Offline Installation of OPKG Packages on Linux Real-Time Devices

Issue Details

I want to install a third-party package to my NI Linux RT controller (for example, SQLite or ntp) but my controller doesn't have access to the internet. When I try to run commands such as "opkg update" or "opkg install ntp", I get an error that says download.ni.com is unreachable. How can I install these packages?

Solution

It is possible to allow your host PC to act as a proxy so that the Linux RT Target can download packages from download.ni.com.

1. Install NI Linux Real-Time Offline Installation Support onto your host PC and restart the PC when prompted.
2. Open NI MAX
3. Right-click and select Add/Remove Software on the device which you want install.

4. Select the option Allow the target to retrieve packages from the feeds hosted on this computer and then click OK. The host computer will start NI Web Server for hosting the feeds.

5. Use ssh to login to the controller and type opkg update to update the package lists. You could see that it will update the feeds using the proxy address and port (http://[host IP Address]:9100/20.0.0/...).

6. Using opkg install to install the packages. DO NOT close the window below during the OPKG installation.

7. After finished the installation, you could click Cancel to close the Real-Time Software window in NI MAX.

Additional Information

This method only works for packages that are have been verified by NI to be fully compatible with NI Linux Real-Time and are including in the Linux RT feeds.

Packages from any release found in the "extra" repository are not included in the NI Linux Real-Time Offline Installation Support, due to them being unsupported.

If there is a package in the extra feed that you would like to have included in the Offline Installation Support, please contact NI as we may be able to include it in the main feed in the future.