LabVIEW 2009 and Windows 7 64-bit

[Matthew Zaleski]

I know it's not officially out yet. But I'm attempting to install the 32 bit edition on my copy of Win7-x64 (Release Candidate); I've downloaded Win 7 full release via my MSDN account but haven't loaded it since it will wipe my hard drive. It looks like nearly every 64 bit driver is failing during the install and rolling back. Given that LV2009 supports Vista 64 this shouldn't be happening. Vista drivers generally work well in Win 7.

There isn't any error codes beyond a "failed to install XXX x64, do you wish to continue with rest of install?".

Does anyone know of a workaround? A google search came up with no good hits.

[Anders Björk]

Have you tried to start the installer under compatibility mode XP SP2?

[Matthew Zaleski]

Have you tried to start the installer under compatibility mode XP SP2?

That is a good suggestion. I did a variation on that. I re-ran the setup last night with compatibility mode Vista SP1. I chose that because I need the installer to realize it needs to install 64-bit Vista drivers. Again, I got the same failure as before.

I think I will be forced to install LabVIEW into a virtual machine in VMWare. It will take a few days but I will get VMWare running, install Win7 32 bit and then see if LabVIEW is compatible with that. If that doesn't work, then I'll install Vista in a VM. It really shouldn't be this many hoops. Win 7 is really nothing more than an optimized Vista kernel with some new UI tricks. I installed plenty of Vista drivers in Win 7 early on in Win 7 testing when native drivers were much rarer.

My gut feeling is that NI's installers are doing queries that are looking for Vista-specific identifiers rather than querying for "must be Vista or newer". There have been several articles in the Windows 7 developer blogs talking about how there are many programs and installers using poorly designed OS detection methods. On the flip side, it looks like NI is using an MSI installer which is supposed to limit the chance of this occurring.

[ShaunR]

That is a good suggestion. I did a variation on that. I re-ran the setup last night with compatibility mode Vista SP1. I chose that because I need the installer to realize it needs to install 64-bit Vista drivers. Again, I got the same failure as before.

I think I will be forced to install LabVIEW into a virtual machine in VMWare. It will take a few days but I will get VMWare running, install Win7 32 bit and then see if LabVIEW is compatible with that. If that doesn't work, then I'll install Vista in a VM. It really shouldn't be this many hoops. Win 7 is really nothing more than an optimized Vista kernel with some new UI tricks. I installed plenty of Vista drivers in Win 7 early on in Win 7 testing when native drivers were much rarer.

My gut feeling is that NI's installers are doing queries that are looking for Vista-specific identifiers rather than querying for "must be Vista or newer". There have been several articles in the Windows 7 developer blogs talking about how there are many programs and installers using poorly designed OS detection methods. On the flip side, it looks like NI is using an MSI installer which is supposed to limit the chance of this occurring.

I'm running Labview 2009 x64 in Win 7 (In fact I have both the 32 bit AND the 64 bit installed dide by side). They both installed without any problems, although the Developer suite DVD didn't have LV x64 only the 32bit one so had to download it instead (interestingly the device driver dvd has support for both and automagically chooses the correct ones).

You might check first that the Labview 2009 you have is indeed the x64 version and not the x32 one. If this is ok you can try booting up and pressing F8 to get the menu and selecting "disable digital driver enforcement" (There have been a few posts about Win 7 being a bit pedantic about signing) and then trying to install. And as "belt and braces" choose to "Run As Administrator" in case permissions are the problem.

[Matthew Zaleski]

I'm running Labview 2009 x64 in Win 7 (In fact I have both the 32 bit AND the 64 bit installed dide by side). They both installed without any problems, although the Developer suite DVD didn't have LV x64 only the 32bit one so had to download it instead (interestingly the device driver dvd has support for both and automagically chooses the correct ones).

You might check first that the Labview 2009 you have is indeed the x64 version and not the x32 one. If this is ok you can try booting up and pressing F8 to get the menu and selecting "disable digital driver enforcement" (There have been a few posts about Win 7 being a bit pedantic about signing) and then trying to install. And as "belt and braces" choose to "Run As Administrator" in case permissions are the problem.

Hrmm, interesting. I didn't try the "Run as administrator" option. I expected that as a Vista aware installer it would elevate itself properly.

I am installing the LabVIEW 32 bit and the driver installers realize I have a 64 bit OS and pick the 64 bit drivers. From what I could find on the web LabVIEW x64 doesn't have any toolkits other than Vision. I need Realtime, FPGA, Advanced Signal Processing, the trace toolkits, etc. From that info, I determined that what I need to install is LabVIEW x32 on my Win 7 x64 machine. Is that an incorrect conclusion?

The signed drivers may be an issue. I'll give that a try this weekend too. I did see the installer status mention driver signing for each driver. However, since it was the installer mentioning it, I assumed that NI had signed all of their drivers.

Regardless, I'm glad to see there is proof that I should be able to install LV2009 on Win7 x64.

[ShaunR]

Hrmm, interesting. I didn't try the "Run as administrator" option. I expected that as a Vista aware installer it would elevate itself properly.

I am installing the LabVIEW 32 bit and the driver installers realize I have a 64 bit OS and pick the 64 bit drivers. From what I could find on the web LabVIEW x64 doesn't have any toolkits other than Vision. I need Realtime, FPGA, Advanced Signal Processing, the trace toolkits, etc. From that info, I determined that what I need to install is LabVIEW x32 on my Win 7 x64 machine. Is that an incorrect conclusion?

The signed drivers may be an issue. I'll give that a try this weekend too. I did see the installer status mention driver signing for each driver. However, since it was the installer mentioning it, I assumed that NI had signed all of their drivers.

Regardless, I'm glad to see there is proof that I should be able to install LV2009 on Win7 x64.

I think your main problem is probably becase you are trying to mix and match LV x32 and X64 device drivers. You cannot compile 64bit applications with labview x32 and vice versa (bit short sighted in my view) hence the reason I have both installed. Time will tell if LV is able to choose the correct device drivers to compile with depending on which LV version I am running (havn't got that far yet).

When I installed, the device driver installer chose either x32 or x64 based on the labview version I had just installed rather than the OS. I chose the device driver custom install in the labview installer which prompted me to insert the dvd and it had already chosen the appropriate bitness (is that a word?).

Edited August 14, 2009 by ShaunR

[Matthew Zaleski]

I think your main problem is probably becase you are trying to mix and match LV x32 and X64 device drivers. You cannot compile 64bit applications with labview x32 and vice versa (bit short sighted in my view) hence the reason I have both installed. Time will tell if LV is able to choose the correct device drivers to compile with depending on which LV version I am running (havn't got that far yet).

When I installed, the device driver installer chose either x32 or x64 based on the labview version I had just installed rather than the OS. I chose the device driver custom install in the labview installer which prompted me to insert the dvd and it had already chosen the appropriate bitness (is that a word?).

It took me longer than expected to reload Windows 7 64-bit RTM.

I ended up doing the following:

1. Installed LabVIEW 64 by itself (since it isn't on the DVDs afaict)
2. Ran normal DVD installer and picked all the toolkits for which I have licenses. The installer seemed to recognize the existing LabVIEW 64 and automatically activated the appropriate entries for it along with LabVIEW 32.
3. Reboot
4. Ran the NI-RIO 3.2.1 installer from NI.com
5. Reboot
6. Opened my project and went to the CRIO FPGA node

I'm further along than before since Realtime nodes are now recognized. But LabVIEW still thinks I don't have all my files. Look at the screenshot:

I tried rerunning NI-RIO 3.2.1 and picking all the options. It resulted in a no-op and didn't see the need to install any files.

A google search didn't give me any useful hits. Any suggestions?

[Matthew Zaleski]

I tried rerunning NI-RIO 3.2.1 and picking all the options. It resulted in a no-op and didn't see the need to install any files.

A google search didn't give me any useful hits. Any suggestions?

I attacked the problem again tonite. Using the logic of a computer scientist, I uninstalled all NI-RIO stuff, rebooted, then re-installed NI-RIO 3.2.1. The project is now working.

It shouldn't be this difficult...

Edited August 27, 2009 by Matthew Zaleski

[ShaunR]

It took me longer than expected to reload Windows 7 64-bit RTM.

I ended up doing the following:

1. Installed LabVIEW 64 by itself (since it isn't on the DVDs afaict)
2. Ran normal DVD installer and picked all the toolkits for which I have licenses. The installer seemed to recognize the existing LabVIEW 64 and automatically activated the appropriate entries for it along with LabVIEW 32.
3. Reboot
4. Ran the NI-RIO 3.2.1 installer from NI.com
5. Reboot
6. Opened my project and went to the CRIO FPGA node

I'm further along than before since Realtime nodes are now recognized. But LabVIEW still thinks I don't have all my files. Look at the screenshot:

I tried rerunning NI-RIO 3.2.1 and picking all the options. It resulted in a no-op and didn't see the need to install any files.

A google search didn't give me any useful hits. Any suggestions?

Progress

The compact RIO (cRIO) is a separate installation on the DD DVD.I didn't install it since I don't use cRIO (far too expensive) so cannot verify the installation, but looking at my installation I have NI-RIO 3.2.0 and NI-RIO 3.2.0 real time driver installed since vision is dependent on them (quite why I have no idea). I would suggest going back to the DD DVD and installing the Reconfigurable IO section and all its dependents and see if that works.

One thought. It you are targeting cRio, it probably isn't 64bit so compiling to 64bit isn't really an option. It might be that the target is only possible on the 32 bit version. Whilst NI do supply FPGA cards for PC's, they probably can be targeted (and therfore the need for the NI-RIO driver core), hence the "Module Not Supported" lines in your screenshot.

[Matthew Zaleski]

Progress

The compact RIO (cRIO) is a separate installation on the DD DVD.I didn't install it since I don't use cRIO (far too expensive) so cannot verify the installation, but looking at my installation I have NI-RIO 3.2.0 and NI-RIO 3.2.0 real time driver installed since vision is dependent on them (quite why I have no idea). I would suggest going back to the DD DVD and installing the Reconfigurable IO section and all its dependents and see if that works.

One thought. It you are targeting cRio, it probably isn't 64bit so compiling to 64bit isn't really an option. It might be that the target is only possible on the 32 bit version. Whilst NI do supply FPGA cards for PC's, they probably can be targeted (and therfore the need for the NI-RIO driver core), hence the "Module Not Supported" lines in your screenshot.

My post just prior to yours was full success. I'm running LabVIEW 32 to actually do my work. I only installed LabVIEW 64, based on other suggestions in the thread, in order to get all of the hardware drivers loaded. I doubt I will ever use LabVIEW 64 2009. It looks like it is only good for NI-Vision work; No other modules are supported.

It looks like the 3.2.1 install/upgrade doesn't play well with a 3.2.0 install.

Now I'm just beating my head against the wall trying to get the FPGA to compile; Doesn't want to fit in 3 MGate anymore

I'm beginning to think that each new version of FPGA compiler becomes LESS efficient at using slices. Are the NI-FPGA and Xilinx boys taking lessons from Microsoft Windows?

It's funny that you say the cRIO is far too expensive. Compared to equivalent hardware from non-NI companies: it's the cheapest. I do agree that there are other cheaper solutions but we needed the rugged external i/o without requiring continuous connection to a PC.

[ShaunR]

My post just prior to yours was full success. I'm running LabVIEW 32 to actually do my work. I only installed LabVIEW 64, based on other suggestions in the thread, in order to get all of the hardware drivers loaded. I doubt I will ever use LabVIEW 64 2009. It looks like it is only good for NI-Vision work; No other modules are supported.

It looks like the 3.2.1 install/upgrade doesn't play well with a 3.2.0 install.

Now I'm just beating my head against the wall trying to get the FPGA to compile; Doesn't want to fit in 3 MGate anymore

I'm beginning to think that each new version of FPGA compiler becomes LESS efficient at using slices. Are the NI-FPGA and Xilinx boys taking lessons from Microsoft Windows?

It's funny that you say the cRIO is far too expensive. Compared to equivalent hardware from non-NI companies: it's the cheapest. I do agree that there are other cheaper solutions but we needed the rugged external i/o without requiring continuous connection to a PC.

Well. I suppose its what you are used to and your requirements (if you really, really need deterministic control and only want to use LV, then theres not much of an alternative). I presume you are in this camp since you are using an FPGA.

We have a high IO count (typically >96 DIO lines) so your talking mega cash with cRIO. We use RS485 digital IO boxes (each has 32 In, 32 out, 24v @ 0.5A per channel. Cost to us about £80 each) running at 1MBps which is perfectly adequate for near real-time system control. But of course they are dumb IO. We usually connect them up with a Intel Atom Fanless PC running XP Embedded which we can also put a PCI card in if we need to. Total cost about £1200 and more IO than you can swing a cat at (plus you get Gigabit LAN, USB, RS232, 5v GPIO etc).

[Hitesh]

Hrmm, interesting. I didn't try the "Run as administrator" option. I expected that as a Vista aware installer it would elevate itself properly.

I am installing the LabVIEW 32 bit and the driver installers realize I have a 64 bit OS and pick the 64 bit drivers. From what I could find on the web LabVIEW x64 doesn't have any toolkits other than Vision. I need Realtime, FPGA, Advanced Signal Processing, the trace toolkits, etc. From that info, I determined that what I need to install is LabVIEW x32 on my Win 7 x64 machine. Is that an incorrect conclusion?

The signed drivers may be an issue. I'll give that a try this weekend too. I did see the installer status mention driver signing for each driver. However, since it was the installer mentioning it, I assumed that NI had signed all of their drivers.

Regardless, I'm glad to see there is proof that I should be able to install LV2009 on Win7 x64.

Hi Metthew,

What happened then.. Did Labview 2009 32bit worked on windows 7 64 bit. all modules like (FPGA, RT) works on that ?

I am also trying to do same.. Please guide me..

[njg]

Hi Metthew,

What happened then.. Did Labview 2009 32bit worked on windows 7 64 bit. all modules like (FPGA, RT) works on that ?

I am also trying to do same.. Please guide me..

I've installed LabVIEW 2009 32bit on Win7 64bit and I've only noticed two potential issues:

1) Traditional DAQ is no longer supported (not a big deal since we've had a long time to convert old programs over)

2) Default installation is "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments" which affects absolute paths within instr.lib and user.lib

Otherwise, so far so good!

[rpursley]

I've installed LabVIEW 2009 32bit on Win7 64bit and I've only noticed two potential issues:

1) Traditional DAQ is no longer supported (not a big deal since we've had a long time to convert old programs over)

2) Default installation is "C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments" which affects absolute paths within instr.lib and user.lib

Otherwise, so far so good!

I've installed LabVIEW 2009 32-bit and 64-bit on both Vista 64-bit and Win 7 64-bit and have had no problems. My 32-bit version has FPGA, RT, Mathscript, and Vision installed as well. The 64-bit has Vision installed.

[Matthew Zaleski]

Hi Metthew,

What happened then.. Did Labview 2009 32bit worked on windows 7 64 bit. all modules like (FPGA, RT) works on that ?

I am also trying to do same.. Please guide me..

Posts 7, 8 and 9 from me in this thread give the solution that worked for me. I have not had reason to re-install LV2009 on my Win7 machine so I don't know how much those instructions can be simplified. Suffice to say I really don't understand why it was so difficult to get it installed.

[Hitesh]

I've installed LabVIEW 2009 32-bit and 64-bit on both Vista 64-bit and Win 7 64-bit and have had no problems. My 32-bit version has FPGA, RT, Mathscript, and Vision installed as well. The 64-bit has Vision installed.

Thanks.. It will help a lot.