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64bit libvisa.so etc - under consideration?

We now have a pre-release distribution of NI-VISA with 64-bit Linux support. If you are interested in acquiring this software to test it out, please private message me (Alisha_P) for more information.

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Message 11 of 39
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Hi Alisha/ NI team

I got the 64 bits NI-VISA for Linux (RHEL) beta release from NI and I would like to clarify couple of things.

To make myself clear I will start with a bit of history and what I'm trying to accomplish.

The ultimate goal is to run NI-VISA on a RHEL 6.5 or higher using PyVISA, a wrapper from Python.

Before trying the 64 bits beta release, I have experimented with NI-VISA-5.4.1.iso on a RHEL5 using a Python2.7.8 32 bit version to be compatible with NI-VISA 5.4.1.iso (which is a 32 bit.).

Here are the experiments:

Experiment 1 (RHEL 5, Python(32bits), PyVISA, NI-VISA 5.4.2.iso(32bits))

  • Everything has been installed correctly(after some hacking)
  • I could launch "VISA Interactive control"
  • Still, could NOT see the instruments on the GPIB bus
  • Installed ni4882-2.9.1f0 and instruments showed up on the GPIB bus (Ex: 'GBIP::5', etc)
  • NI-VISA was working at this point and it could be used from Python!!!

Experiment2: (RHEL6.5, Python(64bits) PyVISA, NI-VISA-14.5.0.iso(64bits), NI-VISA-Runtime-14.5.0.iso(64bits))

  • Installed  NI-VISA-14.5.0.iso
  • Installed NI-VISA-Runtime-14.5.0.iso
  • Everything has been installed correctly(after loading some Linux libraries required by NI-VISA)
  • Start "VISA Interactive control"
  • VISA can NOT discover the instruments that are on the GPIB bus
  • Installed ni4882-2.9.1f0 .. still no instruments showed up on the GPIB bus

The questions are:

  1. Do I need to install both .iso images(NI-VISA-14.5.0.iso and NI-VISA-Runtime-14.5.0.is0)?
  2. Do I need a 64 bit version of ni4882-2.9.1f0? If "yes", where can I get it from?
  3. Is ni4882-2.9.1f0 included in one of the 64 bits .iso images (NI-VISA-14.5.0.iso, NI-VISA-Runtime-14.5.0.is0)?
  4. Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

I understand that this image is a beta release and it might have some

issues  but I would like to know if it should work up to the point where

VISA should be able to discover the instruments on the GPIB bus.

Regards,

imiu

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Message 12 of 39
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Hi Alisha,

I would also be interested in testing the 64bit NI-VISA library. Is it available?

I have a RHEL 6 64bit system, and I'm interested in controlling a TDS 3045B scope.

Many thanks

Gianluca

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Message 13 of 39
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I think taht NI introduce NI-VISA 14.0 64-bit with Labview 2014 64-bit.

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Message 14 of 39
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Hi imiu,

To answer your questions:

1) You do not need to install both .iso images. For development, you would just install the first one. (the run-time provides a smaller footprint for running applications)

2) 488.2 2.9.1 does not contain 64-bit application support. However, there is a newer version available that has added this support: 488.2 3.2.0

3) 488.2 is not included in the NI-VISA software. You will need to install the driver separately.

4) My recommendation would definitely be to download 488.2 3.2.0, install that, and see if that allows you to communicate with your GPIB instruments.

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Message 15 of 39
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Hi mig-31,

NI-VISA 14.0 for Linux does not have 64-bit user mode support.

Quote from readme:

Currently, only 32-bit applications are supported on the x86-64 architecture.

You can run NI-VISA 14.0 for Linux on a 64-bit machine, but it will not support 64-bit applications like LabVIEW.

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Message 16 of 39
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Hi Alisha,

Thank you for pointig out to the latest 488.2 for VISA 64.

Followed your suggestion but still cannot see the instruments being discovered on the GPIB.

Here is a capture file that might explains what is going on the bus.

Regards,

imiu

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Message 17 of 39
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Hi Alisha,

Here are the logs after installing NI-VISA64 and NI4882-3.2.0f0.

Also, I attached two screenshots, one for VISA32 and one for VISA64, just to see what the problem is.

Both are having instruments connect via GPIB-USB-B and GPIB-USB-HS cables; VISA32 can see the instrument but not VISA64.

Is there anything missing?

Regards,

imiu

PS:Wondering if anyone from NI is reading this forum or not?!

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Message 18 of 39
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Hi imiu,

The logs seem to indicate that the installations were successful.

I'm a little confused about the difference between the two pictures that you posted? Are these from two separate machines or two separate installations on the same machine?

If two machines, what kernel versions are each machine running?

If they are from the same installation, what changes were made between the first picture of VISAIC and the second?

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Message 19 of 39
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Hi Alisha,

The pictures are from two different installations on two different machines.

1. (machine 1) - NI-VISA 32 bits:

---------------------

# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.18-194.el5 (mockbuild@x86-005.build.bos.redhat.com)

(gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)) #1 SMP Tue Mar 16 21:52:39 EDT 2010

2. (machine 2) - NI-VISA 64 bits:

----------------------

cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 (mockbuild@x86-023.build.eng.bos.redhat.com)

(gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-4) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Sun Nov 10 22:19:54 EST 2013

I have tried installing NI-VISA 64 on machine 1 and ended up with the same result as for the

instalation on machine 2; no instruments were discoverd on the GPIB bus.

I would like to know if you succesfully installed VISA64 on one of your RHEL machine(or some other Linux) and

were able to discover some GPIB instruments.

Regards,

imiu

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Message 20 of 39
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