ni-visa on recent ubuntu: missing modversions.h

[gdargaud]

So I downloaded NILinux2022Q1DeviceDrivers.zip, unzipped it, then

# gdebi ni-ubuntu2004firstlook-drivers-stream.deb
# aptitude update
# aptitude install ni-visa

It fails during configuration of ni-kal:

$ less /var/crash/ni-kal.0.crash
...
/var/lib/dkms/nikal/21.5.0f129/build/nikal.c:32:16: fatal error: config/modversions.h: No such file or directory
...

$ ll /usr/src/linux-headers*/include/config/modversions.h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May  7  2021 /usr/src/linux-headers-5.11.0-18-generic/include/config/modversions.h
$ ll /usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-28-generic/include/config/*.h
ls: cannot access '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.13.0-28-generic/include/config/*.h': No such file or directory

This file does not exist anymore in recent kernels. I don't know what the stance regarding that file is with kernel developpers, but how should I install ni-kal ?!?

Thanks

[GabeJ]

This will be changed in an upcoming release of NI drivers for Linux.  In the mean time, you can modify nikal.c and remove that #include with no ill effects.   It is likely that if you have other NI drivers in /usr/src that you'll need to do the same for them.

Note that with the 5.13 kernel there will likely be other roadblocks to building NI-KAL.  An upcoming release of the software will include the necessary changes.

[GabeJ]

With the usual caveats of "NI hasn't yet tested and so doesn't yet support Ubuntu 21.10 or these changes," I removed all of the modversions.h includes from the /usr/src/ni*/*-interface.c files and from nikal.c and NI-VISA installed on Ubuntu 21.10.

[dousley · Accepted solution]

FYI that, in the interim before the next NI driver release, we changed the published install instructions for NI Linux Device Drivers for Ubuntu to mention a simpler workaround:

sudo touch /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/config/modversions.h

Then try installing.

[gdargaud]

Thanks, that worked.

But that brought me to another problem: is there a 32-bit version of libvisa ? I'm integrating with CVI for Linux, which is 32 bits, so the two cannot be linked together...

Thanks

[GabeJ]

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@gdargaud wrote:

Thanks, that worked.

But that brought me to another problem: is there a 32-bit version of libvisa ? I'm integrating with CVI for Linux, which is 32 bits, so the two cannot be linked together...

---

No.  NI's modern desktop Linux drivers (since 2018) have been strictly 64-bit.