NI-DCPower 2023 Q1 for Linux/x86 64-bit Architecture Readme

January 2023

This file contains installation instructions and compatibility information for NI-DCPower 2023 Q1.

You can find more release information on ni.com.

• NI-DCPower Release Notes: Known issues, bugs fixed since the last release, and other notes about this release
• NI-DCPower Documentation: New features, behavior changes, and other documentation

System Requirements

Installation Instructions

Supported Hardware

Finding Examples

Linux Limitations

System Requirements

NI-DCPower software for the Linux/x86 64-bit architecture has been tested on the following distributions:

• openSUSE Leap 15.4
• openSUSE Leap 15.3
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 20.04

NI-DCPower requires a 64-bit distribution and does not support 32-bit applications.

Installation Instructions

NI provides a repository add-on for all supported drivers that you can install using your Linux distribution's native package manager.

1. Visit the Download and Install NI Driver Software on Linux Desktop page at ni.com.
2. Download and install the repository add-on for your Linux distribution.
3. Install the following NI-DCPower driver packages through your Linux distribution's package manager:
   • ni-dcpower
   • ni-dcpower-daqmx (for NI-DAQmx-based DCPower support)
   • [OPTIONAL] ni-dcpower-devel (for C/C++ development support)
   • [OPTIONAL] ni-dcpower-labview-20xy-support (for development support and examples on LabVIEW 2021 and earlier)
   • [OPTIONAL] ni-dcpower-labview-support (for development support and examples on LabVIEW 2022 and later)
   • Visit LabVIEW and Linux OS Compatibility on ni.com for more information.
4. 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.

Updated LabVIEW Compatibility Policy

When installing NI-DCPower, the "NI-DCPower Support for LabVIEW" package will be recommended if you have already installed LabVIEW 2022 or later and installs to the LVAddons directory. This package supports applications using NI-DCPower with LabVIEW 2022 or later.

LVAddons directory location: /usr/local/natinst/share/lvaddons

Supported Hardware

Visit NI Hardware and Operating System Compatibility to view driver, desktop operating system, and real-time operating system support for individual hardware devices.

To view information for your device:

• Select your hardware model in the dropdown list on the page to view compatibility information for your device.
• Type your hardware model number in the dropdown list on the web page to filter the list of available devices.

Note: Some compatibility information may only be available in the archive attached to the NI Hardware and Operating System Compatibility page. For historic driver and OS support information, refer to the readme for the relevant driver version.

Finding Examples

This release includes examples showing the use of NI-DCPower in LabVIEW.

The LabVIEW examples are located in the LabVIEW examples directory.

Linux Limitations

Some features discussed in the NI-DCPower documentation are unavailable on Linux.

• NI-DCPower for Linux supports two application development environments:
  • LabVIEW 2020 and later
    • LabVIEW 2020 is not supported on Ubuntu
  • C and C++ (gcc)
• NI-DCPower for Linux does not support other ADEs, such as the LabVIEW Real-Time Module, LabWindows/CVI, Microsoft Visual C/C++, or Microsoft Visual Basic.
• NI-DCPower for Linux does not provide the following graphical configurations or debug utilities that are available for other operating systems:
  • Test Panels
  • NI I/O Trace
  • NI Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) graphical configuration utility
    • The NI Hardware Configuration Utility (22.0 or later) is an alternative to discover and rename devices and is available with the ni-hwcfg-utility package.
    • Additionally, all supported NI-DCPower hardware can be discovered and renamed through the NI System Configuration (NI-SysCfg) API.
    • Install the following:
    • ni-syscfg-runtime
    • ni-syscfg-devel (for C/C++ development)
    • ni-syscfg-labview-2021-support (for LabVIEW development)
    • To change aliases in LabVIEW, run the ./local/natinst/LabVIEW-2021-64/examples/nisyscfg/Rename Aliases.vi example.
    • To read device aliases and general device properties directly from the command line, use the lsni -v or the lsni -u command.
  • When using NI-DCPower in a PXI system, several restrictions apply:
    • Control through MXI-4 is supported, but MXI-3 is not.
  • External calibration functions are not supported. Refer to your hardware documentation for information about external calibration, and refer to . If your NI power supply or SMU requires external calibration, either perform the calibration on a Windows system, or hire NI or an independent calibration laboratory to perform the calibration.