Problems flashing the Prusa i3 mk3 firmware on Linux

 Well now, I've been churning out a few print over the past couple of weeks, but the Prusa Slicer kindly informed me that there was updated firmware available for the printer. In fact every time I sliced something and transferred it to the printer, it would beep at me saying that there was updated firmware and I had to do an extra click to acknowledge that. It got a bit repetitive so I eventually decided to update the firmware.

And that's when the problems started.

Firstly the printer is not recognised by the system.

There are no identifying entries other than the actual values. So you have to rely on the Prusa Slicer being able to recognise it. All well and good, but when I first plugged it in with the supplied USB cable, I got nothing. Absolutely zilch. I had to go searching to find out that I wasn't alone in this regard. The supplied USB cable was useless. So I unplugged one of the other printers and used that instead. Now it could see it. Time to select the downloaded firmware and update.

Not so fast! I kept getting permission denied. You see, I use Linux as my operating system, and what they don't tell you is that under Linux everything, files and connections etc., is owned by something. The Prusa Slicer I was running as my logged on user (Dragon) whereas the port used to communicate with the printer was owned by the Root group, but more specifically the "dialout" user, and I wasn't allowed to touch it.

Fortunately there are ways around that:

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/ttyACM0

This command (after I entered the root password) adds the ability to read and write to that port by all users. I re-ran the Slicer and now it worked. The update went through without an issue.

However I do seem to be having a slight problem with my prints. There is a definite mis-alignment on the X-axis when printing some items. I suspect that something may be loose, but it isn't the x-belt and extruder assembly. I have yet to figure out exactly what at present, but I'll see how things develop as I print more.