clarification of LinuxRT

[ankurk@hcl.in]

1. We have PXI-8176 controller in 1006 chassis with labviewRT in it and following modules sitting in
1. PXI-4060
2. PXI-6030E
3. PXI-6527
4. PXI-4461

is it possible to port LinuxRT in the controller if so whether all other modules sitting in will support this.

2. We have MXI-3 8330 in 1006 chassis with following modules sitting in which is fine with LabviewRT
1. PXI-6052E
2. PXI-6711
3. PXI-6527
4. PXI-4070

Will this MXI-3 will support LinuxRT if so whether all other modules sitting in will support this.

3. For above 2 points can we have some alternatives than these modules

[MicrowaveDave]

Hey,

As far as I know, there is nothing that would prevent you from installing LinuxRT onto a PXI controller.  However, getting the devices to work is a much different story.  In general, National Instruments device drivers officially supports most major distributions of Linux.  The current list is:

Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official
Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3
SUSE LINUX Professional 9.1
SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2

For other distributions of Linux, there is no way to know for sure if it will work.  Depending on how different it is from other distributions, it may or may not work.  Thus, using the modules listed on LinuxRT would be subject to the following limitations:

1) Getting LabVIEW installed properly

2) Getting device drivers (DAQmx, NI-DMM, etc) to work on the appropriate machine.

Because we have not certified these device drivers for LinuxRT, the specific DAQmx device number does not actually matter.  Instead, whether or not the driver works will determine whether all DAQmx devices work or not.

As far as the MXI-3 system goes, it may or may not work in LinuxRT.  Again, this has not been certified, but I know that MXI-3 uses the standard PCI driver in the Windows environment.  My assuption is that LinuxRT has a similar driver for PCI devices.  If so, than no National Instruments driver is required and you can try useing the LinuxRT driver.  However, you're biggest challenge is going to be getting the device drivers to work, not the MXI-3 link.

If I were you, I would continue using LabVIEW RT, simply becuase it can be a lot of hassle to get an unsupported version of Linux working.  I hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions!

Regards,

David Hall | Applications Engineering | National Instruments