PCI-6514 not supported in Linux drivers?

[ninevoltz]

Hi,

I've noticed that the NI-DAQmx base package does not include support for the PCI-6514 card. Why is that? Is there any chance it will be added in the future? NI-DAQmx 8.0.2 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it has support for the 6514.

[DigDoug · Accepted solution]

Hello,

DAQmx base is primarily for use with OS X and Linux operating systems. Since the majority of our customers use Windows, and there are a limited amount of development resources, not all of our cards are suppprted on other operating systems. There is a chance it could be added in the future, but I am not aware of any current plans to test that card with DAQmx base. If you have a Windows machine at your disposal you can always use the latest version of DAQmx to communicate with this card. Hope this helps!

[JoeFriedchicken]

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ninevoltz wrote:

I've noticed that the NI-DAQmx Base package does not include support for the PCI-6514 card. Why is that? Is there any chance it will be added in the future? NI-DAQmx 8.0.2 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it has support for the 6514.

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DigDoug wrote:

DAQmx base is primarily for use with OS X and Linux operating systems.

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Since Linux has both DAQmx 8.0.2 and DAQmx Base 15.0, choosing which driver to use can be confusing. My typical recommendation is:

• Use DAQmx for PCI and PXI devices because the full API and hardware features and performance are supported.
• Use DAQmx Base for USB devices because this is the only NI driver that supports USB DAQ on Linux.

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For a little more history and discussion, see this Linux Users Group thread here: The way forward - DAQmx or DAQmx Base for RHEL 6.x?

I'm curious, though: it appears you prefer NI-DAQmx Base of NI-DAQmx. Would you share your reasons and concerns?

[ninevoltz]

I was trying to use DAQmx base because I'm running Fedora 23 (unsupported obviously) which has a kernel that is WAY too new to work with either package. DAQmx base is the only package that has support for newer kernels. I'm not even going to try to get either one to work with Fedora. This computer dual boots into Windows anyway, I just have something I'm working on right now that requires Linux and I hate having to reboot to use my DAQ devices.

[JoeFriedchicken]

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ninevoltz wrote:

I was trying to use DAQmx base because I'm running Fedora 23 (unsupported obviously) which has a kernel that is WAY too new to work with either package. DAQmx base is the only package that has support for newer kernels. I'm not even going to try to get either one to work with Fedora. This computer dual boots into Windows anyway, I just have something I'm working on right now that requires Linux and I hate having to reboot to use my DAQ devices.

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If I understand you correctly, you have two pain points:

1. Installation on systems with kernels later than 3.11 (the newest kernel that NI-KAL 15.0 supports)
2. Unified DAQ device support in a Windows-Linux dual-boot environment.

In this situation, you might consider:

1. Installing NI-DAQmx Base 15.0, which includes NI-KAL 15.0, to get the newest NI packages available.
2. Installing NI-DAQmx 8.0.2, which can use the newer NI packages, to get support for the 6514.

[ninevoltz]

So are you saying that if I downgrade my kernel to 3.11 and install both DAQmx and DAQmx base, I could possibly get it to work? I assume what you are saying is that the kernal application layer from DAQmx base might be backward compatible with the hardware driver for PCI-6514?

[JoeFriedchicken]

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ninevoltz wrote:

So are you saying that if I downgrade my kernel to 3.11 and install both DAQmx and DAQmx base, I could possibly get it to work?

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Adding a few more test-check steps, my suggestion is:

1. Download and build NI-KAL 15.0.1 against your current kernel using its INSTALL script.
2. If the installer cannot build the nikal module, then downgrade your kernel to 3.11 and try again. I would expect success against 3.11.
3. Install whatever driver you want (or both): NI-DAQmx or NI-DAQmx Base. If you only have PCI devices, don't bother with DAQmx Base.

[ninevoltz]

Ahh, the rabbit hole created by the free software world. I've reminded myself today why Linux will never be as popular or mainstream as Windows is for desktop users. NI-KAL 15.0.1 would not build against the latest kernel, so I downgraded to 3.11. NI-KAL will not build against 3.11 either, because Fedora 23 uses GCC 5. I also could not install nVidia's display drivers for this reason.  Apparently GCC 5 has made some huge changes, along with libstdc++ 6 ABI changes. I think I should reconsider using Fedora 23 now. Thanks for the tips anyway, Joe.