2009 Development on Linux

[Robostang 548]

Over the past few years I've seen a lot of teams create great tools for the community of FIRST teams allowing them to use other IDEs as well as compiling/loading their code using their favorite flavor of the Linux operating system. I'm wondering if in 2009, with labview having a Linux version, if teams will be able to use Linux if they so choose. Even if a Linux version doesn't come with the kit of parts, can we get a CD ourselves and use the license code that comes with the version given to us. This question also applies to windriver workbench. It's technically eclipse so I think there is a Linux version available. Will teams that have used Linux to develop their code in the past be able to do so again in 2009?

[AustinSchuh]

I hope that we will be able to develop under Linux using the C/C++ environment. My team has programed the bot under Linux for the last 3 years. My team gets quite a few surplus laptops and desktops donated to us from NASA each year, and they all come without an OS. So we put Linux on them.

I am pretty certain that we will at least be able to run the compilers under Linux. It wasn't very hard at all to get the old compiler working under Linux. After figuring out all the compiler options through CD and watching the compiler compile under Windows, it was just a matter of creating a simple Makefile under Linux and using wine to run the compiler.

As stated in this thread.

Originally Posted by ericand

Wind River Workbench supports both the Linux and VxWorks development environments. Wind River tries to make the development environment tool look and feel the same regardless which OS you are targeting.

If you read the paper on their website at this location, you can read that they support

Workbench 3.0 Host OS Support
· Windows XP Professional, Service
Pack 2, x86
· Windows Vista (Business and
Enterprise), x86
· Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Workstation
Update 5
· Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop with
Workstation option 5, x86 or x86-64
· Red Hat Fedora Core 7, x86
· SUSE Desktop Linux 10, Service
Pack 1, x86
· SUSE Linux/openSUSE 10.2, x86
· Solaris 9, update 9/05 (GTK only)
· Solaris 10

My biggest concern as I have been reading all the threads about the new control system is that we will need to have a Windows machine around for downloading. The downloading software sounds like it might be complicated enough to make it hard to port it to Linux or get running under Linux. I don't have any truly factual basis for this, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty certain that this is the case. That might be solvable by having an instance of Windows running under QEMU if the downloading software doesn't run under Wine. Until I have the software in front of me and a cRio to play with, I won't know for real.

[Lowfategg]

Last I heard the new controller is using the GCC compiler with WindRiver IDE (Eclipse) as its IDE for C/C++ programming. Its not Labview but if your running Linux my guess is your not very scared of C. I might be completely wrong.

http://first.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/Firs...nical_Rev4.pdf

[tdlrali]

The downloading software sounds like it might be complicated enough to make it hard to port it to Linux or get running under Linux.

I think I read about the downloader only being available for windows as well, but when I was talking to one of the NI reps in Atlanta he mentioned something about the cRIO running an FTP server and being able to up/download files - potentially it is just a matter of placing the binary/vi files in the correct place...? We'll find out eventually

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by tdlrali

I think I read about the downloader only being available for windows as well, but when I was talking to one of the NI reps in Atlanta he mentioned something about the cRIO running an FTP server and being able to up/download files - potentially it is just a matter of placing the binary/vi files in the correct place...? We'll find out eventually

Thanks for that information!

If that is the case, Linux support shouldn't be very hard. My worry was that it was going to involve a proprietary protocol on an obscure port on the cRio. There are plenty of FTP clients available that can push to and pull from FTP servers, so that definitely isn't an issue. A simple search through the available Debian packages yielded this find.

austin[36797] carbon ~
$ apt-cache search wput
wput - A tiny wget-like ftp-client for uploading files

The first thing that I am going to do when my team gets their hands on a cRio is to figure out how to compile and download to it and then post my results to CD.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by tdlrali

...cRIO running an FTP server and being able to up/download files...

I talked to Brad Miller today and he confirmed that the cRio is running a FTP server and that is how he currently programs it. Currently the FTP server is unencrypted.

[tdlrali]

Good news, thanks for checking up on that rumor!
That should make it a ton easier than if they were using a proprietary protocol