NI Linux Real-Time PXI / x86 / VM

[BradM]

I was unaware of the Idea Exchange, thanks for pointing that out to me.

As for your reasoning for opening the discussion here, that's fair, and my initial response was going to be, essentially, there's nothing technically blocking you from getting NI Linux RT running in a VM, it's going to take some work and modification on your parth though, and you still won't have LVRT running on the VM which limits the utility of the VM. I understand that it is useful for evaluating the platform, but in reality you can contact your local sales representative and open a dialog about evaluating actual, factual hardware. This uses the designed and tested development flow.

If you legitimately want to get a VM running based on the sources that are hosted on github, we can certainly help you through that, but I doubt it's the end-goal you had in mind and it will likely be painful and more trouble than it's worth.

[Richard_Jennings_Younicos]

Is there something to prevent the run-time engine from running on NI Linux RT in a VM?

[ScotSalmon]

That's a variant of this FAQ -- a VM would be "third party hardware" for this purpose:

Question: Can I run NI software like LabVIEW Real-Time (proprietary, licensed product) on other third party hardware with armv7-a architecture like BeagleBone Black, Raspberry Pi 2, etc.?

Answer: We are not planning to support LabVIEW Real-Time on 3rd party hardware at this time. You must purchase a LabVIEW Real-Time deployment license for every non-NI hardware target. Please contact deborah.yagow@ni.com or your local NI Field Sales Engineer if you decide to move forward porting to such hardware.

[samsharp99]

I would recommend/suggest either getting the LabVIEW RIO Evaluation kit (by either buying it outright, or attending the build your own embedded systems course - a 1 day course that includes the eval kit) or a myRIO (contact sales for pricing - you might be able to swing one at 'student'/'home' pricing). The new eval kits are based on Linux RT.

[gsussman]

I was the one that posted the original idea exchange topic regarding the VM for LVRT.

If you read throgh the comments on that particular topic you can see that the discussion of a hardware solution was suggested as a possible workaround. The rub is that this still requires us to purchase a piece of hardware that will ultimately end up being used for a short period of time then left to depreciate in an equipment cabinent somewhere. The next time you go to use that hardware, what is the likeleyhood that some change to either the OS or other required component would preclude you from updating to the latest and greatest OS or version of LV. I have a PXI controller right now that will not run either NI LinuxRT or VxWorks. I see it as a perfect example why buying hardware platforms to test out software is a bad idea.

[ScotSalmon]

You mentioned VxWorks here, and your idea exchange post specifically mentions wanting to flesh out issues caused by porting between the various LV OS's (Windows, Phar Lap, and VxWorks at the time, and presumably now including Linux). I think anything along those lines that we proposed at this point would be Linux only...would that now satisfy your request, or does it still need to cover all the OS's to meet your needs?

With the eval kit and cheaper targets like myRIO available (and, depending on your use case -- non-commercial use only, for example -- really cheap targets like the Raspberry Pi 2) there are ways to try on real hardware without the risk of ending up with an expensive PXI system sitting in a closet. But I agree that VM's (or perhaps WSL) would be convenient, and have a pretty compelling incremental cost. As the FAQ I quoted above says, contact Deborah -- I'll bring this thread to her attention.

[WibJ]

Hello,

What if one is contemplating use a Desktop PC(x64) with a mix of NI and non NI Hardware on linux RT.

Downloading the Linux-RT from github and building the OS is possible, but how do I install the NI-RealTime NI-Runtime, and how do I check for driver availiblity for Linux-RT for NI Hardware?

Are any drivers for DAQ or RIO modules even availible on Linux-RT x64?

Thanks

M

Message was edited by: WibJ

[ScotSalmon]

When you say "how do I install the NI-RealTime" what are you referring to?

If you mean LabVIEW RT, that's the FAQ that came up on page 1 of the thread:

Question: Can I run NI software like LabVIEW Real-Time (proprietary, licensed product) on other third party hardware with armv7-a architecture like BeagleBone Black, Raspberry Pi 2, etc.?

Answer: We are not planning to support LabVIEW Real-Time on 3rd party hardware at this time. You must purchase a LabVIEW Real-Time deployment license for every non-NI hardware target. Please contact deborah.yagow@ni.com or your local NI Field Sales Engineer if you decide to move forward porting to such hardware.

(Looks like we should edit the FAQ to mention desktop and x64 also. I'll do that...)

If you mean NI Linux RT (the OS), there are instructions for that at the GitHub repo, i.e. https://github.com/ni/nilrt/

But if you have a desktop PC with Linux I'd recommend using some desktop Linux distribution, not NI Linux RT. NI Linux RT is designed for NI controllers. It'll probably work fine on other hardware but you'll have a better experience using a distro that is designed for the hardware you're using. Have a look at sites like https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page for advice on enabling the RT patch on your favorite distro.

http://www.ni.com/linux/ has links to driver support for desktop Linux; I think that sounds like where you want to start.

[WibJ]

Hello,

I misstyped my original post sorry for the confusion, I've edited it above.

I was originally thinking of downloading & using the version of Linux-RT availible on github to start. What I was struggling with is where would I obtain the Drivers & NI-Runtime engine. As I thought that the Runtime Engine for Linux Desktop was a different thing from Linux-RT runtime.

Am I wrong in thinking that?

Yes the FAQ mentiones you do not plan to support third party deployment at this time, but it seems to be open to discussion. We are thinking of prototyping a potential solution for a future product and would be open to the deployment licensing scheme, however I'd need to be able to prototype on something before we decide if we want to go that route.

I have not thought of going the route of picking a linux distribution applying the RT patch thank you for that suggestion.

I have sent you a PM with the details of HW I'm looking to use.

Thank you,

M

[ScotSalmon]

The LabVIEW run-time engine for desktop Linux is slightly different from the LabVIEW run-time engine used on LabVIEW Real-Time targets, yes.

For prototyping I would really recommend you use a Linux distribution appropriate for your desktop machine, and using LabVIEW for desktop Linux with it. Then you don't have to port our distribution to hardware it wasn't designed for (and that we can't easily support you on), and you don't have to get a license (that we don't offer currently) for running the LabVIEW Real-Time runtime engine on non-NI hardware.

I'm not personally familiar with the specific hardware you asked about in the PM or the state of Linux support for it, if any. You may want to post on a forum associated with the specific products you're interested in. I replied to the PM with a possible forum suggestion for the specific product you asked about.