Problems trying to get examples running under CentOS 5.4 using PCI-6254

[neurostu]

As the subject of this post suggests I'm having a few problems trying to get my PCI-6254 working under CentOS 5.4. I picked CentOS because RHEL is a supported distribution and CentOS is a direct derivative of RHEL.

Anyway, I install the 8.0.1 driver and we able to run:

nilsdev and got the following output:

NI PCI-6254: "Dev1" 

So I'm pretty sure I've got it installed. When I try to run the example programs located under:

/usr/local/natinst/nidaqmx/examples

I keep getting the following error:

$ ./Acq-IntClk 
DAQmx Error: The software has entered an unknown state - usually as a result of a cascade failure induced by an unexpected series of state inputs. The operation could not be completed as specified and you should immediately terminate all further transactions if you are able to do so.
Task Name: Example Test

I'm trying to run the example located under

/usr/local/natinst/nidaqmx/examples/ansi_c/AnalogIn/MeasureVoltage/Acq-IntClk

And with some carefully placed printf's I've figured out that the error is being generated by the following line:

DAQmxErrChk (DAQmxCreateTask("Example Test",&taskHandle));

I've been searching all over these forums and the internet for hours  and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Any pointers/help  be greatly appreciated.

[JoeFriedchicken]

The DAQmx 8.0.1 distribution does not support RedHat [1] because RedHat (and CentOS) build their kernels with a 4kB kernel stack [2]. Try rebuilding your kernel with an 8kB stack 🙂 Since you're not getting a full kernel panic, it may not be related to the stack size, but other than trying other examples, that is the first thing I would try.

Joe

[1] NI-DAQmx 8.0.1 readme
http://ftp.ni.com/support/softlib/multifunction_daq/nidaqmx/8.0.1%20Linux%20Only/readme.txt

[2] 8k kernel stack prevents overflow
http://forums.ni.com/t5/Multifunction-DAQ/DAQmxBase-Acquiring-at-high-frequency/m-p/781433#M43258