NSCL DAQ

Installation in Ubuntu or Debian

In order to run the NSCLDAQ in a container (or a VM, Virtual Machine). We need 3 things,

1. The container program, we are using singularity container
2. The OS image for the container, which is Debian 8 or 10 for NSCLDAQ
3. The compiled NSCLDAQ for the corresponding OS.

Install singularity

• add neuro debain repository (when the following command fail, go to [1]

~>wget -O- http://neuro.debian.net/lists/focal.us-tn.libre | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/neurodebian.sources.list
~>sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xA5D32F012649A5A9

• update the repository

~>sudo apt update

• install singularity

~>sudo apt install signularity-container

Download the OS image

Like any Virtual Machine, we need an OS for it to run. NSCL DAQ works on Debian 8 or 10.

/usr/opt>singularity build nscl-buster.img docker://fribdaq/frib-buster:XXX

/usr/opt>singularity build nscl-jessie.img docker://fribdaq/frib-jessie:XXX

where XXX is the version, please check Jessie here and Buster here

to test the singularity is working

anywhere>singularity shell /usr/opt/nscl-jessie.img

you will bring to the singularity interactive shell

Singularity: Invoking an interactive shell within container...

Singularity nscl-jessie.img:~>

We can check the OS by

Singularity nscl-jessie.img:~>lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 8.11 (jessie)
Release:	8.11
Codename:	jessie

That means we have a running jessie.

Download the compiled NSCLDAQ

The last thing we need is a per-compiled NSCLDAQ

Link to download Debian 8 Jessie

Link to download Debian 10 buster

And decompress it into /usr/opt/ -> so that the path is /usr/opt/opt-jessie

To run NSCL DAQ

run in interactive shell

Singularity allows user to "mount" the host system directory by using --bind option.

In the following, we will bind the /usr/opt/opt-jessie to /usr/opt/, which is in the VM

~>singularity shell --bind /usr/opt/opt-jessie:/usr/opt /usr/opt/nscl-jessie.img

after entered the shell, we check

Singularity nscl-jessie.img:~> ls /usr/opt/
caendigitizerlibs		epics		iseg			  plx
caenhv-5.22			epicstcl	iseg-beta		  PLX7
caenhv-5.82			geco		JESSIE			  root
cmake				genx		mesycontrol-1.0.4-x86_64  spectcl
daq				GET		mpi			  xiaapi
ddas				gretina		mpitcl
ddastoys			gretinaglom	nscldaq
ddastoys.saved			gsl		NSCLGET

The NSCLDAQ runs on 3 major components

1. DaqPortManager
2. RingMaster
3. ReadOutShell

and since we are in the interactive singularity shell, we can run it without a problem.

run in background

We can use the exec option to run the DAQ without going into the VM or singularity shell.

It is more easy to have a bash script to do it for us.

#!/bin/bash

export USROPT=/usr/opt/opt-jessie/
export SINGULARITY_CONTAINER=/usr/opt/nscl-jessie.img
export DAQPORTMANAGER=/usr/opt/daq/11.3-023/bin/DaqPortManager
export DAQPORTMANAGERLOGFILE=$HOME/daq.log
export DAQPORTMANAGERPIDFILE=$HOME/daq.pid
export RINGMASTER=/usr/opt/daq/11.3-023/bin/RingMaster
export RINGMASTERLOGFILE=$HOME/ring.log

nohup singularity exec --bind ${USROPT}:/usr/opt ${SINGULARITY_CONTAINER} ${DAQPORTMANAGER} -log ${DAQPORTMANAGERLOGFILE} -pidfile ${DAQPORTMANAGERPIDFILE} </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! > nscl_pid.txt

nohup singularity exec --bind ${USROPT}:/usr/opt ${SINGULARITY_CONTAINER} ${RINGMASTER} -f ${RINGMASTERLOGFILE} </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
echo $! >> nscl_pid.txt

echo "============= here are the PID for the DaqPortManager and RingMaster"
cat nscl_pid.txt

#singularity exec --bind ${USROPT}:/usr/opt ${SINGULARITY_CONTAINER} ${DAQPORTMANAGER} -log ${DAQPORTMANAGERLOGFILE} -pidfile ${DAQPORTMANAGERPIDFILE}
#singularity shell --bind ${USROPT}:/usr/opt/ ${SINGULARITY_CONTAINER} 

I saved this bash script as ~/start_nscldaq.sh

To run it, we need sudo, otherwise, the DaqPortManager compiles that it does not have permission to /var/tmp/daqportmgr/listen.port

We can check the DaqPortManager and RingMaster are running by

ps -ef | grep -E 'Daq*|Ring*'

If run in background, how to run the ReadOutShell?

it seems that it opens two instants of VM, one is running DaqPortManager and another is running RingMaster, How can they communicate?