Ubuntu 12.04 (kernel 3.2) and niDAQmx: libnipalu.so issues. Can it be made to work?

[kunzjacq]

I am trying to make niDAQmx work on a Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit machine, with kernel 3.2. I had some success before with ubuntu 10.10 (see https://decibel.ni.com/content/message/25254). Here I am using the exact same versions of NI software (ni-kal 2.1, DAQmx 8.02). I had to modify slightly nikal.c in the nikal module to get around the ioctl / compat_ioctl issue with recent kernels (see attached file nikal.c.patch). Once this is done, and with steps similar to the Ubuntu 10.10 setup, one has :

lsmod|grep ni

nissrk               2042495  0

nistcrk               189457  1 nissrk

nistc2k               227493  2 nissrk,nistcrk

nitiork              1002687  1 nissrk

nicdrk                372290  3 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork

nimru2k               430085  3 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork

nimxpk                 41736  5 nissrk,nistcrk,nistc2k,nitiork,nicdrk

nipxirmk              120058  0

nidimk                328631  3 nitiork,nimru2k,nipxirmk

nimsdrk               237610  3 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork

nidmxfk               380304  5 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork,nicdrk,nimsdrk

nimxdfk               482184  7 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork,nicdrk,nimru2k,nimsdrk,nidmxfk

nimstsk                83261  6 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork,nicdrk,nimsdrk,nidmxfk

nimdbgk               366412  10 nissrk,nistcrk,nistc2k,nitiork,nicdrk,nimru2k,nimsdrk,nidmxfk,nimxdfk,nimstsk

niorbk                101451  12 nissrk,nistcrk,nitiork,nicdrk,nimru2k,nipxirmk,nidimk,nimsdrk,nidmxfk,nimxdfk,nimstsk,nimdbgk

nipalk               1229948  16 nissrk,nistcrk,nistc2k,nitiork,nicdrk,nimru2k,nimxpk,nipxirmk,nidimk,nimsdrk,nidmxfk,nimxdfk,nimstsk,nimdbgk,niorbk

nikal                  61822  1 nipalk

The nipal service also starts properly and creates  /dev/nipalk as expected; other NI services do not complain. However, all NI utilities fail with the message

libnipalu.so failed to initialize

In syslog, more info is given, for instance when launching nilsdev :

nilsdev: [nipalu]  Warning: source/lib/linux/linLoadKern.cpp:97 - libKernelDriverInit: Failure loading kernel driver. status=-50202

nilsdev: [nipalu]  Warning: source/initcln/initcln.cpp:147 - Posix: Init kInitClnPackage: kernelDriver: failed! status=-50202

nilsdev: [nipalu]  Warning: source/package/posix/ulibEntry.cpp:179 - initialize: unable to load NI-PAL. status=-50202

It seems that libnipalu.so does not see that nikal / nipalk is already loaded.

Is there some way to overcome this ?

[irwan]

My guess is that you're not patching NI-KAL correctly. If HAVE_COMPAT_IOCTL is defined, you're not defining ioctl in the driver structure.

Considering most of our software communicates to our driver using mostly ioctl, the error you're seeing is understandable if ioctl isn't done right.

I'm not sure how to patch the ioctl correctly. I haven't kept track of the kernel changes for a while.

Exactly what error did you encounter when you compile KAL against your kernel?

[kunzjacq]

with the original source, I get :

/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src/nikal/nikal.c:489:4: error: unknown field ‘ioctl’ specified in initializer

/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src/nikal/nikal.c:489:4: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type [enabled by default]

/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src/nikal/nikal.c:489:4: warning: (near initialization for ‘nNIKAL100_fops.fsync’) [enabled by default]

make[2]: *** [/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src/nikal/nikal.o] Error 1

make[1]: *** [_module_/usr/local/natinst/nikal/src/nikal] Error 2

make: *** [all] Error 2

[irwan]

See if there's a new NI-KAL that just works for that kernel.. looks like 2.3.1 is avail:

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/3477/lang/en

I see that 2.3 has some changes to address the ioctl probs.

[kunzjacq]

Based on your previous comment this is what I did - using nikal 2.2-f0 from NI-VISA that does not need patching (only the compile scripts need to have their kernel version check disabled). nilsdev and DAQmxtestpanels works, thank you !