PCIe-6259 Linux kernel 2.6

[iree]

For the PCIe-6259, has anyone tried the supplied driver NI-DAQmx Version 8.0 for Linux using a distribution with Kernel 2.6, particulary under Fedora Core 5 or RH Enterprise WS4.

[Salvador_Santolucito]

Hello,

Those distributions are not officially supported by National Instruments to work with NI-DAQmx 8.0 for Linux.  Although you may be able to get your device working, you may run across problems.  Also, you will need to recompile the kernel for an 8k stack to work with NI-DAQmx.  Because this process is very dependent on which distribution you use, we cannot provide instructions.

National Instruments recommends that all customers use NI-DAQmx 8.0 for Linux with the supported distributions.

Thanks,
Salvador Santolucito
National Instruments
MIO Product Support Engineer

[iree]

Thanks...

I was confused by some text located at:http://www.ni.com/linux/support.htm

Which Linux distributions does National Instruments support?

National Instruments supports the following distributions and versions of Linux:

• Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official
• Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3
• SUSE LINUX Professional 9.1
• SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2

This support is provided for 32-bit, x86 platforms only. With the exception of Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3, National Instruments Linux support is restricted to the 2.6 kernel.

I wasn't sure how to interpret the text in red. Thought it might indicate 2.6 support of some type.

[iree]

A response from NI Tech Support tells us what to do to be able to use kernel 2.6, see red text:

Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official and Mandriva Linux 2006 SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 and 9.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3

Furthermore, by installing NI-VISA before NI-DAQmx (to get the latest versions of NI-KAL and NI-PAL - the portions of NI's Linux drivers with OS-specific functionality), you can add support for the distributions listed in the VISA README:

Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official

Mandriva Linux 2006

SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2

SUSE LINUX Professional 9.3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4

Basically, adding support for Red Hat Enterprise WS 4. Furthermore, we never remove support for specific distributions from NI-CAL and NI-PAL.

Therefore, you should still be able to use NI-DAQmx 8.0 for Linux with Mandrake 10.0, etc.

[Shawn B.]

Iree,

I just want to clear some things up.  All of the distributions we support use the 2.6 kernel except for Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3.  So yes we support SOME versions of the 2.6 kernel.

The Linux 2.6 kernel moves at a rapid pace, and nearly every release of the kernel breaks our drivers.  NI-KAL is the component that interfaces with the Linux kernel, and you can download the latest version of NI-KAL here.  Installing the latest version of NI-KAL before the driver (for example NI-DAQmx), MAY allow the driver to work on an unsupported distribution.  However, even if it works, since we did not test that combination it is still not supported.

Lastly not only does the Linux kernel move at a rapid pace, but each Linux distribution can modify, and configure the kernel in different ways.  The two distributions you asked about (FC 5 and RHEL WS 4) have a 4k kernel stack.  Most distributions have an 8k kernel stack.  In our internal testing of NI-DAQmx 8.0 on RHEL WS 4 we could cause the kernel stack to overflow.  This leads to a system crash, and is why NI-DAQmx 8.0 does not support RHEL WS 4.  A new version of NI-KAL will not fix this.  As was previously mentioned if you want to use one of these distributions it is recommended that you recompile your kernel with an 8k kernel stack.

Shawn Bohrer
National Instruments

[asimula]

We have a doubt about using NI-DAQmx 8.00 on RHEL ES 4.6. It works but we notice random crashes. 

Do we have to recompile kernel in order to use 8k kernel stack or is there another workaround?

Many thanks

Alessandro