We are moving to a new CMS system to make even easier to navigate through MRPT documentation and tutorials. During the first days a few links may still be broken, so sorry in advance for the inconveniences!

Quick FAQ:

• Can I install “DAQmx Base” in a 64bit GNU/Linux OS?
  Yes; despite National Instruments’ lack of interest.
• Can it be installed in Ubuntu / Debian?
  As far as I reached, only NI-DAK (the kernel driver), but not “DAQmx Base”. So, in short: you can’t.
• Can I use it to compile my own C applications?
  Yes, but only as 32bit programs. Even in a 64bit OS.
• Why can’t I build 64bit programs? Shouldn’t it be easy to provide 64bit libraries?
  Don’t know; ask NI.

1. Install NI KAL:

1.1. Prepare to build the kernel sources:

• You need a few packages to compile NI’s kernel driver module. Open a console, and execute:
  
  sudo zypper in kernel-devel kernel-source kernel-syms

  1	sudo zypper in kernel-devel kernel-source kernel-syms

• Find out which kernel module you are running:
  
  uname -r

  1

  uname -r

• Change the directory to the /usr/src/linux-[VERSION] directory, where [VERSION] corresponds to the currently running kernel version.
• Run the following, replacing [VERSION] as corresponds to your system:
  
  sudo su zcat /boot/symvers-[VERSION].gz > Module.symvers make cloneconfig # Configure sources for kernel make modules_prepare # Prepare the headers for compilation

  1 2 3 4

  sudo su zcat /boot/symvers-[VERSION].gz > Module.symvers make cloneconfig # Configure sources for kernel make modules_prepare # Prepare the headers for compilation

1.2. Install NI KAL

NI KAL is National Instruments’ Kernel Abstraction Layer (KAL). It is required before installing NI DAQmx Base or any other NI stuff.

• Get the latest version, NIKAL 2.4 as of October 2013:
  http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/4459/lang/en
• Extract the .iso file, for example, right-clicking on it and selecting “Extract”.
• Say you have now NIKAL contents in ~/Downloads/NIKAL24. Open a console and run:
  
  cd ~/Downloads/NIKAL24 sudo ./INSTALL --nodeps

  1 2	cd ~/Downloads/NIKAL24 sudo ./INSTALL --nodeps

Accept the license and confirm the target directory to finish the installation:

• Recompile the module kernel, with:
  
  sudo /usr/local/natinst/nikal/bin/updateNIDrivers

  1	sudo /usr/local/natinst/nikal/bin/updateNIDrivers

• Reboot, as you are prompted to.
• After rebooting, open a new console and check if the nikal module is correctly installed with:
  
  sudo modprobe nikal sudo lsmod | grep nikal

  1 2	sudo modprobe nikal sudo lsmod | grep nikal

  If you can see something like:
  
  nikal 93934 0

  1	nikal 93934 0

  then it is correctly setup and loaded. Great! Now for the next steps.

2. Install DAQmx Base

Installing DAQmx Base in a 64bit OS is not officially supported by NI, so a few extra steps are required. Here is the recipe:

• Download the latest Linux version of NI DAQmx Base. As of October 2013, it is version 3.7, and can be downloaded from:
  • http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/4269/lang/en

  For some obscure reason, there seems not to be one “central” web page where we can always get the latest version of DAQmx Base, or even knowing whether there exists a newer one. Sight.

• Save the nidaqmxbase-3.7.0.iso file, for example to ~/Downloads.
• Open a console in the download directory and extract the ISO contents into a new directory named “DAQmx”:
  mkdir DAQmx tmp sudo mount -o loop nidaqmxbase-3.7.0.iso tmp cp -r --no-preserve=ownership tmp/* DAQmx sudo umount tmp rm -fr tmp

  1 2 3 4 5

  mkdir DAQmx tmp sudo mount -o loop nidaqmxbase-3.7.0.iso tmp cp -r --no-preserve=ownership tmp/* DAQmx sudo umount tmp rm -fr tmp

• Before installing NIVISA, we must patch the INSTALL script because the .rpm has some errors:
  cd DAQmx/nivisa/ chmod u+w . INSTALL perl -p -i -e "s/RPMOpts=--nodeps/RPMOpts=\"--replacefiles --nodeps\"/g" INSTALL perl -p -i -e "s/RPMOpts=\"\"/RPMOpts=\"--replacefiles\"/g" INSTALL

  1 2 3 4

  cd DAQmx/nivisa/ chmod u+w . INSTALL perl -p -i -e "s/RPMOpts=--nodeps/RPMOpts=\"--replacefiles --nodeps\"/g" INSTALL perl -p -i -e "s/RPMOpts=\"\"/RPMOpts=\"--replacefiles\"/g" INSTALL

• Now, we can run the INSTALL script as root and NIVISA will get installed:
  sudo ./INSTALL

  1	sudo ./INSTALL

read more

After six months since the last stable release, we announce today the release of MRPT 1.1.0.

The main news are:

• A new class and two apps for RGB+D visual odometry. See app page.
• Support for new sensors: Point Grey Research’s FlyCapture2 cameras, XSens MT4 IMUs, and National Instrument DAQs.
• Many improvements in the reactive navigator classes.

See the complete list of changes here: https://docs.mrpt.org/reference/devel/changelog.html#1.1.0.

As usual, visit the MRPT download page for the list of available packages. Ubuntu users should be interested in the PPA repositories.

Any (good or bad!) feedback will be welcome in the forums or as an issue report, since it’s fundamental to keep MRPT improving with each release. read more

Good news everyone!

We are delighted with the inclusion of MRPT in Google’s GSoC 2016. GSoC allows students to earn a few $1,000’s by doing what the love the most: coding in Open Source projects.

What’s next? 

• 14th to 25th Mar 2016 is the period for students to apply.
• Read MRPT GSoC2016 ideas page for further instructions, or browse the other organizations accepted this year to find a project that suits you.