LabVIEW install: Just the Facts, Ma'am

Technical Programming
1

We are a “LabVIEW team” and I’m installing our programming laptops and I’m concerned about the correct order.

Simply, I’m looking for the ‘correct’ install process. Officially, I went here to install and it states:

1 - Base LabVIEW (from KOP) - for us, we chose the top choice
2 - Utilities update (NI page ending in 2262)
3 - Driver Station update (NI page ending in 2263
4 - LabVIEW update (NI page ending in 2261)
5 - NOT documented but from blog, install “F5 Patch” (here)

BUT… the NI web pages (the 2261, 2262, and 2263) all state that the LabVIEW update (2261) is first, followed by the Utilities update (2262) and finally the Driver Station (2263). This would mean the following order: 1, 4, 2, 3 and then 5.

Question 1: Should we be following the FIRST route (install 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) or the NI route (install 1, 4, 2, 3, 5)?

Yep, likely making this harder than it sounds but it took me a while to get a laptop cleaned up and would like to be sure of the install order.

Question 2: Regarding the blog item (item 5 above). Where would you install that in the mix of the other items? For this thread, I placed it last and wondered if you would put it anywhere else in the install order.

I have backed up the laptop prior to the installs but would rather install ‘correctly’ on the first round than to restore and try again.

Appreciate any and all feedback and suggestions. -Ted Dressel

2

Base LabView, then LabView update, then Utilities update, then DS update.

It seems to be working fine for me

3

Thanks for the reply. In my terminology of this thread, that would be the “NI route”.

QUESTION: By chance, did you install the “F5 patch” and if so, did you do that after the Base, LV upd, UTIL upd and DS upd? Or did you do the “F5 patch” between the LV upd and the UTIL upd?

4

It most likely doesn’t matter much. The safer way to go is probably installing the disc contents, then the updates from the LabVIEW updater, then the downloadable FRC LabVIEW update/utilities update, BUT…

I’ve tried doing it backwards on one of my teammates’ laptops the other day and it worked perfectly well. Both sets of updates (the one from the updating tool from NI and the manually downloadable ones designed for FRC) are designed with an updateable mindset either way, as NI obviously patches LabVIEW every now and then, and the utilities update usually gets at least a 2nd update mid-season.

All in all, I wouldn’t read into it that much.

5

It was tested in different orders. Each author tends to write the documentation in the order they personally saw work. It really shouldn’t matter that much.

Greg McKaskle

6

The updates are essentially independent. Installing one does not rely on others having been done first.

I’m having people do them in exactly the order detailed in the ScreenSteps document. Not because it’s any better than another order, but because that’s the one with the most handholding and step-by-step instructions.

7

Thanks to all the replies. Given the various inputs, I ran with the order of installs given by NI. After all, it IS their software. :slight_smile:

I did not have any issues with my installation of “NI order”:

a - Base LabVIEW (from KOP) - for us, we chose the top choice
b - LabVIEW update (NI page ending in 2261)
c - Utilities update (NI page ending in 2262)
d - Driver Station update (NI page ending in 2263
e - NOT documented but from blog, install “F5 Patch”

I have not been able to test by accessing a cRIO to format it, etc. - but it all installed cleanly.

QUESTION/OPINION: After the reboot, the NI software is indicating 1 URGENT update, 1 CRITICAL update and 2 Service Pack updates. Normally I would select them all and do the updates. For the specific setups to do FRC competitions, are people NOT doing these updates (as they are not spelled out by FIRST communiques), or are you installing the updates that the NI Update Service finds?

The good news is that I can recover should the install go bad. I’d just rather not lose the time it takes to do the install and the down time for the students.

And again, I super appreciate the responses. I love this site!