After what has been far too long, I am please to announce a new official release of the Machinekit image for the BeagleBone. The release of the RevC BeagleBone Black with it's 4GB eMMC and switch to Debian makes the BeagleBone an even better choice for machine control!
There are lots of significant changes with this release, so I recommend everyone using Machinekit updates when practical. The biggest change is the switch from my "enhanced" version of Robert Nelson's minimal Debian build to generating images based on the official BeagleBone Debian. That means all the BeagleBone specific features like node.js, USB networking, etc. should work just like they would on a factory BeagleBone. Of course there are a LOT of changes included with this, like switching from xfce to lxde, changing from sysvinit to systemd, and many others. On the plus side, the Machinekit images are now very similar to the shipping BeagleBone release, so it should be easier to find documentation and ask for help.
The other really big change is a switch from LinuxCNC to the Machinekit project. Machinekit enables LinuxCNC's real-time core to operate on a wide variety of platforms, making it possible to run on the BeagleBone. I had been hoping the required real-time changes would become part of mainline LinuxCNC (and they still might), but they have been passed over for the upcoming 2.6 release.
If you are lucky enough to have a BeagleBone RevC, there is an (untested) eMMC flasher image available as well. If you would like a tested and verified working eMMC flasher image, feel free to FedEx me your RevC 'Bone! Otherwise, you'll have to wait until one of the two I've ordered actually arrives for me to test. ;-)
Just awesome! Love watching your work and hope to put it together at about project 6 or 7:-)
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