Installed NI-VISA 4.5 in Ubuntu 9.04

[fahrer]

I installed successfully NI-VISA 4.5 in Ubuntu 9.04 (kernel 2.6.28-13, gcc 4.3.3). Here are the steps i followed. You are welcome to comment, correct, complete... since i am no freak who has deep knowledge of linux systems.

First, nikal and NI-488.2 drivers have to be present on the system

1) Installed nikal1.10b using Vicente Muñoz's howto and with the help of Shawn (Thank you both!)

2) Installed NI-488.2-beta-2.5.1b1 also using Vicente's howto

Here are the steps specific to NI-VISA

3) Mount the .iso image downloaded from NI site:

#sudo mount -o loop NI-VISA-4.5.0.iso /mnt

4) It did not help to call the installation script like this

#sudo ./INSTALL --nodeps

as it worked sometimes previosly with some NI software. Thus, i had to do some hand-work:

5) Copy the files from /mnt to somewhere and unzip the contained archive

#tar -xvzf nivisa-4.5.0f0.tar.gz

6) Now, some rpm files have to be installed with brute force. I don't know, if it is really necessary like this, but anyhow, it worked.

#sudo rpm -i --nodeps nimdnsresponder-1.1.0-f2.i386.rpm
#sudo rpm -i --force --nodeps nivisa-4.5.0-f0.i386.rpm

7) Afterwards, i updated the library configuration to be sure

#sudo ldconfig

Now, i was at least able to talk to the GPIB bus using Labview 8.6 and its VISA routines. So, i am quite sure, that i won't find further problems. But however, i will keep your informed here in that case.

Hope, this helps someone,

Manuel

[anshuljain]

Guys,

I've never had good luck as you guys as far as Ubuntu is concerned I'm trying it on Ubuntu Hardy 8.0.4.3. I was able to install nikal 1.9, somehow on my Ubuntu system.

anshul@sagarika:~/NI-VISA-4.5.0$ lsmod | grep nikal
nikal                  79552  0
usbcore               146412  5 nikal,cdc_acm,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
anshul@sagarika:~/NI-VISA-4.5.0$

Now, when I try to install NI-VISA 4.5, I get the following output

anshul@sagarika:~/NI-VISA-4.5.0$ sudo ./INSTALL

*****************************************************************************
  NI-VISA for Linux
     version 4.5.0f0 for Linux
*****************************************************************************

National Instruments products support the following Linux distributions:
   Mandriva Linux Official
   openSUSE
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop + Workstation
Refer to README.txt for the latest information at the time of release.
Refer to www.ni.com/linux for the most recent information about Linux
support at National Instruments.

Continue? [Yn] Y

Checking required install tools...
Checking installer tool versions...
dpkg found
rpm        4.4.2.1 can be used with a default installation path
tar        1.19-3
Checking dependencies...
glibc      2.7
Unpacking install files to /tmp/nivisa-4.5.0f0.install...

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT (LINUX DRIVER SOFTWARE)

INSTALLATION NOTICE: THIS IS A CONTRACT. BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE AND/OR
COMPLETE THE INSTALLATION PROCESS, CAREFULLY READ THIS AGREEMENT. BY DOWNLOADING
THE SOFTWARE AND/OR ENTERING 'y' TO COMPLETE THE INSTALLATION PROCESS, YOU
CONSENT TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT AND YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS
AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BECOME A PARTY TO THIS AGREEMENT AND BE BOUND
BY ALL OF ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS, ENTER 'n' OR 'q' TO CANCEL THE INSTALLATION
PROCESS, DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE SOFTWARE, AND RETURN THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING,
IF APPLICABLE, ALL ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS, ALONG WITH THEIR CONTAINERS)
WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS OF RECEIPT OF THE SOFTWARE TO THE PLACE YOU OBTAINED
THEM. ALL RETURNS SHALL BE SUBJECT TO NI'S THEN CURRENT RETURN POLICY.

1. Definitions. As used in this Agreement, the following terms have the
following meanings:

A. "You." Means you the individual using the SOFTWARE as well as your employer
if you are using the SOFTWARE within the scope of your employment.

B. "NI." Means (i) National Instruments Corporation, a company organized under
the laws of the State of Delaware, U.S.A., if the SOFTWARE is manufactured in

By installing this software, you are acknowledging acceptance of the terms
of the included license file (LICENSE.txt).

Do you accept the license? [ynq] y

NI-VISA for Linux version 4.5.0f0
is about to be installed using rpm at /usr/local/natinst

Would you like to continue? [Yn] Y

Installing NI-VISA for Linux version 4.5.0f0...
Pre Installation .
Post Installation .
Pre Installation ..................
Post Installation ..................

FOR PATENTS COVERING NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS PRODUCTS, REFER TO
THE PATENTS.txt FILE ON /home/anshul/NI-VISA-4.5.0 AND/OR
www.ni.com/patents

No errors, no output. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'd really really appreciate some help from the other members here. Please

[fahrer]

Hello Anshul,

the you problem you saw is exactly what i experienced as well: The script ran without errors, but nothing changed. So, i installed the necessary rpms by hand: see my previous post. This helped. But please install nikal and the other gpib libs (as you described in your other post) before continuing with VISA!

Manuel

[wimpie]

Hallo,

I am trying to get USB-6008 and USB-6501 to work on Ubuntu 9.04. My problem is that lsdaq doesn't work because I cannot get libnipalu.so loaded nor nipalk.ko generated. I used VISA 4.5.1 and NI-KAL 1.10. I also tried VISA 4.5.0 and continue to get the same results.

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

This is what I have done:

I followed the steps in the original message using VISA 4.5.1 (instead of 4.5.0) and NI-KAL 1.10. Everything seemed to install without problems.

I then tried

# lsusb

which showed the DAQ connected, and then

# lsdaq

which said this:

-----------------------

Detecting National Instruments DAQ Devices
Found the following DAQ Devices:
libnipalu.so failed to initialize
Perhaps you need to run updateNIDrivers
/usr/local/bin/lsdaq: line 7: 16802 Aborted                 /etc/natinst/nidaqmxbase/bin/daqmxbase_listdevices

---------------------------

To load libnipalu.so I typed:

# sudo /etc/init.d/nipal start

which said this:

------------------------

error: /lib/modules/2.6.28-15-generic/kernel/natinst/nipal/nipalk.ko not found
error: Please compile and install nipalk.ko by running
error:  updateNIDrivers

----------------------------

And so I tried

# sudo updateNIDrivers

which couldn't compile because of an error with pte_offset. Following this advice http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=140&message.id=35947#M35947

looks like it fixed the compiler error.

Trying this again:

# sudo updateNIDrivers

resulted in this:

--------------------------

Uninstalling NI-KAL (nikal): done                                                                       
/bin/rm -rf objects                                                                                     
Updating NI-KAL:                                                                                        
NI-KAL successfully updated.                                                                           
Updating client modules:                                                                                
/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src                                                                            
gpibprtk.ko successfully updated.

--------------------------------

I suspect nipalk.ko must also be in the above output list.

Doing any of these:

# sudo /etc/init.d/nipal start

# lsusb

# lsdaq

gives the same result as above. I then did everything again using VISA 4.5.0 which also gives the same result.

My guess is that the problem lies in nipalk.ko not being generated. Any ideas?

[Neil_S.]

Hope all goes well,

As is normal with these types of issues, could you run niSystemReport, pipe it into a file and attach the results?  You might actually find something useful in this file and it is a good way to see what might be causing National Instruments driver installs from failing.  We might not be able to figure out what is going on from the file, but it is worth a shot.

Thanks,

Neil S.

[Shawn B.]

In addition to the niSystemReport output you may want to read this discussion forum post:

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=140&thread.id=37839&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

I think you are having some of the same problems, but I am still not sure what is actually causing the problem.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[wimpie]

Hallo Shawn and Neil,

Thanks for your help, I have the USB devices working now.

My final and simplest solution was this:

Pass 1 ->

1. Convert all the .rpms from NiDaqMXBase, NI-Kal and NI-VISA to .debs using

"alien -k --scripts *.rpm"

2. Install all the .debs using "dpkg -i".

3. After all the .debs are installed, locate all the "*InstallerUtility.sh" files (9 of them)

4. Uninstall all debs using dpkg -P

Pass 2->

5. Install all the .debs. After each .deb do ". /xxx/niyyyyInstallerUtility" and "niyyyyPostInstall" if it has such a file.

The order of .deb installation must be determined during pass 1.

Wimpie

[Neil_S.]

I'm very happy to hear you got it working.  Good luck with your application.

Regards,

Neil S.

[Islero]

HI Wimpie.

Congratulations for your installation. Let me to ask you several questions:

1) What modules have  been installed in your kernel after the installation of Visa? In other way, could you tell me what happens when you write down these commands?:

     #modprobe nidimk.ko

     #modprobe nipxirmk.ko

     #modprobe NiViPciK.ko

     #modprobe NiViPxiK.ko

I have intalled VISA but I think that the kernel modules aren't installed yet. I belive that my problem is related on NiViPciK.ko.

2) How do you run PostInstall? where is the script <rpm_package>PostInstall.sh, If I write  <rpm_package>PostInstall the system say me that it's a invalid command.

          I already know second question, for example :

               ./nipxirmiInstallerUtility.sh nipxirmiPostInstall

3) What packages did you change to .deb from NiDaqMXBase? and, Which packages sequence did follow to install it?

Thanks

El mensaje fue editado por: Vicente Muñoz

[Phan Huy]

Hi Wimpei,

Could you give more detail about your process. I have an USB 6009. I have tried a few days, but have not made it working yet. When I convert rpms of NIVISA 4.5 to debs, an error thrown "dpkg-gencontrol: error: current host architecture 'i386' does not appear in package's architecture list (amd64)" and the process terminated.

Thank you so much.

Huy