October 2021
This file contains late breaking news about NI-Serial and supersedes any information found in other documentation included in the distribution.
Refer to for the most recent information about Linux support at National Instruments.
Refer to NI-Serial Release Notes for known issues, bugs fixed since the last release, and other release details.
NI-Serial software for the Linux/x86 64-bit architecture has been tested on the following distributions:
NI-Serial requires a 64-bit distribution and does not support 32-bit applications.
| PXI Interfaces | Standard | Number of Ports | Isolated | Max Baud (kbaud) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PXI-8431/2 | RS-485/RS-422 | 2 | No | 3000.0 |
| PXI-8431/4 | RS-485/RS-422 | 4 | No | 3000.0 |
| PXI-8431/8 | RS-485/RS-422 | 8 | No | 3000.0 |
| PXI-8433/2 | RS-485/RS-422 | 2 | Yes | 3000.0 |
| PXI-8433/4 | RS-485/RS-422 | 4 | Yes | 3000.0 |
| PXI Express Interfaces | Standard | Number of Ports | Isolated | Max Baud (kbaud) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PXIe-8430/8 | RS-232 | 8 | No | 1000.0 |
| PXIe-8430/16 | RS-232 | 16 | No | 1000.0 |
| PXIe-8431/8 | RS-485/RS-422 | 8 | No | 3000.0 |
| PXIe-8431/16 | RS-485/RS-422 | 16 | No | 3000.0 |
The two-wire auto control mode for RS-485 transceiver control has a maximum baud rate of 2 Mbaud.
For possible use with higher baud rates, refer to ni.com/kb and search for KnowledgeBase 58KEI82F.
This port supplies connections only for transmit, receive, and ground.
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.
Use a web browser to view the NI-Serial documentation at ni.com/manuals
Some features discussed in the NI-Serial documentation are unavailable on Linux.
While NI-Serial includes support for NI RS-485 serial hardware, it does not support wire mode configuration on all supported Linux distributions:
A default transceiver mode of 4 wire-auto will be configured upon install on these distributions.
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