January 2022
This file contains the latest information about NI-488.2 software for Linux and supersedes any information found in other documentation included in the distribution.
Refer to NI Linux Technology for the most recent information about Linux support at NI.
Refer to the NI-488.2 release notes for known issues, bugs fixed since the last release, and other release details.
NI-488.2 for Linux software for the Linux/x86 64-bit architecture has been tested on the following distributions:
NI-488.2 for Linux requires a 64-bit distribution and does not support 32-bit applications.
NI-488.2 for Linux supports the following GPIB interfaces:
* Analyzer functionality is not supported on PCI-GPIB+ or PXI-GPIB+.
NI provides a repository add-on for all supported drivers that you can install using your Linux distribution's native package manager.
After the driver package(s) are installed, you must rebuild the new packages for the system kernel. NI recommends that you run the command 'dkms autoinstall' after installation, and before rebooting the system, to install the latest revision of all modules that have been installed for other kernel revisions. After doing so, the installed device drivers will function immediately on the next system start.
| gpibexplorer | GPIB Explorer is used to browse, configure, add, and delete GPIB interfaces. |
| gpibtsw | GPIB Troubleshooting Wizard is used to verify your hardware and software installation. |
| gpibintctrl | GPIB Interactive Control is used to communicate with GPIB devices interactively. |
| ni4882.h | NI-488.2 header file |
| libni4882.so | Dynamic library |
| libni4882.a | Object file that allows explicit loading of libni4882.so |
To configure a supported GPIB interface, refer to the Installation Guide located in /usr/share/doc/ni-488.2-documentation.
To have the ni4882 library loaded explicitly when the program makes the first call into the library:
gcc prog.c libni4882.a -ldl
g++ prog.cpp libni4882.a -ldl
For more NI-488.2 API use examples, refer to /usr/share/ni4882/examples/README.
You can access NI-488.2 Help from GPIB Explorer.
Some features discussed in the NI-488.2 for Linux documentation are unavailable on Linux.
Q1: When I try to open Help from GPIB Explorer, I am prompted for my default web browser. What does this do?
A1: This problem only occurs on systems where htmlview is not installed. Each user's response to this dialog box is stored in ~/natinst/.lvbrowser (where ~ is the user's home directory). If you need to change this response, you can edit this file or just delete it so that you will be prompted again when entering help.
Q2: Why can't I discover a GPIB-ENET/1000 device in GPIB Explorer?
A2: It is likely that your firewall is blocking the discovery of the device. You can get around this by disabling the firewall during discovery. This can be reverted after you have added the device.
Q3: Launching gpibintctrl through GPIB Explorer causes the text utility to launch twice in different terminals.
A3: This problem is due to a bug (#646317 bugzilla) in gnome-terminal (2.32.1-6.1). This causes GPIB Explorer to believe that gnome-terminal has failed to launch, so it re-launches the utility in another terminal. You can either close the duplicated window or update gnome-terminal to version 3.2.1 or above.
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