can't get visaconf to run on Linux

[markortowski]

RedHat Linux WS v4

Dell Poweredge1950

Labview 8.5

When I run "visaconf" in a terminal window, it displays "Aborted" and returns to the prompt. Please help.

[markortowski]

more error info:

Mar 11 09:45:04 PLTS3Server1 visaconf: [libnipalu.so.2.1] Warning: source/lib/linux/linLoadKern.cpp:168 - libKernelDriverLoad: Failed to open nipalk, errno: 2

Mar 11 09:45:04 PLTS3Server1 visaconf: [libnipalu.so.2.1] Warning: source/initcln/initcln.cpp:147 - Posix: Init kInitClnPackage: kernelDriver: failed! status=-50204

Mar 11 09:45:04 PLTS3Server1 visaconf: [libnipalu.so.2.1] Warning: source/package/posix/ulibEntry.cpp:195 - initialize: unable to load NI-PAL. status=-50204

[MXI Master]

markortowski,

Sounds like NI-Visa probably did not install properly. Do you have any other NI drivers that are working/not working on this computer? I would suggest uninstalling and then re-installing NI-VISA 4.3, with a reboot in between just to be safe. If you get the same behavior after the re-install we can dig deeper into those errors, but from the looks of it I think a re-install will work.

[markortowski]

I've tried a number of re-installs (with re-boots in-between). I even tried NI-VISA v4.0 - same result no matter what I do.

[MXI Master]

Mark,

I hear that you have been working with John over the phone on this issue. We are going to concentrate our efforts on that request and later just post the solution to the forum. 

For anyone else interested in this thread:
This Forum and this KB might be helpful on similar issues.

[Gavin F]

Hi markortowski,

It sounds like NI-KAL failed to load.  NI-VISA requires NI-KAL to be loaded on Linux.  There are a few reasons this could have happened and things we can do to figure it out.

1.  NI-KAL failed to compile.  When you run niSystemReport, one of the things it does is recompile NI-KAL, so you can see if NI-KAL compiled in the report it produces.

2.  NI-KAL compiled, but for a different kernel.  This can happen if you update your system, or just happen to have multiple kernels installed and reboot to a different one.  Typically this is more of an issue where things were working fine and then suddenly they stopped working.  Run updateNIDrivers.

3.  NI-KAL compiled, but failed to load for some other reason.  The most common cause is that the system has more than 4 GB of RAM.  In that case, please see this KnowledgeBase article.  In any case you could confirm that this is in fact the issue by running the following as root:

/etc/init.d/nipal restart
dmesg > dmesg.log
niSystemReport > sysReport.log

Then take a look at the logs.  Specifically the end of the dmesg.log file should give some indication on why things didn't load.  The sysReport.log has all kinds of good things like if NI-KAL compiled, which kernel modules were loaded, and even the tail of the dmesg output (though I usually like to see more than the tail).

[markortowski]

Gavin,

You nailed it, man.

My system has 4GB of RAM, but the kernel must have been set up for more than that. I configured the kernel to recognize a specific amount of addressable memory by passing "mem=4096M" to the kernel in "grub.conf"; then I ran "niSystemReport" and "updateNIDrivers". Everything works now.

Thank you very much!!  I really appreciate your expertise!

-marko

[montana123]

Are there command line versions of visaconf, gpibexplorer, etc.? I can't get the visaconf GUI to work. Thanks.

[jordans]

Hi montana123,

I doubt that there are command line versions of the software that you mentioned.

However, this forum post is nine years old. I recommend making a new thread so that you will have better visibility and a higher likelihood of responses.