How to get GPIB-USB-HS to work with Centos 6.5 64 bit?

[grcutter]

I have a workstation running Centos 6.5  64-bit with the 2.6.32-432 kernel.

I have installed the NI 488.2 driver version 2.9  but NI-VISA does not detect my GPIB-USB-HS adapter.

The installation seemed to install correctly.

What is the trick to get this to work?

[MajorTom]

Hi grcutter,

Unfortunately Centos is not a supported Linux distribution at this time. Here is a list of the supported distributions for the NI 488.2 v2.9 driver:

openSUSE 11.2 32 bit
openSUSE 11.3 32 bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Scientific Linux 5 32 bit
Scientific Linux 6

[MajorTom]

Hi grcutter,

I looked further into this issue and found that while CentOS is not an officially supported distribution, because it is based off RHEL many customer have had success with it.

However, we do have the issue of the kernel version not being supported. The GPIB-USB-HS and GPIB-USB-B support up to kernel version 2.6.24, which means that you will have to drop down to a 5.x release of CentOS. RHEL 5.x will still have support for close to 2 more years and will still get periodic updates. I would try a 5.x release and see if you get the same behavior. 

[grcutter]

Thomas,

>The GPIB-USB-HS and GPIB-USB-B support up to kernel version 2.6.24

I don't understand this supported kernel issue.

If you can support RHEL 6 then it would seem that the driver should work with newer kernel versions.

What is in the newer kernel that would make the driver not function?

When will NI provide support for the latest kernel?

My colleague found a third party driver from http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/

that he can use for his python scripts.

Is it possible to use this third party driver with LabView?

[MajorTom]

Hi grcutter,

The kernel limitation is outlined in the readme for the driver:

http://download.ni.com/support/softlib//gpib/linux/NI488229Linux%20README.txt

-------------------------
Supported GPIB Interfaces
-------------------------
PCI-GPIB
PCI-GPIB/LP
NI PCIe-GPIB
PCI-8212
PCI-8232
PXI-GPIB
PXI-8212
PXI-8232
GPIB-USB-B (Up to kernel version 2.6.24)
GPIB-USB-HS (Up to kernel version 2.6.24)
GPIB-ENET/100
GPIB-ENET/1000 (new)

To configure a supported GPIB interface, refer to
/usr/local/natinst/ni4882/docs/Installation_Guide.pdf.

RHEL 6 would only be supported if the kernel is older than 2.6.24.

As far as using the 3rd party driver, I have not used that one before and can't say it would work. It looks like you might be able to call the driver library using our call library function node.

[eWasz]

It is now 8 months later.  Has any progress been made with supporting GPIB-USB-HS with a newer version of the CentOS Kernel?

I really need to use the GPIB-USB-HS with CentOS 6.6 64-bit.  Has any progress been made or has anyone figured out how to get this to work?

[tic.not.tock]

Hi eWasz,

NI 488.2 2.9.1 still supports GPIB-USB-HS (Up to kernel version 2.6.24). You can see more information at the NI 488.2 readme.

NI 488.2 Linux readme: http://download.ni.com/support/softlib//gpib/linux/NI4882291linux_README.txt

In the future please start a new forum post and link to the old forum post to increase the visiblity of question when asking a question a few months after the last post has been made.

Best Regards,

Andy M.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[eWasz]

OK... I can see that

NI 488.2 2.9.1 still supports GPIB-USB-HS (Up to kernel version 2.6.24).

However, what if I want to use a newer version of LINUX and the Kernal (newer than version 2.6.24).  It looks like I am out of luck.

I also noticed that the GPIB-USB-HS+ has dropped support of LINUX and that the existing GPIB-USB-HS is not recommended for new designs.

It look like for new designs, I either have to go to a different vendor for GPIB/USB support OR I just have to use the PCIe card instead of the GPIB/USB box.

Please confirm --- Wasz

[grcutter]

Kernel version 2.6.24 is pretty old and rolling back the kernel breaks a lot of other stuff.

This was the number one  reason that I did not renew my LabView for Linux license/support...