the Probe Basic sim configuration files will be overwritten. It is strongly recommended to create your machine configuration files with unique names to avoid having them overwritten during updates.

To build your own machine configuration, please follow the Machine Config section of the docs.

Uninstallation

To completely remove QtPyVCP and all VCPs (Probe Basic, TurboNC, MonoKrom), along with the APT repository and its signing key, run:

curl -fsSL https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/uninstall.sh | sudo sh

This works even if apt update is currently failing. It removes only this repository’s packages, sources and keys – other repositories on your machine, and your LinuxCNC configs in ~/linuxcnc/configs/, are left untouched.

To reinstall afterwards:

curl -fsSL https://repository.qtpyvcp.com/install.sh | sudo sh
sudo apt install python3-probe-basic

Probe Basic and QtPyVCP are now fully removed. Your LinuxCNC installation is unaffected.