Why am I getting "sh: modprobe: command not found"

[Jeff2]

Hi.  We have recently switched to 64bit machines which means fresh installs of Labview are required.  We have had success with SUSE 11.1, nikal 1.9 and Daqmx Base 3.2.(We use Base 3.2 for laptops and Daqmx 8.0.1 for desktops.)  We are working on fresh installs and have in the past recompiled the kernel to remove modversion support to eliminate errors.  I have recently decided to use Nikal 1.10 to avoid this and, as I understand, get support for the 64 bit kernel.  I have altered our instructions which I attached so I avoid the steps involving recompiling the kernel.  Everything seems to go on without errors and I have successfully used a USB-9234 however, whenever I run lsdaq I get the following before my device is reported:

sh:  modprobe:  command not found

Likewise when I run labview from the terminal and then start a VI  using this device I get the same output. Also, when I issue lsmod, nikal and nipalk are the only modules I see loaded.  This differs from what we had before as described in step 13 in our notes.

Here are the modified steps I took.

Install LabVIEW 8.6.1 Professional Development System

Install Nikal 1.10 following the specific instructions concerning SUSE "zcat ...."

Then from our instructions (line 67):

Edit this file

/usr/src/linux/scripts/mod/modpost.c

Change the "fail" routine at line number 1979 to:

fail:
return; //fatal("parse error in symbol dump file\n");

This will keep updateNIDrivers from failing.
The older nidaq is not compatible with this modpost.
I would change the modpost file back to its original code after
successfully installing the system.

Then issue the commands:

     cd /usr/src/linux

     make cloneconfig

     make prepare

Then I run updateNIDrivers.

Then again from our instructions(line 127):

Add the version found in step 5 to the version.h file for the kernel sources

cd /usr/src/linux/include/linux/

edit version.h and add the following line at the top of the file

#define UTS_RELEASE 2.6.27.7-9-default

or as appropriate with the name found above.  This must be done after
preparing the kernel to build modules because version.h is created
at that time.

If you rebuild the kernel later you will have to repeat this step because
the version.h file will be overwritten.


7.  Add symbolic link and missing header file

cd /usr/src/linux/include/asm/
ln -s asm-offsets.h asm_offsets.h

to allow for the change in the kernel since DAQmx 8.0 was built.

Now I install Daxmx Base.

Again from our instructions(line 411):

14.  Set permissions for for USB devices in DAQmxBase.

We are using an NI-9233 usb device on a laptop with DAQmxbase. 
The command "lsdaq" shows no device at this point. 
We ran the command

/usr/local/natinst/nidaqmxbase/bin/niusb9162dlfw

After this the root user can see the device. 

Based on the output of lsusb:

Bus 008 Device 010: ID 3923:70a8 National Instruments Corp.

We then ran as root

chmod a+rw /dev/bus/usb/008/010

That's it.  Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to make sure everything was there.   Things seem to function but the message makes me nervous.  This is also somewhat of a test machine and I wanted things to be in order before we install on our lab machine. Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff2]

So I decided to run lsdaq as root since the 'command not found' seemed like a permissions issue.  Now I get this:

"FATAL: Error inserting NiViPciK (/lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-default/kernel/natinst/vxipnp/NiViPciK.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)"

dmesg gives some output concerning nivipck.  I copied the pertinent portion from the output into the attached text file.  Thought this might be useful.  Thanks.

Jeff

[mhoogend]

Unfortunately, while NI-KAL supports 64-bit kernels you must also have support from the driver itself that you want to use.  NI-VISA and NI-488.2 are the only drivers that support 64-bit Linux.  Both DAQmx and DAQmx Base do not support it.  The reason you are successful in using your USB device is because DAQmx Base uses the user-mode USB support in Linux so is independent of kernel architecture.  You need to continue running a 32-bit kernel in order to use PCI support for DAQmx and DAQmx Base.

If you want 64-bit support from NI-VISA you can download 4.4 or greater.  The current release is 4.5.1.  (http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1411/lang/en)

[Jeff2]

Thanks for the response.  I was afraid of something like that when I saw the reference to pci.  Unfortunately our main data acquisition machine uses pci boards.  So I guess the next question is "Are Daqmx and Base being upgraded and will that include 64 bit support?".  This could be a show stopper for us with Labview  for future machines.  Our applications are now requiring the use of a 64 bit OS.  Before our change, I spoke with several other people from different labs and it seems we are late in the change to 64 bit machines.  So our need for 64 bit support doesn't seem progressive.  What about Labview itself, will it be compiled for 64 bit?  It would seem that if there is continued support for these products future versions should contain 64 bit support.

Also, does the 32 bit version on a 64 bit machine see more than 4 GB of ram?

[JoeFriedchicken]

Customer demand influences decisions for DAQmx Base. I've made a note of your request in the project plan, but contacting your local sales rep and making some pre-purchase requirements will help me build a business case. I can't speak for the other drivers and software, but sales input seems to be biggest factor in getting new support for non-mainstream products.

I'm curious: what features of a 64-bit OS do you require? DAQmx and DAQmx Base will run on a 64-bit hardware, but the kernel must be 32-bit. So while your lab may require 64-bit hardware, 32-bit kernels will still let you use our PCI/e boards, unless of course, you need 64-bit OS features, which is why I asked 🙂

Joe

[Jeff2]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  We need a 64 bit OS because of memory limitations.  We have very large data sets that need to be put into memory at once to do operations.  We were using a 32 bit OS with Labview but ran into memory issue.  Our hardware has been 64 bit for some time.  I will contact our local sales rep to place a requirement.  I really think this is an important issue for us.

Jeff

[mhoogend]

Once you are running on 64-bit, yes you will be able to use more than 4GB of memory for the drivers.  The limitation on 32-bit is due to there not being support for PAE.

[Jeff2]

What about labview itself.  If I am running a 64-bit install of Opensuse 11.1 is Labview limited to using 4GB of memory?  If so is there any way around this?  Right now I am loading large data sets and getting errors about memory.

[AdamKemp]

LabVIEW for Linux is only currently available as a 32-bit executable, which means it is limited to 4GB total for its process. We do have a 64-bit native version of LabVIEW 2009 for Windows, though. If memory usage is a serious issue for you then you might want to try it out.

[Jeff2]

Thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately that's not an option which goes back to my previous post about needing a 64 bit version for Linux.

Jeff