National Instruments GPIB-USB-HS via PyVISA on UBUNTU.md

NI_GPIB-USB-HS_PyVISA_UBUNTU.md

National Instruments GPIB-USB-HS + PYVISA on Ubuntu

LINUX-GPIB

Install depedencies:

sudo apt-get install tk-dev build-essential texinfo texi2html libcwidget-dev libncurses5-dev libx11-dev binutils-dev bison flex libusb-1.0-0 libusb-dev libmpfr-dev libexpat1-dev tofrodos subversion autoconf automake libtool mercurial

Checkout the LINUX-GPIB to user home dir:

cd ~
svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/linux-gpib/code/trunk linux-gpib-code

Install the kernel part:

cd ~/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel
make
sudo make install

Instal the user part:

cd ~/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-user
sudo make install

Check if USB dongle is connected:

lsusb | grep GPIB

expected result:

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 3923:709b National Instruments Corp. GPIB-USB-HS

Load kernel module:

sudo modprobe ni_usb_gpib

Update cache for linker

sudo ldconfig

Check if kernel module loaded:

lsmod | grep gpib

expected result:

ni_usb_gpib            36864  0
gpib_common            45056  1 ni_usb_gpib

Create config file

interface {
        minor = 0
        board_type = "ni_usb_b"
        pad = 0
        master = yes
}

File location for Ubuntu:

/usr/local/etc/gpib.conf

Test GPIB configuration:

sudo gpib_config

expected result:

no output, no error

Try to communicate with the device:

sudo ibtest

• d ENTER,
• address of your instrument ex. 3
• w ENTER.
• type *IDN? ENTER,
• r ENTER
• 100 ENTER

Expected result:

Example: KEITHLEY INSTRUMENTS INC.,MODEL 2000,0000,A05 /A02

If that works it means that linux-gpib can talk to the adapter and instrument. Success.

Python3

Install Python3 depedencies

sudo apt-get install python3-dev python3-distutils python3-pip python3-setuptools

Install Python bindings

cd linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-user/
cd language/python/
sudo python3 setup.py install

Test script

~/testgpib.py

import Gpib
# X is your interface number (usually 0)
# Y is your instrument address (should be configured on the device)
inst = Gpib.Gpib(X,Y) 
inst.write("*IDN?")
print(inst.read(100))

python3 ~/testgpib.py

expected result:

Example: KEITHLEY INSTRUMENTS INC.,MODEL 2000,0000,A05 /A02

PyVISA

Install pyvisa

pip3 install pyvisa

Install pyvisa-py backend

pip3 install pyvisa-py

Install gpib-ctypes

pip3 install gpib-ctypes

Verify configuration

python3 -m visa info

Expected result:

(...)
Backends:
   ni:
      (not important)
   py:
      Version: X.X.X
      GPIB INSTR: Available via Linux GPIB (b'X.X.X r[XXXX]')
      GPIB INTFC: Available via Linux GPIB (b'X.X.X r[XXXXX]')

Test script

~/testvisa.py

import pyvisa
resources = pyvisa.ResourceManager('@py')
# X means your instrument address
k2000 = resources.open_resource('GPIB::X::INSTR')
print(k2000.query('*IDN?'))

python3 ~/testvisa.py

expected result:

Example: KEITHLEY INSTRUMENTS INC.,MODEL 2000,0000,A05 /A02

Sources

While compiling this instruction I used different sources including:

• https://xdevs.com/guide/ni_gpib_rpi/
• https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~osc22/tutorials/gpib_usb_linux.html

Thank you for sharing this! Following your instructions, plus some fixes along the way, I successfully deployed a National Instruments GPIB-USB-HS on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, reading input from three Keithley 2000 multimeters. This was working on kernel 6.14.0-37-generic #37-24.04.1-Ubuntu, and any later kernels until update to 6.17.0-14-generic #14-24.04.1-Ubuntu. With this kernel, testgpib.py fails with:

libgpib: ibBoardOpen failed to open device file /dev/gpib0
libgpib: No such file or directory
libgpib: error in is_cic()!
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/instructor/Desktop/workingSC_2026/testgpib.py", line 5, in <module>
    inst = Gpib.Gpib(0,14)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/gpib-1.0-py3.12-linux-x86_64.egg/Gpib.py", line 26, in __init__
    self.id = gpib.dev(name, pad, sad, timeout, send_eoi, eos_mode)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
gpib.GpibError: dev() error: Bad file descriptor (errno: 9)

I obliterated the original installation and started over, which yields a new error that I did not encounter in my initial installation, and I have not yet found a fix for. This is in the earliest make command in the instructions:

~/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel$ make
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build V=0 modules \
	M="/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/drivers/gpib" \
	GPIB_TOP_DIR=/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel \
	CONFIG_GPIB_ISA="" \
	GPIB_CONFIG_PCMCIA="0" \
	HAVE_DEV_OF_NODE= \
	GPIB_CONFIG_KERNEL_DEBUG=0
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic'
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/drivers/gpib'
warning: the compiler differs from the one used to build the kernel
  The kernel was built by: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0
  You are using:           gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0
  CC [M]  agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.o
In file included from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/uprobes.h:18,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/mm_types.h:16,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/mmzone.h:22,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/gfp.h:7,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/umh.h:4,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/kmod.h:9,
                 from /usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/include/linux/module.h:18,
                 from /home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/compat/include/linux/module.h:61,
                 from agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c:23:
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c: In function ‘agilent_82357a_timeout_handler’:
/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/compat/include/linux/timer.h:50:9: error: implicit declaration of function ‘from_timer’; did you mean ‘mod_timer’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
   50 |         from_timer(var, callback_timer, timer_fieldname)
      |         ^~~~~~~~~~
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c:51:44: note: in expansion of macro ‘COMPAT_FROM_TIMER’
   51 |         agilent_82357a_private_t *a_priv = COMPAT_FROM_TIMER(a_priv, t, bulk_timer);
      |                                            ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c:51:73: error: ‘bulk_timer’ undeclared (first use in this function)
   51 | ent_82357a_private_t *a_priv = COMPAT_FROM_TIMER(a_priv, t, bulk_timer);
      |                                                             ^~~~~~~~~~

/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/compat/include/linux/timer.h:50:41: note: in definition of macro ‘COMPAT_FROM_TIMER’
   50 |         from_timer(var, callback_timer, timer_fieldname)
      |                                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c:51:73: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
   51 | ent_82357a_private_t *a_priv = COMPAT_FROM_TIMER(a_priv, t, bulk_timer);
      |                                                             ^~~~~~~~~~

/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/compat/include/linux/timer.h:50:41: note: in definition of macro ‘COMPAT_FROM_TIMER’
   50 |         from_timer(var, callback_timer, timer_fieldname)
      |                                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c: In function ‘agilent_82357a_send_bulk_msg’:
agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.c:121:25: error: implicit declaration of function ‘del_timer_sync’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
  121 |                         del_timer_sync(&a_priv->bulk_timer);
      |                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[5]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/scripts/Makefile.build:287: agilent_82357a/agilent_82357a.o] Error 1
make[4]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/scripts/Makefile.build:556: agilent_82357a] Error 2
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/Makefile:2016: .] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/instructor/linux-gpib-code/linux-gpib-kernel/drivers/gpib'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic'
make: *** [Makefile:10: all] Error 2

Anyone out there with a similar configuration?
Thanks in advance for any assistance!