I am trying to install LabVIEW 7.0 Real Time on a PXI-8186
Controller. It has taken a long time to go through the process, and it
is still not working, so I'm posting this message partly to get help
and partly to document what did work for future reference. The
controller came with Windows XP installed. I created a Windows 98 Boot
Disk (from http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html). I plugged in
an external floppy USB drive to the PXI-8186 controller. The disk
drive would only be recognized when the BIOS setting specified booting
into Windows/Other OS. I brought up the BIOS Setting screen by
repeatedly pressing the delete key after turning the chassis on
(holding down the delete key and turning the chassis on does not bring
up the BIOS settings. In the BIOS setting I went to the "LabVIEW RT"
tab and changed the "Boot Configuration:" to "Windows/Other OS".
I then booted using the Windows 98 boot disk and ran fdisk
Using fdisk, I deleted the previously existing partion and created a new primary dos partition with the full volume size.
I
then restarted the computer, again booting with the Windows 98 boot
floppy disk, and formatted the C drive with the command "format C:"
When
the format was complete, I used MAX Version 4.5.0f0 and selected
Tools->RT Disk Utilities->Create PXI Format Hard Drive Disk".
I
selected Version 7.0 from the pull down menu, finished the disk
initialization with no problems and then used the resulting disk to
startup the PXI Chassis.
The PXI booted with the message
"Transferring control to user program." followed by a 11 lines of
"Warning KERNEL.346530: Error initializing Floppy drive A:" followed by
a prompt to re-format the C: drive. I typed "yes"
The following message then appears:
Getting hard disk to boot into real-time O/S...
Warning KERNEL.346530: Error initializing Floppy drive A:
Warning KERNEL.346530: Error initializing Floppy drive A:
Modifying target drive to boot C:\hdmon.bin.
Copying host hdmon.bin to target C:\hdmon.bin...
Error: Unable to open source file hdmon.bin
Failed to set up hard disk boot sector.
At this point I can enter the BIOS and set the computer to boot into LabVIEW RT and I get the following message:
"Unable to load LabVIEW RT from drive!
Booting safe mode from ROM...
Entering safe mode.
IP address is: 0.0.0.0
At
this point I can connect to the chassis from MAX and assign an IP
address. I can also install LabVIEW 8.6 Real Time without problem.
However, I can't get LabVIEW 7.0 Real Time installed. It is unclear to
me whether LabVIEW 7.0 Real Time should be installed using a floppy
disk or by the "Install Software" button in MAX. If I try to use the
"Install Software" button, the only version of Real Time available is
"8.6". When I make the " PXI Format Hard Drive Disk", I see a "7.0"
option or a "8.6" option. I have also tried connecting to the chassis
with 2 other computers, both of which have LabVIEW 7.0 Real Time
installed.
I did see a knowledgebase article that says that
LabVIEW 7.0 is supported on the PXI-8186 controller
(http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/B35E022CF91F6EF086256E68005FBC29)
and another link that explains that an additional CD may be used to
install the software (LabVIEW RT Software Not
Present on Local Host for PXI-8186 Controller:
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/4655C86B65AE7A7286256E620004834C?OpenDocument_)
However,
this knowledgebase was from 3/24/2004 and I did not receive any CD that
was titled "The LabVIEW Real-Time Embedded Software CD". I did receive
a CD "NI Embedded Controller", but it was not obvious to me how to use
it. It has a "I386" folder and a "OS" folder on it.
Any help appreciated.
