NI-VISA on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

[Nuesel]

Hello,
I tried to install NI-VISA on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 (32 bit) using the following instruction:
http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-11652
I tried to install VISA on a fully upgraded Ubuntu as well on “fresh install” from CD without any upgrades. Both the same. I downloaded VISA Runtime 5 Beta and VISA 4.5 from

http://lumen.ni.com/nicif/US/GB_NIDU/content.xhtml?du=http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1265/lang/en_DE
http://lumen.ni.com/nicif/D/GB_NIDU/content.xhtml?du=http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2044/lang/de_DE

First of all I had little trouble to alien the rpm files to deb packages. On every conversion I got the same error:
$> alien -k --scripts nipali-2.5.4-b2.i386.rpm
error: incorrect format: unknown tag
nipali_2.5.4-b2_i386.deb generated

$>

Please also look at the more talkative log file alien.txt.
However deb files were generated as alien said. But while installing nipali I got several warnings from insserv “missing LSB tags and overrides”:

$> dpkg -i nipali_2.5.4-b2_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 129311 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace nipali 2.5.4-b2 (using nipali_2.5.4-b2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement nipali ...
Setting up nipali (2.5.4-b2) ...
insserv: warning: script 'K20acpi-support' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `wpa-ifupdown' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: script 'irqbalance' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'avahi-daemon' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'plymouth-log' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'plymouth-splash' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'network-manager' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'acpi-support' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'udev-finish' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'dmesg' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'gdm' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'alsa-mixer-save' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'udev' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'acpid' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'ufw' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'plymouth-stop' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'plymouth' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'network-interface-security' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'hwclock-save' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `sendsigs' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: script 'network-interface' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'module-init-tools' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'atd' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'anacron' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'procps' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'udevmonitor' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `umountroot' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: script 'dbus' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'hwclock' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'udevtrigger' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'cron' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `networking' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: script 'failsafe-x' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'apport' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'hostname' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'rsyslog' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0) of script `halt' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: script 'console-setup' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `umountnfs.sh' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (6) of script `reboot' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (0 6) of script `umountfs' overwrites defaults (empty).
insserv: There is a loop between service rsyslog and pulseaudio if stopped
insserv:  loop involving service pulseaudio at depth 3
insserv:  loop involving service rsyslog at depth 2
insserv:  loop involving service udev at depth 1
insserv: There is a loop between service rsyslog and pulseaudio if stopped
insserv:  loop involving service bluetooth at depth 2
insserv: exiting now without changing boot order!

Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
$>

Ignoring these warnings/errors I moved on and I got stuck installing NI-MDNS (item 14). The service could not start correctly and therefore I couldn't install the nivisa_5.0.0-b5_i386.deb package.

Where is the problem? Is the alien conversion not successful?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Best regards
Nuesel

[anshuljain]

You're doing it correctly. Ignore the "unknown tag" error and you'll be fine. I had missed one step in #14 (my apologies) it should be:-

dpkg -i --force-overwrite nimdnsresponder_1.1.0-f3_i386.deb

It should work after that. Start bum from the menu and check if nimdns service is listed there. Check on the checkbox and enable it. Follow the remaining steps in the order mentioned in the article I had written. Do let me know how it works for you. This procedure will work for pretty much *any* distro once you have the kernel configured correctly.

I've tested NI-VISA on Ubuntu Karmic & Lucid and it works very well...no problems so far.

[Nuesel]

Hello   anshuljain,

thank you very much for the reply!

I also tried ignoring all warning messages and the force-overwrite switch in step 14. Without the force switch the package won't be installed at all, since the package manager has found files, that should be installed again with the nimdnsresponder package. But in any case I will get a problem in step 15. The two packages are installed without any errors. The directory /usr/local/natinst/vxipnp/bin, that should be opened, does not exist.

I copied the console output beginning with the installation after converting the rpms into a pdf file. I hope all the text isn't overwhelming. At this point some new services are shown in bum: nimdnsd, nilxid, nipxirmu and of course nipal, which has already been started. But the three new services cannot be started successfully.

And what do mean you by configuring the kernel? As I understood it, the kernel is just told to load some modules. Is that right?

Regards

Nuesel

[anshuljain]

It seems like you're doing everything right- but I cannot understand the debug messages as they're in German...I cannot understand it.

[Nuesel]

Sorry, thats definitely my fault. I did the same again. This time all in English.

[anshuljain]

Can you try checking the nilxd, nimdns, nipal services and then click apply. Then, right click on the same services- and select the option Start Now on all of the NI services. See if that helps? From what I see, you're doing everything right....but for some reason the vxipnp directory isn't created. 

Just one more question- have you created the ln -sf /bin/bash /bin/sh symlink that I mentioned in the tutorial? I did a fresh install of NI-KAL/VISA on Karmic a couple of hours ago and it installed perfectly..:)

[anshuljain]

The directory that I mentioned is incorrect- my bad!! It should be /usr/local/vxipnp and not /usr/local/natinst/vxipnp. It should work now 🙂

[Nuesel]

Hello anshuljain,

thanks again for your support.

The services you have mentioned don't work (see screenshot). The services nilxid nimdns, nilxid and nipxirmu canot be started (just nipal can be started).

I'm wondering a bit if the last error of dpkg is neglectiable:

insserv: Service nimdnsd has to be enabled to start service nilxid
insserv: exiting now!

But I will proceed the VISA installation and ignore this error. You also get this error message?

At the beginning, it seemed to me, that the incorrect installation of the package NI-MDNS lead to the problems I had (not existing directory and not able to start the NI services).

If that works, I'm going to install the latest LabVIEW on Ubuntu. Hope it works in combination with VISA. We'll see.

Nuesel

[Nuesel]

Hello,

I've tried again to install VISA on Ubuntu. I think, I've successfully installed it. But I believe there is still a problem.

I attached a VISA device (vendor ID hex 17e7, device ID hex 0500). Ubuntu has found it. But NI VISA doesn't find it at all. Moreover it finds four serial ports, that doesn't exist (see screenshot).

I had to admit, that I tried this in a VM (VM WARE Player 3.0.1), but I don't see, why this should behave different from a native Ubuntu.

I hope I can verify this behaviour on a notebook without using a VM in a few days.

Thanks

Nuesel

[Dup]

Thank's for your support.

I have followed the instructions found in

http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-11652?decorator=print

But , at step 10, I have no script PostInstall , and nipal.ko is not created.

And it is the same problem for the next steps.

Could you help me ?

Ubuntu 10.04, kernel 2.6.32-25

Thank's

Dup