When will we see the OrcaSlicer fork for the M1D made public? This is pretty important to me, since as a Fedora Linux user, I almost always have to do my own builds of Orca.
I’d like to be able to test building it now, to be sure there won’t be any issues.
Would it be possible to provide the answer?
Most likely the 1st day the printers start shipping…sometime in November.
We will launch the sovol slicer of Linux version based on Orca. But it takes some time to realse it.
@sovol3d The question was not when you would release a Linux version. The question is when you would publish the source code, which you are absolutely required to do by the license.
I cannot afford to have a printer sitting around that I cannot use. If you are going to drag heels on this, I will need to consider retracting my reservation.
Going to voice one more concern.
Sovol is good about using open source, and publishing their open source forks. What Sovol is very bad about is merging those forks back into mainstream or periodically merging mainstream into their forks to keep them up to date.
Up to now, this has primarily been changes to Klipper. And while not having updates to Klipper is less than ideal, it’s generally not a major issue. But this time, they’re also making changes to OrcaSlicer. Unlike Klipper, OrcaSlicer sees frequent, significant changes and improvements. If those changes don’t get merged back, we could end up with and out-of-date slicer within a short timeframe. Without being able to see the fork they’re using, we don’t even know what version of Orca it’s forked from 2.4? 2.3? possibly even 2.2?
It’s now 4 days to Kickstarter close. I’m stuck with deciding if I’m going to back out, or hope that I don’t end up with a very large paperweight.
From past printers…
they will use an old version of Orca, but usually withing 30-60 days it will find it’s way into the main Orca slicer. So you will have to use the fork in the beginning…JMO
This is fine, as long as it makes its way back into the mainline in a reasonable time. Under 6 months is good, 6-9 months is adequate.
Just watched GerGO’s latest review. The quick view of the fully-branded “Sovol Slicer” tells me that Sovol doesn’t really have any strong intentions on merging this back into the main OrcaSlicer. It’s possible, and even likely that someone else will eventually do the merge back, but that will likely be several months down the road if not longer.
Given that I cannot verify this will compile/run under Linux, and I don’t own a computer with any other OS, I’m pretty much resigned to cancelling my reservation. I really like this printer design, but it’s useless to me if I can’t actually operate it.
I may eventually buy an M1D later, but not until I can actually compile/run the slicer on my Linux workstations.
Sorry for the late reply. We will release the source code after the machines arrive. The slicer you see currently being used by the creator is based on Orca 2.3.2. We will upgrade to version 2.4 once the slicing software is more refined and stable.
Regretfully, I have cancelled my Kickstarter reservation this morning.
I realize I am a tiny fraction of the target user-base in that I run a Linux-only environment. So, likely, Sovol really doesn’t care. But I cannot risk potentially tying up $2K on the chance that I may not be able to use the printer for an extended period.
I still really want an M1D, but I will wait until Sovol publishes their fork, so I can verify compatibility for myself before committing. It would have taken Sovol no more than an hour to validate the build themselves, but…
I also am a Linux-only user, but I’m also confident it will work one way or another. Worst case I run the Windows exe using some variation of wine or proton.
This will be my first Sovol but I also have Bambu (never again) and Creality printers. Please, merge changes back into mainstream Orca so I don’t have to use multiple slicers.