Is ARTIQ5 still available for re-install on legacy system?

jfernand

Hi all,
I've been asked to re-install a damaged ARTIQ5 setup (broken Windows PC disk). I have two questions:

a) I'm positive they don't have the ARTIQ7 firmware. I'll try to double-check and make sure they don't have the ARTIQ6 firmware since, if they have it, I understand I could still re-install ARTIQ6 following the legacy windows instructions. If I understand it correctly, the conda channels there listed will provide version 6. I think that would be by and far the easiest think to do. Is that right?

b) If as I fear they are stuck with ARTIQ5, is it still possible to install ARTIQ5 with the legacy instructions? I don't think so, since the conda channels will provide version 6. Is there any channel name still available to refer to the ARTIQ5 software, or perhaps a different set of legacy instructions to re-install version 5?

Thanks for any help

sb10q

ARTIQ-5 is not built on M-Labs servers and not available there anymore. You can build it yourself using the old nix-scripts and/or artiq commits.
You can also reflash the device with a more current ARTIQ version, we did not drop support for any relevant hardware.

jfernand

Thanks.
Has anybody done anything similar in the past (installing ARTIQ from GitHub) and can share their step-by-step instructions? Even if they are for a different version (even for a different software!), I could use them with any number of grains of salt. I guess I should create a GitHub account, checkout the ARTIQ5 version (don't know exactly how), and then...?

sb10q thanks again. Can't use nix (they only use Windows), Can't use afws_client either, don't have [username], they opted out of maintenance.

sb10q

AFWS does not support ARTIQ-5 anyway. It was introduced with version 7. You probably should upgrade anyway.

Vanimiaou

Hi @jfernand were you manage to upgrade your ARTIQ and can you share what were the step? Back then to flash I only needed to specify the variant but now they asked me for the binaries directory, and I have zero idea where it is, it seems confusing for me. Or if you were able to come back to an older version, can you help me with it? I am using MSYS2.

architeuthis

You can find the steps to upgrade ARTIQ here (host machine) and here (reflashing your hardware). Reflashing your hardware means replacing its gateware and firmware with updated versions; these are the binaries in question. You'll have to obtain those binaries first, either through AFWS or by compiling them yourself.

Vanimiaou

architeuthis Thank you very much for your reply, a few year ago this is the command I used to flash, I do not have much time right now to actually catch up with the newest flashing method that requires a binaries directory, so I think I'll try to rollback to older version first

artiq_flash -V <name of the variant>

Do you know when you forge artiq-legacy and use conda and create a new env how can we specify the version to be 6? Thank you very much for your help and your understanding that we're in a time sensitive experiment, we will try to upgrade and flash it properly later on.

architeuthis

Edit: Misread question. Second try:

No, you can't obtain ARTIQ-6 over Conda, the current legacy version is 7. Older versions than this are no longer built on M-Labs servers and Conda has nowhere to obtain them from. In any case, this wouldn't actually help you. Please understand that artiq_flash does not and AFAIK never has generated binaries, only flashed them, that is, copied them onto the core device. You need to obtain the binaries somehow regardless.

Previously, the variants you wanted were built by M-Labs and included in the Conda package, so you could access them directly. To reflash ARTIQ-6 you would need to build these binaries yourself.

What hardware are you using? If it's KC705, certain (modern) variant binaries are still available for download on the M-labs Hydra server.

Vanimiaou

We purchased a Kasli board I believe. It is currently flashed at ver 6.7, that is why I was thinking to roll back on ARTIQ 6 on Conda. Do you know if I can rollback on Artiq 6 on MSYS2 so that I don't have to flash the board again?

architeuthis

MSYS2 has only been in use since ARTIQ-8.

Vanimiaou

I am so sorry for bothering again, as I desperately need the experiment to run and didn't think from one version to another there would be so much changes and that the binaries are not included in newer versions

It seems from your comments that there is no way for me to rollback to artiq 6.

I have looked onto how to build a binaries and clearly do not have 70GB on the PC to build binaries for the board.

I wonder if there is a way to obtain Kasli board binaries for ARTIQ 7 ? Other groups next door to ours also have a Kasli board for ARTIQ 7 I believe, is there a way to just copy some folder from them?

Thank you so much for your understanding that I am an experimentalist that desperately need to be able to maintain experiment control over the years when we purchased the Kasli and do not have the expertise that you have.

Thank you so much for the understanding and for the helps

architeuthis

Vanimiaou

I desperately need the experiment to run and didn't think from one version to another there would be so much changes and that the binaries are not included in newer versions

If you have only recently updated from your older version of ARTIQ, did you follow the instructions for Conda upgrades, i.e. create a new environment for the new version? If so, you can potentially just reactivate your old environment. See the manual here. This is the recommended way of upgrading to preserve the ability to roll back to older versions if necessary.

I have looked onto how to build a binaries and clearly do not have 70GB on the PC to build binaries for the board.

To receive ARTIQ binaries without having to build them yourself, you can obtain an AFWS subscription from M-Labs.

I wonder if there is a way to obtain Kasli board binaries for ARTIQ 7 ? Other groups next door to ours also have a Kasli board for ARTIQ 7 I believe, is there a way to just copy some folder from them?

Binaries are by necessity specific to the exact configuration of hardware they are compiled for, i.e., core device board, DRTIO role, arrangement of peripherals, etc. If your neighboring group uses the exact same layout of hardware and peripherals that you do, and they have their binaries on hand, then theoretically, yes. Look up the system description file to understand this.

sb10q

Vanimiaou I wonder if there is a way to obtain Kasli board binaries for ARTIQ 7 ?

Yes, easily, ARTIQ-7 currently remains supported as the "legacy version".

Other groups next door to ours also have a Kasli board for ARTIQ 7 I believe,

While there may be "PCs for Windows 11", there is no "Kasli board for ARTIQ-7" - all ARTIQ versions support all Kasli boards that were released prior to them, e.g. you could still install ARTIQ-9 on a Kasli 1.0 system from 2017.

Vanimiaou

Thank you so much Sebastien for your help, so does this mean I do not need to build binaries to flash the ARTIQ 7 I installed am I right? Do you know what should I specify as binaries directory when I flash the board ? Thank you so much !

architeuthis

Vanimiaou

To be entirely clear: you can get binaries for legacy (7), current (8) and beta (9) versions of ARTIQ over AFWS, the ARTIQ Firmware Service, which you can contact M-Labs to purchase, or you can get binaries of any version by compiling it yourself from the open source code. I encourage you to read the page 'Reflashing your core device' which I originally linked more closely, especially the 'Obtaining board binaries' section.

Vanimiaou

Oh I didn't try to update, the artiq 6 was working well, we just had power outage problem that affects our PC. Can I ask one more question, when I tried to get artiq legacy on nix this happens, is it not supported anymore ?

warning: error: unable to download 'https://nixbld.m-labs.hk/channel/custom/artiq/full-legacy/artiq-full/nixexprs.tar.bz2': HTTP error 500; retrying in 2551 ms
error: unable to download 'https://nixbld.m-labs.hk/channel/custom/artiq/full-legacy/artiq-full/nixexprs.tar.bz2': HTTP error 500

sb10q

ARTIQ legacy is now version 7, and it uses Nix flakes with a different URL. Please follow the legacy manual for installation instructions: https://m-labs.hk/artiq/manual-legacy/