Useful Tools

When configuring a PXI from scratch, there are several tools and shortcuts that could be implemented to simplify routine procedures or debugging these are:

Script for copying all the required configuration files onto a fresh installed PXI from an old one

The script is called CopyFromOldPxi.sh and is meant to be executed from the PXI we want to configure. This script requires the IP of the PXI to copy from as an input:

./CopyFromOldPxi.sh 139.229.171.26

Adding an alias to read the log messages the rtexe app logs during boot

  • SSH into the PXI, using the admin user

  • Open the .bashrc file with vi -> $ vi .bashrc

  • Add the following line to the admin user .bashrc file.

    alias labviewmessages="cat /var/log/messages | grep LabVIEW_Custom"

  • Save the file and exit

  • Reload the .bashrc -> $ source .bashrc

Loading the rtexe onto the target PXI

  • Download the built version

  • Extract the *.zip file

  • Copy the contents of the startup or bin folders into the /c/ni-rt/startup/ folder from the target PXI. Example:

    $ cd C:\Builds\MainAxesPXI\MainAxisControl\c\ni-rt\
$ ls
startup
$ scp -r startup/* admin@<target IP or hostname>:/c/ni-rt/startup/
(a list of copied files appear)

    For builds with the rtexe inside a bin folder the command from the example changes to scp -r bin/* admin@<target IP or hostname>:/c/ni-rt/startup/

Making sure the PXI will boot from the installed rtexe

For the PXI to boot from the provided rtexe built app, there is a configuration setting from the NI real time environment that must be set. This setting is located inside /etc/natinst/share/lvrt.conf for NI Linux RT targets. Here the following sections must be set:

  • RTTarget.ApplicationPath=/c/ni-rt/startup/startup.rtexe

  • RTTarget.LaunchAppAtBoot=True