Table of Contents

Introduction

IEQ11 is IEEE488/GPIB adapter for PDP and VAX. To configure it 2 steps must be applied - compilation and loading of NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver and confuguring CHARON.

NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

CHARON supports NI PCI/PCIe/GPIB boards in pass-through mode using a specific driver that can be built from sources located in "/opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt" directory. Upon loading the driver (".ko" loadable module) into OS kernel at runtime it creates "/dev/gpib<i>" device for each NI PCI/PCIe/GPIB board it finds.

There is no need to install device drivers from National Instruments

Building NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

To build NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver do the following:

Step	Description
1	Make sure that the required building tools and include files are installed. If they are absent install them: `# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"` `# yum install kernel-headers kernel-devel` Note: The kernel version must match the version of the installed kernel-headers (i.e. this packages must have same versions. It can be verified via `"rpm -q -a \| grep kernel-`" ) Check that the "kernel" and the "kernel-headers" have the same version, and ensure that system is booted from this kernel version (not from some older one and etc) with "`uname -a`" command.
2	Open xterm and change the default directory to "`/opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt`": `#` `cd /opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt`
3	Issue "make clean; make" commands to build kernel object: `# make clean; make` It is prohibited to use a module built on a certain version of kernel on another one.
4	Check that there are no compilation errors and the file "`ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko`" has been built

Installation of NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver

To install NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver do the following:

Step Description

1

Load "ppt_kgpsa.ko" driver; to do that issue the following command:

# insmod ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko

2

Issue "dmesg" command and check that no error appeared during the driver loading, also check that the driver has found all GPIB devices:

# dmesg

Adding NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver to Linux startup

To add NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver to Linux startup do the following:

Step	Description
1	Disable auto-loading of device drivers from National Instruments on boot (if available). Use the black list file "`/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf`" to do that.
2	Copy the GPIB kernel module to the location of Linux kernel modules, for example: `# cp /opt/charon/drivers/ni_pci_gpib_ppt/ni_pci_gpib_ppt.ko /lib/modules/3.10.9-200.el74.x86_64/kernel/drivers/` The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.
3	Enable auto load of the module: `# echo ni_pci_gpib_ppt > /etc/modules-load.d/ni_pci_gpib_ppt.conf`
4	Regenerate new "initramfs" image with "mkinitrd": `# mkinitrd -f /boot/initramfs-3.10.9-200.el74.x86_64.img 3.10.9-200.el74.x86_6`4 The particular path may be different, depending on the kernel version and Linux distribution.

Configuring CHARON

Once NI-PCI/GPIB PCI PassThrough device driver is compiled and loaded configure CHARON in the following way:

VAX configuration

load IEQ11 IEA
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib<N>"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib<M>"

Example:

load IEQ11 IEA
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib0"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib1"

PDP11 configuration

load IEQ11 IEA vector = 0270 priority = 6
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib<N>"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib<M>"

Example:

load IEQ11 IEA vector = 0270 priority = 6
set IEA host_bus_location[0] = "/dev/gpib0"
set IEA host_bus_location[1] = "/dev/gpib1"

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