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Download and Install NI Driver Software on Linux Desktop

Updated Dec 14, 2020

Overview

Beginning in 2018, NI offers a new catalog of Linux Desktop support for a variety of test and measurement hardware on the PXI Express platform. With this release, there has been a change to the way that NI’s driver software is acquired and installed onto a Linux Desktop system. Instead of providing an executable INSTALL script as in the past, NI now provides a repository add-on that can be downloaded and used to instruct your Linux distribution’s native package manager to install NI driver software packages such as NI-DAQmx, NI-VISA, NI-488.2, and NI-Sync. 

  1. Make sure any pre-18.0 driver software is uninstalled. Refer to pre-18.0 NI driver software readmes for uninstallation instructions.
  2. Download the Linux Device Driver repository addons from NI Linux Device Drivers. Refer to the readme for more information on which NI drivers and versions are included in each NI Linux Device Drivers download.
  3. Identify the .rpm/.deb file for your Linux distribution. For Linux Device Driver versions 2020 and newer, refer to the following table to see what files correspond to which Linux distribution.
     

Linux Distribution

.rpm/.deb File

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

CentOS 7

*el7*.rpm

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

CentOS 8

*el8*.rpm

openSUSE Leap 15.0

*lp150*.rpm

openSUSE Leap 15.1

*lp151*.rpm

Ubuntu 18.04

*bionic*.deb

 
  1. Expand the section below for your distribution to continue.

 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS

  1. Install the repository addon:
    sudo yum install <.rpm file name>
    Example:
    sudo yum install ni-software-2020-20.1.0.49152-0+f0.el7.noarch.rpm

  2. Use your distribution’s package manager to download and install the driver packages. Package names can be found in the NI Linux Device Drivers readme.
    sudo yum install <package name>
    Example:
    sudo yum install ni-daqmx

  3. Update the kernel:
    sudo dkms autoinstall

  4. Reboot the system.

  5. (Optional) Install driver support for LabVIEW. Package names can be found in the readme of each driver.
    sudo yum install <package name to provide driver support for LabVIEW>
    Example:
    sudo yum install ni-daqmx-labview-2020-support

openSUSE

  1. Install the repository addon:
    sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install ./<.rpm file name>
    Example:
    sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install ./ni-software-2020-20.1.0.49152-0+f0.lp151.noarch

  2. Refresh the package list:
    sudo zypper refresh

  3. Use your distribution’s package manager to download and install the driver packages. Package names can be found in the NI Linux Device Drivers readme.
    sudo zypper install <package name>
    Example:
    sudo zypper install ni-daqmx

  4. Update the kernel:
    sudo dkms autoinstall

  5. Reboot the system.

  6. (Optional) Install driver support for LabVIEW. Package names can be found in the readme of each driver.
    sudo zypper install <package name to provide driver support for LabVIEW>
    Example:
    sudo zypper install ni-daqmx-labview-2020-support

Ubuntu

  1. Install the repository addon:
    sudo apt install ./<.deb file name>
    Example:
    sudo apt install ./ni-software-2020-bionic_20.1.0.49152-0+f0_all.deb

  2. Refresh the package list:
    sudo apt update

  3. Use your distribution’s package manager to download and install the driver packages. Package names can be found in the NI Linux Device Drivers readme.
    sudo apt install <package name>
    Example:
    sudo apt install ni-daqmx

  4. Update the kernel:
    sudo dkms autoinstall

  5. Reboot the system.

 

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