GPIB-USB-HS + Ubuntu 9.04 (x86, kernel >2.6.25)?

[roger_b]

Hi,

Is there anyway to get the GPIB-USB-HS running in Ubuntu 9.04? I've gone through the guide at http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-6742, but wasn't able to get my device recognized. I read somewhere on ni.com that USB devices are not supported for kernels > 2.6.25, so I downloaded the linux-gpib driver. That seemed to recognize it, but I still need NI-VISA to get PyVISA running (apparently) and that still won't detect my  GPIB-USB-HS.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Roger

[Islero]

Hi Roger.

To install the drivers for NI GPIB-USB-HS its "only" necessary NI488.2. Has you been able to install NIKAL+488.2+VISA?

I don't have this toy (GPIB-USB-HS) at University to try the installation in my PC, but I have this one. The problem is (and this is a question for Shawn, NielS, etc) that I need a TULIP NI passport for agilent 82357B USB/GPIB Interface High-Speed USB 2.0 but there isn't linux version for this passport, is it?

[Shawn B.]

Hi Roger,

You are correct that NI-488.2 does not support the GPIB-USB-HS on kernels >2.6.25.  That means that your choices are to use a Linux distribution with an older kernel, or use the open source linux-gpib driver.

Additionally if you want to use PyVISA, you will need NI-VISA.  The problem is that NI-VISA requires VISA passports to know how to talk to the different bus drivers on the system.  NI-VISA includes a passport for the NI-488.2 driver but not for the open source linux-gpib driver.  The open source linux-gpib package and NI-488.2 essentially share the same programming APIs but existing passport probably fails simply because the shared object implementing the API is named differently.  I certainly haven't tried it, but you may be able to get NI-VISA and the open source linux-gpib project to work by renaming the linux-gpib shared object.

Of course if your goal is to program in Python I think the linux-gpib package also provides a python API so maybe you don't need PyVISA.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[avtechmjc]

Shawn,

Any chance of NI providing a supported visa passport for the linux-gpib driver?

It would be nice to have the option of using the open driver with LabView, for those times when the NI driver development is lagging behind kernel releases (like now).

- Mike

[Shawn B.]

Hey Vicente,

NI-VISA uses passports to talk to the various drivers/buses.  The TULIP passport on Windows was developed with Agilent to create a passport that could communicate with the Agilent Windows GPIB drivers.  I do not know if Agilent provides a Linux driver for their GPIB devices but if they do we would need to work with them to develop an equivalent passport for Linux.

It does look like some of the Agilent GPIB devices are supported by the open source linux-gpib drivers.  As I explained to Roger you may be able to get these to work with NI-VISA if you rename the shared object file implementing the API, but I haven't tried.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[AKHuettel]

Shawn,

is there documentation available somewhere about the visa passport driver mechanism?

(It's near impossible to google for "visa passport"... )

Best, Andreas

[rolfk]

AKHuettel wrote:

Shawn,

is there documentation available somewhere about the visa passport driver mechanism?

(It's near impossible to google for "visa passport"... )

Best, Andreas

What do you want to know? If it is about the technical implementation, to the best of my knowledge there is no information about that available. Presumably you can get the information from NI as is proven by passport drivers developed by instrument manufacturers like Tektronix and others and one or two Alliance Members but I would guess you will only get that information with an NDA.

If it is about installation issues then try to ask more specifically. In a nutshell a VISA passport is simply an internal VISA translation driver that interfaces a particular instrument or similar communication interface. There is nothing really special about a passport and in general it does not even interface with any hardware but instead simply accesses an interface specific user space API.

[AKHuettel]

I am interested in the technical specification.

This would help to decide if the NI GPIB passport could somehow be adapted for the linux-gpib hardware driver.

You may be right about the NDA though. A passport library would have to link to the GPL'ed driver...

In any case, that the GPIB-USB-HS is only supported for kernel <= 2.6.24 slowly becomes something of a joke.

[Shawn B.]

I forgot about the fact that the linux-gpib user-mode libraries are GPL not LGPL which might make writing a passport for NI-VISA impossible.

--

Shawn

[rolfk]

ShawnB. wrote:

I forgot about the fact that the linux-gpib user-mode libraries are GPL not LGPL which might make writing a passport for NI-VISA impossible.

--

Shawn

I think you can safely replace "might make" with "makes". Of course nobody can prevent a user to rename the open source driver shared library and eventually make modifications to the driver to make it work with the standard GPIB passport but nobody could publish that work without violating the GPL.

Unless of course that driver has a special clause which might be possible. Without such a clause you can't use the GPL driver in any non GPL application.