LabVIEW 8.2 Readme for GNU/Linux (x86)

August 2006

This file contains important last-minute information about LabVIEW 8.2 for GNU/Linux, including installation and upgrade issues, compatibility issues, and changes from LabVIEW 8.0. Refer to the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes for more information about upgrade and compatibility issues and for a complete list of new features in LabVIEW 8.2. Refer to the LabVIEW Release Notes for installation instructions. You can access both of these documents by selecting Help»Search the LabVIEW Help in LabVIEW and navigating to the Technical Support and Professional Services book.

Refer to the National Instruments Web site for the latest information about LabVIEW 8.2.

Supported Platforms
Known Issues
Additions to the LabVIEW Help
Documentation Corrections
Support

Supported Platforms

LabVIEW runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3, SuSE Linux Professional 9.1, and Mandrake Linux 10.0 or later. LabVIEW can run without hardware driver support on any other distributions that provide GNU C Library (glibc, also known as libc.so.6) Version 2.2.4 or later.

Refer to the LabVIEW Release Notes for a complete list of system requirements.

Known Issues

VIs, Express VIs, and Functions

The links to subVIs from the labview\vi.lib directory might break when you use File»Save for Previous Version to save application VIs for a previous version of LabVIEW. Right-click the subVIs and select Relink To SubVI from the shortcut menu to relink the subVIs.
With automatic saving for recovery, LabVIEW does not save backups of a VI file in an LLB if the name of the VI contains characters such as ? or / that the operating system does not allow. If automatic saving for recovery is enabled, LabVIEW notifies you the first time the VI you are modifying cannot be saved.
If you run a VI that includes 3D Picture Control VIs more than once, LabVIEW crashes. To correct this problem, either update the DRI drivers for your X server or set the environment variable LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT to anything.
You cannot use the http protocol with the DataSocket VI and functions in LabVIEW-built shared libraries.
The Sound File Read VI uses large amounts of memory to read an entire .wav file. Read the data from the .wav file piece by piece rather than in one large file.
The Sound Output Set Volume VI returns a warning and fails to set the output volume if the operating system uses a version of the Open Sound System (OSS) driver that does not allow you to set the volume level through the dsp device file.
The Array instance of the Sound Output Set Volume VI does not use the volume input to set the volume on a per-channel basis. Instead, this VI uses the first element of the volume input as the sound level for all channels.
The Read From Measurement File Express VI returns an error if you call it on the same file multiple times, which makes using this Express VI in a subVI problematic.
If an example VI from LabVIEW 7.x or earlier opens another VI by specifying the example VI name as a path in the Open VI Reference function, you receive an error when you run that example in LabVIEW 8.x. Remove the String To Path function wired to the vi path input of the Open VI Reference function to correct the error.
If you configure a Call Library Function Node to call a LabVIEW DLL, LabVIEW hangs if you place a checkmark in the Specify path on diagram checkbox on the Function page of the Call Library Function dialog box and you select Run in UI thread in the Thread control. If you configure the Call Library Function Node to call a DLL written in C with these same settings, LabVIEW works correctly.

Block Diagram Objects

If you wire a hex value greater than x7FFFFFFF as an unsigned, 32-bit integer to a Formula Node, LabVIEW coerces the value to 0.
When you select Tools�Compare�Compare VIs and use the Compare VIs dialog box, LabVIEW does not display differences between values of cluster constants.

Environment

A blue field does not surround the palette icons for Express VIs from LabVIEW 7.x and earlier that you open in LabVIEW 8.2. For example, if you use a LabVIEW 7.1 toolkit in LabVIEW 8.2, a blue field does not surround the icons for Express VIs on the toolkit palette. You must mass compile the Express VIs to display the blue field around the icons.
If you define a custom run-time menu for a control and you save that run-time menu with the control, you cannot localize the run-time menu. As a workaround, you can save the custom run-time menu to an external file and point the control to that file, or you can build the run-time menu dynamically with localized strings.
LabVIEW does not correctly hide subpalette menus that belong to locked project libraries.
When you print the VI Hierarchy window, LabVIEW does not print the VI labels.

LabVIEW Object-Oriented Programming

If you delete a control, indicator, or constant of a LabVIEW class, the backup object keeps the LabVIEW class loaded in that application instance. This backup object can cause a problem if the LabVIEW class is loaded in more than one application instance. To edit the LabVIEW class, make sure the class is loaded in only one application instance. The backup object might be the only reason the LabVIEW class stays in memory in an application instance. To remove the backup object for the LabVIEW class, save or close the VI(s). Refer to the KnowledgeBase at ni.com for more information about correcting this problem.
If you rename a parent class while any child classes are in memory, LabVIEW does not record the mutation history of the class correctly. LabVIEW resets any flattened data or non-default data in memory to the default value. To avoid losing data, rename a class only when it is not in memory. Refer to the KnowledgeBase at ni.com for more information about renaming LabVIEW classes.
If a LabVIEW class is broken because a member VI is missing from the LabVIEW class, you cannot fix the class by deleting the missing member VI from the Project tree.

Shared Variables

You can read from and write to private single-process shared variables.
If you open a VI that contains a shared variable from a zip file, LabVIEW displays a file dialog box indicating that it cannot find the file for the global VI associated with the shared variable. Click the Cancel button to recreate the global VI.
LabVIEW fails to deploy all shared variables in a library if one shared variable has an invalid binding. To correct this problem, either delete the shared variable that has an invalid binding or unbind the shared variable.
If you select File�Save for Previous Version and save a VI that contains a Shared Variable node for LabVIEW 8.0, the VI might not return correct results. If you save the VI for LabVIEW 8.0.1, the VI returns correct results. Refer to the KnowledgeBase at ni.com for more information about correcting this problem.
Network-published shared variables do not function properly if multiple network adapters are enabled on the same computer.

Miscellaneous

If you run a VI that calls version 8.0 or 8.0.1 of the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine, LabVIEW crashes.
If a remote panel server is a LabVIEW development system, when a client requests a VI, LabVIEW saves an in-memory image of the VI and sends an up-to-date VI image to the client. Therefore, the remote front panel and the local VI front panel look the same. However, if a built application is a remote panel server, LabVIEW acquires the VI image from disk and sends it to the client. In this case, the VI image that the client receives might be out of sync with the in-memory image of the VI on the server computer if the client connects to a VI that has already been running. The remote front panel might not show an updated version of the VI front panel on the server computer. Refer to the KnowledgeBase at ni.com for more information about using remote panel servers with built applications.
The maximum size of datalog files is 2 GB.
Creating a new project might generate an error if you use Fedora Core 3 or Fedora Core 4 with SELinux. Use the Update Agent to install the latest selinux-policy-targeted package to correct this error.
If you use the Edit Items page of the Enum Properties dialog box to edit an enumerated type control that contains a large amount of items, LabVIEW 8.2 might perform slower than LabVIEW 8.0. To avoid this problem, use the Labeling tool to add or edit items directly from the front panel. Refer to the Adding Items to Enumerated Type Controls topic in the LabVIEW Help for more information about adding items to enumerated type controls.

Additions to the LabVIEW Help

The Create Instrument Driver Project wizard includes a progress bar so you can view the status of the instrument driver project as LabVIEW builds it. You can cancel the operation by clicking the Cancel button.
The default value for the Cache VIs component of the Mass Compile dialog box changed from 5 to 10.
In LabVIEW 8.0 or earlier, the value for the Priority input of a Timed Loop must be a positive integer between 1 and 2,147,480,000. In LabVIEW 8.2, the value for the Priority input must be a positive integer between 1 and 65,535.
You must use NI Spy 2.3 or later in LabVIEW 8.x. NI Spy 2.4 is available on the National Instruments Device Drivers CD.
LabVIEW initializes a Shared Variable node the first time you run a VI that contains that node.
In LabVIEW 7.x and earlier, LabVIEW enables debugging automatically for new VIs. If you then make a VI reentrant by selecting File»VI Properties, selecting Execution from the pull-down menu, and placing a checkmark in the Reentrant execution checkbox, LabVIEW automatically removes the checkmark from the Allow debugging checkbox. In LabVIEW 8.x, LabVIEW does not automatically remove the checkmark from the Allow debugging checkbox.
LabVIEW supports smooth scrolling, or scrolling by pixels, on the front panel and block diagram of a VI.
Select File»Close in a file with unsaved changes to display the Save changes before closing? dialog box. Select File»Close All to display the Save changes and Close All? dialog box.
If you configure source control in LabVIEW, LabVIEW does not report an error when you save a VI to a directory outside the SCC specification.
In LabVIEW 7.x and earlier, if you wire dynamic data to a waveform-based polymorphic VI that has Automatic selected in the polymorphic VI selector, LabVIEW selects the 1-channel instance. In LabVIEW 8.x, LabVIEW selects the N-channel instance. The N-channel instance returns arrays of measurement data instead of a single measurement, so VIs that use a waveform-based polymorphic VI might be broken in LabVIEW 8.x. If you want to process only the first signal in the dynamic data, you must manually select the 1-channel instance in the polymorphic VI selector.
If you are working in multiple application instances, you might need to use an application reference when using VI Server properties and methods.

Documentation Corrections

The LabVIEW Help incorrectly states that you can use the DataSocket VIs and functions to read or write shared variables from Mac and Linux.
The LabVIEW Upgrade Notes refers you to the Fundamentals�Calling Code Written in Text-Based Programming Languages�Concepts�Importing Functions from Shared Library Files topic on the Contents tab of the LabVIEW Help for more information about creating wrappers for shared library files. The path to this topic should be Fundamentals�Calling Code Written in Text-Based Programming Languages�How-To�Importing Functions from a Shared Library File.
The LabVIEW Upgrade Notes refers you to the Fundamentals�Windows Connectivity�Concepts�Web Services book on the Contents tab of the LabVIEW Help for more information about importing Web services. The path to this topic should be Fundamentals�Windows Connectivity�Concepts�Importing Web Services.
In the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes, the TDM Streaming File Viewer VI should be the TDMS File Viewer VI.
The LabVIEW Fundamentals manual did not change for LabVIEW 8.2. Therefore, the content might not reflect changes made in LabVIEW 8.2. Refer to the LabVIEW Help for the most updated information.

Support

Refer to ni.com/linux for more information and resources related to LabVIEW for Linux systems.

Refer to the Linux Lab Project for more information about computer-based measurement and automation on Linux, including drivers for various National Instruments hardware. Note that these drivers are not developed or supported by National Instruments and significant work might be required to use these drivers with LabVIEW.