install NIKAL1.9 to PC with 4GB memory.

[s.imazu]

I am installing NIKAL1.9 for linux.

I know no installation on PC with the memory that exceeds 4GB.

The following errors occurred when having installed it in PC with the memory of just 4GB.

Installing NI-KAL (nikal): FATAL: Error inserting nikal (/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.22.el5/kernel/natinst/nikal/nikal.ko): Kernel does not have module support
Starting NI-KAL failed!

Moreover, the content of dmesg is as follows.

[nikal] More than 4GB of addressable memory detected.
[nikal] This configuration is not supported.  Check the release notes for more information.

Is PC with just 4GB useless?

I do not want to set mem=4096m of the kernel option.
Because it is not possible to use it together with the vmalloc option.
 

Please teach the action method.

My best regards I hope.

[Shawn B.]

What NI drivers/hardware are you trying to use?  If you are using NI-VISA, or NI-488.2 using 64-bit Linux may be a potential solution.

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[s.imazu]

Thank you for the reply.

I use and am developing PC of the following compositions.

  CPU: Intel Xeon Quad 2.5Ghz
  MEM: 4GB
  Linux 2.6.18 (CentOS)

  NI-PXI-1000B + MXI4
  NI-PXI-6115
  NI-PXI-6133

I am developing the data acquisition program in the C++ language.
The API of NIDAQmx8.0(RedHat) driver is used.

If it is 64-bit Linux, can NIKAL1.9 and NIDAQmx8.0 be installed with PC with the memory of jast 4GB?
At that time, can the vmalloc size be used enough?

How about you though there seem to not be so many advantages made 64-bit Linux if the memory size is limited to 4GB by NIKAL1.9?

My best regards.

[Shawn B.]

We currently do not have a 64-bit version of DAQmx for Linux so you will have to continue using 32-bit Linux.  Since you have 4GB of RAM in your machine you will need to use the mem=4096M boot option.  You mentioned that this is not an option because you are also using the vmalloc boot option.  Can you explain why you are using the vmalloc option, and why this cannot be used with the mem option?

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[s.imazu]

Thank you for the answer.

NI-KAL uses vmalloc for the buffer.

I think that I want to do the data acquisition for a multi channel, high speed sampling, and a long time.
It is thought that there should be a lot of buffers of NI-KAL only as for becoming to do this data acquisition.

In Linux more than the memory of 1GB, the default size of VMALLOC is 128MB.
The vmalloc option is necessary to change this.

The reason why it doesn't want to use the mem option is that the kernel panic occurs at boot if it uses it together with the vmalloc option.

Boot-loader uses GRUB.

It specifies it as follows at the memory of 3GB.

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.22.el5)
        uppermem 262144
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.22.el5 ro vmalloc=512m root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

It fails if it specifies it as follows at the memory of 4GB.

        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.22.el5 ro mem=4096m vmalloc=512m root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

My best regards it asks.

[Shawn B.]

Perhaps you can use lilo instead of grub?  I believe the kernel panic you see when you have both vmalloc and mem set is a grub bug, and I found at least one user who had similar options and said using lilo fixed it.  For example see this post:

http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0606.3/2379.html

Shawn Bohrer

National Instruments

[s.imazu]

Thank you for the answer.

Lilo is tried to boot-loader.

It takes time to report on the result.

My best regards it asks.

[s.imazu]

Hello.

I'm sorry boot of lilo has not been tested yet.

How if correcting, and dealing with the following source files ahead of that?

nikal.c
about line 892:

before:  if ( addressableMemory >> 32 )

after :    if ( (nNIKAL100_tU64)0x100000000 < addressableMemory )

Though it is thought it is logically good if NIKAL supports jast 4GB memory size.

My best regards it asks.