NI USB 6218 driver installation on Ubuntu 12.04

[Big_Angel]

Hi all,

I couldn't find any really helpful hints in the previous posts about this so that's why I am posting this.

I am forced to use ubuntu 12.04 running the kernel 3.2.0-27-generic-pae and acquire data from the NI USB 6218. I downloaded and installed the NIDAQmx-base-3.6.0 drivers for linux and I tried to install them using alien to convert the .rpm packages to .deb.

The issue I am facing is that when I run the lsdaq command I get the following error:

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:  3481 Aborted                 (core dumped) /etc/natinst/nidaqmxbase/bin/daqmxbase_listdevices

In the var/log/syslog is reported the following:

Jun 28 12:06:00 wolf-laptop daqmxbase_listdevices: [nipalu]  Warning: source/lib/linux/linLoadKern.cpp:168 - libKernelDriverLoad: Failed to open nipalk, errno: 2
Jun 28 12:06:00 wolf-laptop daqmxbase_listdevices: [nipalu]  Warning: source/initcln/initcln.cpp:147 - Posix: Init kInitClnPackage: kernelDriver: failed! status=-50204
Jun 28 12:06:00 wolf-laptop daqmxbase_listdevices: [nipalu]  Warning: source/package/posix/ulibEntry.cpp:179 - initialize: unable to load NI-PAL. status=-50204

I tried to load nipalk running the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/nipal  restart

and I get:

FATAL: Error inserting nipalk (/lib/modules/3.2.0-27-generic-pae/kernel/natinst/nipal/nipalk.ko): Kernel does not have module support
 
error: nipalk failed to load
possible causes: 
   nipalk was not versioned for this kernel (3.2.0-27-generic-pae)
   modules are not enabled for this kernel (CONFIG_MODULES)
   unresolved symbols
possible solution: 
   if you recently installed a new kernel or have rebooted to
   a different kernel from one you were previously running then run
   /usr/local/bin/updateNIDrivers
   to version your NI drivers for kernel 3.2.0-27-generic-pae

 running updateNIDrivers, as suggested, outputs:

Configuring for linux kernel version 3.2.0-27-generic-pae.
 
********************************* NOTE *********************************
Using kernel headers found in /lib/modules/3.2.0-27-generic-pae/build.
If this does not correspond to the location of the 3.2.0-27-generic-pae headers,
then define KERNELHEADERS in your environment to point to the location
of the kernel headers, define KERNELTARGET as the version of the
kernel for which to compile, and then rerun ./configure.
********************************* NOTE *********************************
 
Kernel has reparent_to_init(): no
Number of arguments for do_munmap(): 3
pte_offset function: pte_offset_kernel()
Levels in page table: 4
Kernel has remap_pfn_range: yes
Kernel has kzalloc: yes
Kernel has chained SGL support: yes
USB altsetting name: cur_altsetting
Kernel has usb_get_intf(): yes
Kernel has intf_cache member in usb_host_config: yes
Kernel has ep[] members in usb_device: yes
Kernel exports usb_set_configuration(): no
Units of USB_CTRL_GET_TIMEOUT: msec
Kernel has owner member in usb_driver: no
Kernel has put_page_testzero(): yes
Kernel has mutex method: yes
Kernel has wait_for_completion_interruptible: yes
Kernel has config.h: no
Kernel has ioctl32.h: no
IRQ handlers have pt_regs: no
Kernel has work_struct and delayed_work: yes
Kernel supports fault method in vm_operations_struct: yes
Kernel has ioremap_wc: yes
Kernel has pgprot_writecombine: yes
 
Storing configuration in Makefile.in
If the values stored are incorrect they can be changed before running make.
 
Installing NI-KAL:
 NI-KAL successfully updated.
Updating client modules:
 nipalk.ko successfully updated.
 NiViPxiK.ko successfully updated.
 NiViPciK.ko successfully updated.
Rebooting is required to ensure that National Instruments drivers
have been successfully updated.

 But even if this update is successful nothing changes, I continue to get the same output from lsdaq.

Any hints to solve this?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

[Eric-E]

Although I am unfamiliar with Ubuntu myself, here is a similar instalation described: https://decibel.ni.com/content/thread/15662

I hope this helps,

-Eric E.

[Big_Angel]

How could you load correctly the nipal module on 3.2 kernel?

[Eric-E]

Here is another forum post that is similar. It describes the same "libnipalu.so failed to initialize" description with a solution for one user. Hope this helps.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/message/10762#10762