GPIB-USB on linux kernel 2.6.28 troubleshooting

[AnilD]

We are trying to get NI GPIB-USB working on a linux kernel 2.6.28.9 that we have built ourselves. This kernel is not in the list of supported kernels in NI's documentation.

I have got ni4882-2.9.0f0.tar.gz to install on our linux machine, but am struggling to get USB GPIB dongle to be recognized (bound to the appropriate driver).

What works so far:

- ni 4882 version 2.9 installs okay (as far as I can tell)

- lsmod | grep ni => shows nikal, nipalk, ni488lock, ni488k modules

- as soon as the USB GPIB dongle is plugged in, "/dev/nigpib -> usbdev2.3_ep84" gets created indicating that the usb device was picked up

What does not work:

- gpibtsw starts up and declares error (red cross sign) on "NI 488.2 software presence verified" indicating that we had a software installation problem

- gpibexplorer startsup and has an empty list of GPIB interfaces indicating that the USB GPIB interface was not recognized

- under /sys we can see the usb device but it is not bound to any driver

What does not look right:

- Under /sys, I only see a PCI GPIB driver under /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ni488. But I do not see any USB GPIB driver that I would have guessed to appear under /sys/bus/usb/drivers. 

Things we have tried so far:

- ni4882 examples: devquery reports error ENEB (No GPIB Board) and findstr reports error EDVR (Driver Error)

- we built our own examples to try calling SendIFC, ibdev, ibconfig (to configure). But all report errors indicating they cannot talk to the board or driver

- manually executed 'etc/init.d/gpibenumsvc start' to see that makes any difference. None so far.

- tried NI gpib version 2.5.1 on the target but it fails to build nikal.c because the kernel is a lot newer than what version 2.5.1 supports in code. There will be a lot of patches to fix that (even if we attempt to)

- tried to install NI gpib 2.9 on a Suse 11.2 installation to check if I can find any USB GPIB driver that gets installed under /sys/bus/usb/drivers but that does not give anything different that what we see on the 2.6.28.9 kernel that we built ourselves.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks in advance,

Anil

[BenDAE]

Anil,

Since the kernal is not supported, there is little we can do for you. However, as an idea I would recommend using this trouble shooting command 

/usr/local/natinst/ni4882/bin/gpibts

suggested by the manual on the NI 488.2

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/371334c.pdf

Let me know if you've already tried this.

Thanks, 

[AnilD]

Hi Ben:

thanks for the reply.

I have tried gpibtsw and it declares error (red cross sign) on "NI 488.2 software presence verified" indicating that we have a software installation problem. Also have tried gpibexplorer that has an empty list of interfaces indicating it could not find our gpib usb interface.

One question: I cannot see the GPIB-USB driver in the installation. The only driver I can see is the PCI-GPIB /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ni488.

Where should I look for the GPIB USB driver after installation?

thanks,

Anil

[BenDAE]

Because you have a custom kernal there isn't much we can do on our end. I can say that if it's a PAE kernal, we guarantee it won't work. I understand that your needs may require a custom kernal, but we can only support kernals we are familiar with. I'm sorry and good luck.

Thanks, 

[JasonSmith]

Unfortunately, the NI-488.2 driver no longer works with USB as of kernel version 2.6.25. Changes were made to the USB kernel stack in 2.6.25 which makes it incompatible with the NI-488.2 driver.

-Jason S.