nienet-linux for 64bit?

[agger]

Is there a chance to get a 64bit version of the 'old' nienet-linux package?

[Shawn B.]

Is there a reason you want the "old" driver instead of this?  The ENET driver is really just a user-mode application so as long as you have the right 32-bit support libraries installed the old driver may also work, but you would have to try.

Or maybe you are asking this question because you want to use the ENET from a 64-bit application?

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[agger]

Is http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1000/lang/en really a full replacement of the old ENET driver? Nevertheless, this does not work on current Debian (Ubuntu) releases. And I'm also not sure, if it really is fully compatible with the old ENET driver (I need comands like ibfind, ibwrt, ibrd etc.). You are right, the old ENET driver runs even on current 64bit Ubuntu 9.04. But in this case I have to compile all new programs which involve GPIB communication to a 32bit target. And this is surely not what I want when upgrading our lab equipment to 64bit hard- and software. Is it really such a big deal to compile the libraries in the nienet-linux-1.2 package on a 64bit machine. I don't really need all the other stuff which is included in this new driver package and as I said before, I'm not sure of the compatibility and it doesn't install on our systems.

Best regards

[Shawn B.]

Yes the new driver is a full replacement of the old ENET driver and is fully compatible.  The new driver also includes support for more NI GPIB hardware which may make it harder to install on unsupported Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

agger wrote:

You are right, the old ENET driver runs even on current 64bit Ubuntu 9.04. But in this case I have to compile all new programs which involve GPIB communication to a 32bit target. And this is surely not what I want when upgrading our lab equipment to 64bit hard- and software. Is it really such a big deal to compile the libraries in the nienet-linux-1.2 package on a 64bit machine.

If the old driver works for you then by all means use it.  Even the new driver provides 64-bit kernel modules, but only 32-bit user-mode libraries.  Do you need 64-bit user-mode libraries?  Does your GPIB application use 3GB+ of memory?  I realize that it may be inconvenient to install the 32-bit support libraries, but for now it is all we have available.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[agger]

ShawnB. wrote:

Yes the new driver is a full replacement of the old ENET driver and is fully compatible.

So, which part of the new package do I have to install to get the same functionality as before? And what is the name of the corresponding shared library (which was before libgpibenet.so)? And is it right, that the former ibconfenet is replaced by the gpibexplorer? What fails so far is the installation of NIKAL and this seems to be an essential step towards using gpibexplorer.

ShawnB. wrote:

If the old driver works for you then by all means use it.

This is what I do

ShawnB. wrote:

Do you need 64-bit user-mode libraries?  Does your GPIB application use 3GB+ of memory?  I realize that it may be inconvenient to install the 32-bit support libraries, but for now it is all we have available.

No, I do not need them by now... it would be just a step towards perfection

Anyway, thank you very much for the helpful and immediate support!

Best regards

[Shawn B.]

I should warn that our GPIB products/drivers aren't really my area of expertise, but...

agger wrote:

So, which part of the new package do I have to install to get the same functionality as before? And what is the name of the corresponding shared library (which was before libgpibenet.so)?

If you use the new driver you should install everything it provides.  The ENET may not need everything provided, but it all works together and nothing has been tested independently.  I don't really know the name of the shared library, but looking at what gets installed I'm guessing it is:

/usr/local/natinst/ni4882/lib/libgpibapi.so.2.5.4

This should also be linked under /usr/local/lib/

You'll want to include /usr/local/natinst/ni4882/include/ni488.h

agger wrote:

And is it right, that the former ibconfenet is replaced by the gpibexplorer?

gpibexplorer should let you add a new ENET device.  Looking at what gets installed I also noticed this:

/usr/local/natinst/ni4882/bin/ethernetconfig

Not quite sure what that does.  Perhaps gpibexplorer launches that when you add a new ENET.

agger wrote:

What fails so far is the installation of NIKAL and this seems to be an essential step towards using gpibexplorer.

Yes, you'll need NI-KAL to compile.  I would recommend installing the latest version of NI-KAL (currently the 1.10 beta).

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments