NI-SCOPE for Linux/x86 32-bit, Version 2.9. Copyright (c) 2006 National Instruments Corporation. All Rights Reserved. National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and LabVIEW are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Terms of Use section on ni.com/legal for more information about National Instruments trademarks. Linux(r) is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. For patents covering National Instruments products, refer to the appropriate location: Help>>Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your CD, or ni.com/patents. Thank you for using NI-SCOPE for Linux. This file contains important information about NI-SCOPE and is organized into the following sections: Differences from the Windows Driver Installing NI-SCOPE for Linux Uninstalling NI-SCOPE for Linux Device Configuration NI-SCOPE Known Issues System Requirements Support in NI-SCOPE 2.9 for Linux Examples and Other Documentation ----------------------------------- Differences from the Windows Driver ----------------------------------- Not Supported under Linux ------------------------- The following NI-SCOPE driver features supported on NI-SCOPE for Windows are not supported under Linux: * The NI Measurements & Automation Explorer (MAX) application is not supported for Linux system and device configuration. Refer to the "Device Configuration" section for information about configuring your device in Linux. The following commonly used functions and features supported through MAX are not supported: - Device self-test - Device subsystem routing table - Querying of digital/analog power up states - Creating a simulated device * PCMCIA data acquisition products * NI-SCOPE Express VI * NI-SCOPE Soft Front Panel * MXI-3 is not supported. If you need PC control of a PXI system, use MXI-4. * NI-SPY * NI Hierarchical Waveform Storage (NI-HWS) * External calibration functions are not supported. Refer to your hardware documentation for information about external calibration, and refer to ni.com/calibration. If your NI digitizer requires external calibration, either perform the calibration on a Windows system or hire National Instruments or an independent calibration laboratory to perform the calibration. ----------------------------- Installing NI-SCOPE for Linux ----------------------------- The installation process compiles a small amount of code to customize the software to your installation. Before running the installer, you must have the following compiler facilities installed from your Linux distribution CD or other Linux distribution medium: * The GCC compiler and C++ support * The make utility * The kernel source files that exactly correspond to the kernel version you are running. SUSE LINUX Professional users should ensure that the kernel sources have been configured before attempting installation. Refer to the "Installation Issues" section for directions on how to do this. Use the software-install facility of your Linux distribution to verify that the above-listed packages are present. You can then begin installation. If you are using LabVIEW, you must install LabVIEW before NI-SCOPE for the correct support files to be installed. You must have root privileges to install. Complete the following steps to install NI-SCOPE for Linux: 1. Copy the "INSTALL" and the .tar.gz files to any directory. (Both files must be located in the same directory.) 2. As root, run "./INSTALL". 3. Follow the instructions of the installer. 4. Power down your system, if needed. Note: Power down the system or reboot before using NI-SCOPE if prompted to do so by the installer. Also, power down the system if you want to install new hardware. 5. Install any new NI hardware. 6. Power on your system. 7. Run "nilsdev" to verify installation. Refer to the "Device Configuration" section for more information. Installation Issues ------------------- If you upgrade or change your kernel, you must rebuild part of your NI drivers after the new kernel is installed. To rebuild the software, use the updateNIDrivers utility, found in /usr/local/bin, and complete the following steps: 1. Install the new kernel. 2. Ensure the new kernel's sources and symbols are installed and configured. 3. Restart and load the new kernel. 4. As root, run "/usr/local/bin/updateNIDrivers". By default, the updateNIDrivers utility rebuilds the driver for the currently running kernel using the kernel sources and copies it to the appropriate location. 5. When prompted, restart again. After restarting, the NI drivers are running and ready for use with the new kernel. 6. To verify the version of the currently running kernel, run "uname -r" at the command prompt. Be sure to have sources for your kernel properly installed and configured on your system before running the utility. For more options, run "/usr/local/bin/updateNIDrivers --help". To compile the drivers for a different kernel than you are currently running, pass the kernel version as an argument to the utility, as shown in the following example: updateNIDrivers The kernel version format varies between distributions. Check the contents of /lib/modules or refer to your distribution documentation for more information. For the changes to take place, you must restart your computer after the utility completes. During installation on SUSE LINUX Professional, you may see the following error message: "Kernel source does not appear to be configured for the running kernel. Configuration of kernel source is required to continue installation." This message can occur even if you have installed the correct kernel sources, if the sources require configuration. This problem has been seen on SUSE LINUX Professional. However, it is possible that other distributions will require similar steps to resolve this problem. On SUSE LINUX Professional complete the following steps: 1. Ensure you have installed the kernel-source and, if applicable, kernel-syms packages corresponding to the version of the currently running kernel. The version of the currently running kernel can be determined by issuing the command "uname -r". 2. Change the directory to the /usr/src/linux- directory, where corresponds to the currently running kernel version. 3. Run "make cloneconfig" as root to configure the sources for the currently running kernel. 4. Run "make modules_prepare" as root to prepare the headers for compilation. 5. THIS STEP IS STRICTLY OPTIONAL. Completing this step removes the warning: "WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux/Module.symvers is missing; modules will have CONFIG_MODVERSIONS disabled." Run "make modules" as root to compile all modules and generate Module.symvers. This step may take 30 minutes or more to complete. 6. Run the INSTALL script for the NI-SCOPE software for Linux from this directory. ------------------------------- Uninstalling NI-SCOPE for Linux ------------------------------- To uninstall NI-SCOPE, complete the following steps: 1. Copy the "UNINSTALL" and the .tar.gz files to any directory. (Both files must be located in the same directory.) 2. As root, run "./UNINSTALL". 3. Follow the instructions of the uninstaller. The uninstaller does not remove certain LabVIEW and NI-VISA packages that might still be in use by LabVIEW and NI-VISA themselves or other National Instruments products. Leave these packages on the system if you are still using any National Instruments products. If you wish to remove all National Instruments products from the system you can remove these packages manually. This command removes the LabVIEW runtime engine package installed by NI-SCOPE: rpm -e labview80-rte labview-aal This command removes NI-VISA: /usr/local/vxipnp/linux/NIvisa/UNINSTALL After removing NI-VISA, you can run the NI-SCOPE UNINSTALL script again to remove additional packages. -------------------- Device Configuration -------------------- Any time a digitizer is added or removed, run the following command-line utility (which does not require root permissions): "nilsdev". If /usr/local/bin is not in your path, run the command using the full path: "/usr/local/bin/nilsdev". This command displays all detected NI-SCOPE devices. Make a note of the device names (Dev1, for example). Use the device names when running examples or writing your own programs. Refer to the "NI-DAQmx 8.0 for Linux Configuration Guide" for additional configuration instructions. That document is installed at /usr/local/natinst/nidaqmx/docs/ConfigurationGuide.html. The directions for using nilsdev, nidaqmxconfig, DAQmxTestPanels, and nipxiconfig in DAQmx also apply to NI-SCOPE. --------------------- NI-SCOPE Known Issues --------------------- This section covers issues specific to NI-SCOPE. * On the NI 5122 digitizer, to change the rate of the external clock with the same session, you need to first change the rate by setting the Sample Clock Timebase Rate attribute, then change the rate of your source, then call the function niScope_Commit. If you change the rate of the source before setting the attribute, you may get an error. Another option is to abort the acquisition after fetching the data but before changing the rate. * LabVIEW and NI-SCOPE may not work properly with the Exec-Shield security feature as implemented by some Linux distributions. So far this problem has been seen only on Red Hat distributions. Running on Red Hat with Exec-Shield enabled, you may receive a segmentation fault when running LabVIEW, or in C/C++ when running the self-calibration function (niScope_CalSelfCalibrate) on an NI 5922 digitizer. If you encounter this problem, turn off the Exec-Shield security feature before running LabVIEW or your NI-SCOPE program. For instance, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 you can disable Exec-Shield with a line in /etc/sysctl.conf: kernel.exec-shield=0 Alternatively, you can temporarily disable Exec-Shield from a root command prompt: echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield * In C or C++, use care if your NI-SCOPE application links to the Linux pthread library. Incorrect linking can lead to segmentation faults when the NI-SCOPE library loads. It is recommended to link your application with gcc's -pthread flag instead of linking directly with, for instance, -lpthread. If, after replacing -lpthread links, you still get a segmentation fault when loading NI-SCOPE, it might be necessary to explicitly link in the dl library (-ldl) as the first library in your link list. ------------------- System Requirements ------------------- Minimum System Requirements --------------------------- * Processor: Pentium 200 MHz or equivalent * RAM: 64 MB * XWindows must be running Recommended System ------------------ * Processor: Pentium 200 MHz or equivalent * RAM: 64 MB * XWindows must be running ------------------------------- Support in NI-SCOPE 2.9 for Linux ------------------------------- Operating System Support ------------------------ NI-SCOPE 2.5 for Linux software for the Intel x86 32-bit architecture is supported on the following Linux distributions: * Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official * Mandriva Linux 2006 * SUSE LINUX Professional 9.3 * SUSE LINUX 10.0 * Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 For more information about supported Linux versions and distributions supported by National Instruments, refer to ni.com/linux. NI Application Software Support ------------------------------- NI-SCOPE for Linux supports two application development environments (ADEs): * LabVIEW 8.0 (installing the 8.0.1 update is recommended) * C and C++ through the use of the gcc compiler NI-SCOPE for Linux does not support other ADEs, such as the LabVIEW Real-Time Module, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio. Also, some features available through LabVIEW for Windows are not available on Linux. Refer to the "Differences from the Windows Driver" section for a list of LabVIEW features unavailable on Linux. Device Support -------------- The following digitizers are supported: * NI PXI-5114 * NI PXI/PCI-5122 * NI PXI/PCI-5124 * NI PXI/PCI-5922 The NI 5102, NI 5112, NI 5620, NI 5621, and NI 5911 digitizers are not supported. -------------------------------- Examples and Other Documentation -------------------------------- This release includes examples showing the use of NI-SCOPE in C and LabVIEW. C examples are located in /usr/local/natinst/niscope/examples. Make files are provided that link to the necessary libraries. When writing your own programs, link in the niScope_32 library as shown in the example make files. When using NI-TClk, also link in the niTClk library. The LabVIEW examples are located in the LabVIEW examples/instr/niScope directory. You can also find the LabVIEW examples with LabVIEW's Example Finder. However, some of the NI-SCOPE examples shown do not apply to Linux and report a "could not be found" message when selected. Also note that the Example Finder may not run unless you have done a full LabVIEW installation, including the Example Finder and LabVIEW VI Examples options. Be sure to run the device configuration utility as described in the "Device Configuration" section before running examples. Additional documentation is in an .html format, which can be opened, viewed, and printed in any Linux-based HTML browser. The help is installed in the following location: /usr/local/natinst/niscope/doc/index.html. Refer to the "Device Configuration" section for the location of the documentation about device configuration. If you are synchronizing multiple devices with NI-TCLK, also use a web browser to view the NI-TCLK Help at /usr/local/natinst/nitclk/doc/index.html.