Debian based linux GPIB

[Ntesla66]

Howdy Fellers.

       I have read/tried it all. Every forum and all those arrogant ###### know it alls that don't know root from sudo.  We have a mission here. If I can get Linux-Gpib to compile against 2.6.24-19 there is absolutely no reason why NI4882 can't compile against the same. I agree Shawn, the API is not stable it is not ever going to be stable. but if we had the source for the pci-gpib and VISA (heritic ...witch ...witch burn Him!!!) we could get on with this. By the way a script that starts #!/bin/sh calls the dash shell and not the bash so your C formatted loops won't work (should be #!/bin/bash). And from kernel 2.6.23.17 onward the kernel has lost the /include/lib/asm-i386 it has become asm-x86 in their (linux) infinite wisdom. Don't wanna give me the source for this...OK give me a DEB package. It's all over your forums help...help!....HELP!!!. Vista is a pig and XP is phased out. I have no choice but to go to Linux .....am I going to have to pull every NI card I have and put them on ebay? I am not going to go to any of the distro's you support because they all want money AND have all the probs of an unstable API! Folks (NI) are you listening? I have always been a loyal NI supporter but "THEY" are wondering what the hell I am doing over here?

Signed

One who is conCERNed.

[Shawn B.]

Hi Ntesla66,

I appreciate your feedback, but you will catch more flies with honey...  With that said I'm willing to help, but unfortunately you didn't give me much of a clue of what problem you are experiencing, so I'll just have to guess.

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Ntesla66 wrote:

If I can get Linux-Gpib to compile against 2.6.24-19 there is absolutely no reason why NI4882 can't compile against the same.

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I assume this refers to the open source driver http://linux-gpib.sourceforge.net/?  If not maybe you should give it a try.  If the open source driver does not meet your needs I would appreciate your feedback on what features it is lacking.

As far as getting NI-488.2 to compile against a 2.6.24 kernel is concerned...  All you need to do is first install the latest version of NI-KAL (currently 1.8).  NI-KAL is our Kernel Abstraction Layer to help us cope with the kernel's unstable API that you mentioned.  It is distributed in source code form, so anyone with some kernel experience could likely update it for newer kernels.  There is no need to update NI-KAL 1.8 as it will compile against 2.6.24.  Then all you need to do is run the NI-488.2 installer.

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 By the way a script that starts #!/bin/sh calls the dash shell and not the bash so your C formatted loops won't work (should be #!/bin/bash).

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Yep, there are many more bashisms in our scripts as well.  We have been working to clean up these scripts so in future releases the situation will improve.  For now you can either change any problematic scripts to #!/bin/bash or "ln -sf /bin/bash /bin/sh".

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And from kernel 2.6.23.17 onward the kernel has lost the /include/lib/asm-i386 it has become asm-x86 in their (linux) infinite wisdom.

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All of this is fixed if you use the latest version of NI-KAL as I mentioned above.

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Don't wanna give me the source for this...OK give me a DEB package.

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As a comercial company we need to focus our efforts on the platforms that bring us the most business.  Unfortunately for me and you Linux is currently a small percentage of our Windows business.  The situation gets much harder because the Linux market is fragmented into hundreds of different distributions.  In the end it means we have limited resources to dedicate to supporting Linux, and thus need to use those resources to target the best Linux distributions for our business.  We can not test and support them all.  Should Debian or Ubuntu be one of the distributions we support?  It is something we are evaluating, and will require increased engineering costs due to the differences between deb and rpm distributions.

One potential solution is to release everything as open source and let you the customer provide the support.  Again I'll ask the question why aren't you using the existing open source driver?

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I am not going to go to any of the distro's you support because they all want money AND have all the probs of an unstable API!

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openSUSE and Mandriva are both free community supported Linux distributions.  In addition you could use a distribution like CentOS, or Scientific Linux which are both recompiles of the RHEL source.  You are correct that all distributions have the problems of an unstable kernel API, but the difference is that we test and fix the problems on openSUSE, Mandriva, and RHEL.

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Signed

One who is conCERNed.

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I'm curious is this supposed to imply that you work for CERN?  If not I appreciate your concern, but do not get the point of the capitalization.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[Ntesla66]

Howdy All.

No Shawn I am not with CERN though I am very aware of the LHC and what it means for the standard model.  I am chagrined to have come across so caustic, most sincere apologies are extended to you at least if not NI. My point was this, I am not a Linux programmer. I don't want to be a Linux programmer . I need my HP35670A's to acquire data like they used to using NI Measure into excel . Gnumeric is the spreadsheet that appears closest (calc may be better) and I could use pyvisa to emulate a close approximation of the VBA application of measure. This seems to require VISA. So that is why after I got the Linux-gpib up and running I returned to the NI4882 drivers. I have Lagrangians and Hamiltonian's to worry over and not why some rpm through cpio didn't link the library files and and handle the bashism's. I did what you suggested and even backed up to 2.6.16 as of tonight the kernel and pal modules load but the gpib still does not. 55 hours and I'm seeing crosseyed. Granted I never had this problem under windows but I will never give them another red cent....period. One thing I think is telling is that our posts on this thread made it to 2'nd and 3'rd on google for debian gpib in less than 48 hr's. It has been viewed nearly 200 times. All of us exwindow users are going to Deb based distros because they work.

Regards

Matthew.

[Shawn B.]

Hey Matthew,

Sorry for the late reply, but I just returned from a vacation.

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Ntesla66 wrote:

My point was this, I am not a Linux programmer. I don't want to be a Linux programmer . I need my HP35670A's to acquire data like they used to using NI Measure into excel . Gnumeric is the spreadsheet that appears closest (calc may be better) and I could use pyvisa to emulate a close approximation of the VBA application of measure.

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Ah, you are not a programmer, but you can program in python or pyvisa would not help.  Is this correct?  Looking at the Linux GPIB Package hompage they claim to have a python API as well.  I'm assuming it is just a wrapper around their C API and probably is not quite as simple as VISA's open, read, write, close, but it may still be easy enough.  Did you give this a try?

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Ntesla66 wrote:

I did what you suggested and even backed up to 2.6.16 as of tonight the kernel and pal modules load but the gpib still does not. 55 hours and I'm seeing crosseyed. 

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Well, it seems you are 50% of the way there.  Your remaining issues are probably the result of a few missing links.  With some extra information I may be able to help you get things up and running.  First it would help to know some information about the state of the system.  What exactly isn't working? An output of the niSystemReport command may help.

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Ntesla66 wrote:

One thing I think is telling is that our posts on this thread made it to 2'nd and 3'rd on google for debian gpib in less than 48 hr's. It has been viewed nearly 200 times. All of us exwindow users are going to Deb based distros because they work.

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Debian based distros are popular and you may see official support from NI in future, but I can tell you it will take some time for that to happen.  In the short term you are going to have to work with what is available.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[Ntesla66]

Howdy Shawn,

           I appreciate your honesty and support. I have gone back to hardy heron LTS and am going to be very careful with what I allow to update. Amazon has faithfully delivered 40 or 50 pounds of tomes running the gamut from C to Kernel structure. I have hacked spliced shebanged and linked a few things over the years but I would reiterate that I am not a coder. Looks like I'm going to have to become one though if I plan to stick with this OS and well I am.

           I have used the old Linux lab drivers back in 98 on RH 7.1 (seawolf) but I found 98se and Xp to be more user friendly and at the time I couldn't get the drivers for pci cards to work under Linux and we used NI PCII. When we bought measure from you guys the PCII cards I had would only support  488.1 and it wouldn't work with measure so I had to upgrade to pci cards and dump Linux (measure wouldn't run either and there was no wine at the time). I also have an NI-USB-B that I use to check different ATE installations with.

          I have the Linux-GPIB package up and running, even scripted out a couple of loaders for the hotplug on the usb and for loading the modules and gpib_config. I'm learning python and refreshing my C from college days and have already used wxglade to build a gui for ibtest, the next project is to emulate NI's measure in gnumeric with a python plugin. Joined the local Linux users group and accepted the challenge to own this operating system. It's all really a question of time and time is money! It honestly has been a nice break from the simulations I have been running and the more I use it the more I like it and microjunk isn't getting one thin dime from me which is just icing on the cake. If all goes well maybe I can make a valuable contribution to others in the IEEE-488.2 world through Linux-GPIB.

Regards

Matthew.

[Shawn B.]

I'm glad to hear that you are making progress.

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Ntesla66 wrote:

If all goes well maybe I can make a valuable contribution to others in the IEEE-488.2 world through Linux-GPIB.

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I think that would be excellent.  I'm sure they would appreciate any useful utilities or scripts you may create.  Additionally feel free to post any information/instructions on how you got things running.  I'm sure other Debian/Ubuntu users might find that valuable as well.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[davy_grvy]

> If the open source driver does not meet your needs I would appreciate your feedback on what features it is lacking.

Sure... ibnotify()  or is that patent encumbered <http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5974541/description.html>?