What driver to install for PC-GPIB if using debian version 2.4.27

[Audrey9]

I have a PCI-GPIB card and want to use it with a computer running debian version 2.4.27. There is no debian driver available.
Therefore, I am trying to convert the redhat 4.0 into debian format but am having difficulty.
Does anyone know any shortcuts, have any better ideas, or know if the source code is available?

thanks,

Audrey

[Meghan R]

Hello Audrey9,

Have you tried using the Driver Development Kit?  The NI Measurement Hardware DDK is designed for OEM customers who are developing applications that require nonstandard OSs, so this may be a solution for you.

Good luck with your application!

Meghan
Applications Engineer

[JasonSmith]

Hi Audrey,

I believe that Meghan intended to refer you to the NI488 DDK, which allows you to customize a generic GPIB driver for nearly any operating system.  This requires an in-depth knowledge of your operating system, and could require significant development effort.

Searching on the forums, I can see that many people have tried using various NI applications and drivers with mixed success on Debian and debian-based distributions.  The most obvious difference when using Debian is that Debian does not utilize rpm packages by default, so the rpm functionality must be added before you will even be able to attempt to install the NI-488.2 driver.

If you find yourself unable to install NI-488.2, you could always look into using the Linux GPIB Package, which includes binary distributions for Debian.  I have not personally used this driver, but they have implemented an API similar to the NI API.

Of course our primary recommendation to you would be to switch to one of the officially supported Linux distributions, being Red Hat, Mandriva, and SuSE.  These are the only distributions used in testing and for which we can ensure compatibility.

Let us know if you have any more question,

Jason S.

National Instruments