ethercat-igh

This repository is used to build the IgH EtherCAT Master (including user-space tools and cross-compiled kernel modules), generating Debian packages for robots and other target systems.

Directory Structure

• ethercat/: IgH EtherCAT source code submodule.
• debian/: Debian packaging configurations (control, rules, etc.) and maintainer scripts.

Initialization

Ensure you have initialized and updated the submodule code:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Dependencies

Install the necessary build tools on your host OS:

sudo apt install build-essential debhelper autoconf automake libtool pkg-config

Local & Cross Compilation

For cross-compilation (e.g. for arm64), set the variables in debian/rules or export them before building:

export CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/gcc-arm-.../bin/aarch64-none-linux-gnu-
export KERNEL_SRC=/path/to/orange-pi-kernel-source
export ARCH=arm64

Note: Your kernel source (KERNEL_SRC) must be pre-compiled (i.e. it must have a .config and compiled objects in the source tree), otherwise the kernel modules cannot be successfully built.

Run the Debian build command:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b -aarm64

For native builds (same architecture as host), just run:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b

Artifact Location

The final .deb artifacts will be output to the parent directory (sibling to igh-deb), dynamically bearing the kernel version signifier:

../ethercat-igh_<version>-<kernel_version>_arm64.deb

Installation & Setup

After transferring and installing the .deb package on the target device:

sudo dpkg -i ethercat-igh_*_arm64.deb

The installation includes /lib/systemd/system/ethercat-first-boot.service, which automatically executes depmod -a and resolves module dependencies during the first system boot.

If you need to change your specific network device (default enP3p49s0 or eth0), edit the configuration:

sudo nano /etc/ethercat.conf

And restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart ethercat