Download bitfile to FPGA board under Linux

[Cherian]

We use NI PCI-7831R FPGA boards for real-time data acquisition in computers running Linux.  (We wrote the driver ourselves.)  However, when we want to download a new version of the FPGA bitfile (.lvbit) to the board, we need to move the board temporarily over to a Windows computer with the LabVIEW FPGA module installed.  This, we would like to avoid.

Does anyone know of a way to download the bitfile while the FPGA board is still in the Linux computer?  (It is not a dual boot computer.)  Is there a program (or information to write a program) somewhere that will just download a bitfile that has already been created on a Windows computer?

Thanks for any help or hints.

[Yi Y]

Hi Cherian,
National Instruments does not officially have any tool to download bitfile to your board in Linux.  A tool to do that is available on Windows, and you can find it on Start->Programs->National Instruments->NI-RIO->RIO Device Setup.  I'm not sure if it can be adapted to use on Linux.
I hope somebody on the forum has done this.  You can also try http://forums.lavag.org/ and see if anybody there has any idea.

Yi Y.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/support