can i do small test moves from skeleton machine?

BETLOG

Should I be able to make small movements on the nema motors after flashing with a fairly generic config? Or is there some kind of safety constraint that entirely prevents motor movement until a home is done, or some other requirement?
I'm setting up a new machine, and only testing things one at a time as i plug them in. I cannot make the XY axis move in order to test if i have the right ballpark or now.

Also, in this forum; why does shift-ctrl jump to the start/end of the line instead of the next word? That's incredibly annoying.

Repetier

You can move it, but there are some constraints, e.g. if ALWAYS_CHECK_ENDSTOPS is 1 you need endstops not triggering connected. You can also not move outside print range so assuming home is 0,0,0 you can only go to positive direction and then to negative. Extruders only move when hot or after M302 S1 to allow cold extrusion.

BETLOG

These all look like the usual restraints present in other firmware. Nothing I wasn't expecting, or things I did not set. Which leaves me wondering why I could not make anything move.
With only X and Y nemas plugged in (nothing else aside from 2x12v power and USB), corexy architecture specified, endstops in their default off-unless-homing type behaviour and not even plugged in... i should be able to tell the printhead to move +x 1mm or +y 1mm when connected via repetier host.
And yet I cannot. Strange.

Repetier

Check M119 is showing L and not blocking anything. Check eeprom to contains useful values. Illegal values cal result in not moving. And of course make sure you have good temperatures which I forgot. Also I'm quite sure that this is no problem for xy moves, but better check log output.