bladeRF under Windows

[sm5bsz]

Hi All,

BladeRF runs well in Linrad now although the performance for HF on the J61 connector is far below what one would expect. I wonder if the strong digital feedback is a layout problem on the PCB or if it is inside the chip. This video shows details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0uTrP9OCo8

Linrad currently loads dll files on program start. This is inconvenient and requires all users to install the dll files for all hardware. For that reason I want to load the dll for a specific hardware only when a user has selected it. Then an appropriate message can be given if something is missing. A bladeRF user has normally run the Windows installer so everything needed would be in place automatically.

There is a problem however. The file bladeRF.dll that works well when loaded at load-time does not work when loaded at run-time. I have made two test programs that illustrate the problem. The first one loads the dll at load-time (bladeRF is specified in the linker command) It works fine. The second file loads the library at run time and it fails. It does return 1 or 2 depending on whether I connect one or two bladeRF units, but the pointer "devices" is incorrect. The pointer value can be 3 or 4 which is clearly illegal. I have the source code so I know this should be impossible. I can however not generate a Windows dll from the source code so I can not insert debug statements.

The corresponding code works fine with PCIe-9842 and it works fine with bladeRF under Linux also. The only problem so far is the Windows dll for bladeRF. Do I have to load it in some other way or is there a system call I need to initiate something? I am using mingw32. I have tried 32/64 versions of XP and Win 7 and they all show the same error.

The bladeRF installer does not work properly under XP. It complains about missing entry points in msvcrt.dll and it crasches if I allow it to upgrade the
firmware. I think an installer for a program using Microsoft Visual C should supply the appropriate dll.

73

Leif / SM5BSZ

----------------- Working code. Link with bladeRF.dll----------------------
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#define uint8_t unsigned short int

typedef enum {
BLADERF_BACKEND_ANY, /**< "Don't Care" -- use any available backend */
BLADERF_BACKEND_LINUX, /**< Linux kernel driver */
BLADERF_BACKEND_LIBUSB /**< libusb */
} bladerf_backend;

#define BLADERF_SERIAL_LENGTH 33

struct bladerf_devinfo {
bladerf_backend backend; /**< Backend to use when connecting to device */
char serial[BLADERF_SERIAL_LENGTH]; /**< Device serial number string */
uint8_t usb_bus; /**< Bus # device is attached to */
uint8_t usb_addr; /**< Device address on bus */
unsigned int instance; /**< Device instance or ID */
};

int bladerf_get_device_list(struct bladerf_devinfo **devices);

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
PSTR szCmdLine, int iCmdShow)
{
int n_devices;
struct bladerf_devinfo *devices = NULL;
(void) hInstance;
(void) hPrevInstance;
(void) szCmdLine;
(void) iCmdShow;
printf("START");
n_devices = bladerf_get_device_list(&devices);
printf("\nn_devices %d",n_devices);
printf("\n[%d]",(int)&devices[0].serial);
printf("\n%s",devices[0].serial);
getchar();
return 0;
}
------------------------------ End of working code ---------------------------------

------------------------- Non-working code. Link without bladeRF.dll----------------------
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#define uint8_t unsigned short int

typedef enum {
BLADERF_BACKEND_ANY, /**< "Don't Care" -- use any available backend */
BLADERF_BACKEND_LINUX, /**< Linux kernel driver */
BLADERF_BACKEND_LIBUSB /**< libusb */
} bladerf_backend;

#define BLADERF_SERIAL_LENGTH 33

struct bladerf_devinfo {
bladerf_backend backend; /**< Backend to use when connecting to device */
char serial[BLADERF_SERIAL_LENGTH]; /**< Device serial number string */
uint8_t usb_bus; /**< Bus # device is attached to */
uint8_t usb_addr; /**< Device address on bus */
unsigned int instance; /**< Device instance or ID */
};

HANDLE bladerf_libhandle;
typedef int (WINAPI *p_bladerf_get_device_list)(struct bladerf_devinfo **devices);
p_bladerf_get_device_list bladerf_get_device_list;

void load_bladerf_library(void)
{
bladerf_libhandle=LoadLibrary("bladeRF.dll");
if(bladerf_libhandle == NULL)goto load_error1;
bladerf_get_device_list=(p_bladerf_get_device_list)
GetProcAddress(bladerf_libhandle, "bladerf_get_device_list");
if(!bladerf_get_device_list)goto load_error;
return;
load_error:;
FreeLibrary(bladerf_libhandle);
load_error1:;
printf("library load error");
exit(0);
}

void unload_bladerf_library(void)
{
FreeLibrary(bladerf_libhandle);
}

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
PSTR szCmdLine, int iCmdShow)
{
int n_devices;
struct bladerf_devinfo *devices = NULL;
(void) hInstance;
(void) hPrevInstance;
(void) szCmdLine;
(void) iCmdShow;
printf("START");
load_bladerf_library();
n_devices = bladerf_get_device_list(&devices);
printf("\nn_devices %d",n_devices);
printf("\n[%d]",(int)&devices[0].serial);
printf("\n%s",devices[0].serial);
getchar();
unload_bladerf_library();
return 0;
}
----------------------------- End of non-working code ----------------------

[bpadalino]

It looks like it might be due to the calling convention in Windows.

I am not an expert, but it looks like you're using WINAPI for your calling convention, and not doing a #include "bladeRF.h" where we explicitly declare the calling convention used with the library. My guess is that this is the problem.

Googling for WINAPI vs cdecl might be useful, but I think if you forward declare the functions in the library using the appropriate calling convention (aka: #include "bladeRF.h") then the compiler should be smarter about it?

This page goes into a lot of detail about Windows calling conventions.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Brian

[sm5bsz]

Hello Brian,

Yes, all is clear now. I specified WINAPI for the load at run-time beleaving I did for load at load-time. Now, that was a mistake, as you can see in the code
snippets I did not specify WINAPI for load-time so I should of course not do it for run time. I just needed to remove "WINAPI". Now all is OK:-)

73

Leif