Another code download problem

[heydowns]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

I am seeing a lot - too many - of these WindRiver "No Code" issues from many people of late - I did not have any problems at all with this using last year's stuff. Is anyone "in charge" doing anything constructive to address these issues, as some appear to still be stuck?

The plethora of "No Code" threads and issues stems from the simple fact that the "No Code" error indication (on the driver's station, primarily) is so generic and can have so many root causes.

This will be shown whenever something has occurred to make your robot code be non-functional. This includes, but isn't limited to:

1. Failure to load at runtime. The way code is built for the robot is unlike building programs for a computer or other environment -- the program isn't actually complete (at a low-level) until it is on the robot and "linked" at runtime with the other binary files present on the cRIO. If you have a problem in your program where you, for example, declare a function that isn't actually defined anywhere, you won't actually run into a problem until loaded on the robot. This can be the result of even a simple typo.

2. Crashing programs: if your program, has some sort of ill-behavior and aborts for any reason, it can be reported as "No Code".

3. Simply not having code on the robot

4. cRIO image version mismatches with version of Windriver updates. This is really just a special case of #1

5. Buggy Windriver updates - again, just a special case of #1, but has been much more prevalent this year.



Good practices:

Use debug, not FIRST->Download for most testing and development. Only use FIRST->Download once you get to a competition point and need code to run on robot boot up. The debug load will immediately report problems and point you in the direction of how to fix.

As suggested in another post, use the console! This can be:
1. Serial console over the cRIO serial port with the DIP switch toggled appropriately (not for Black Jag CAN users!), or...
2. Netconsole (works great - highly recommended!), or...
3. Target Console launched from Windriver (though this will not catch problems early in cRIO startup)

I presume the updates are cumulative - installing the latest includes the changes built in to previous updates - can someone please verify?

I can confirm proper operation of several of our laptops that had recent updates applied without prior updates applied; I do believe they are intended to be all-inclusive.