Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
16 years ago

cyclone iii epcs, software fail to boot

hi,

The design is cyclone iii 3c55 with EPCS128. There is epcs controller in NIOS design. The sof and elf is ok when i use "run as hardware". But the software did not automatic load when power-up. The steps are most followed in this forum:

"

sof2flash --epcs --input=hw.sof --output=hw.flash

elf2flash --epcs --after=hw.flash --input=sw.elf -output=sw.flash

# flash EPCS first with FPGA configuration

nios2-flash-programmer --cable='USB-Blaster [USB-0]' --epcs --base=0x21000 hw.flash# flash EPCS with Nios firmware

nios2-flash-programmer --cable='USB-Blaster [USB-0]' --epcs --base=0x21000 sw.flash

"

I also tried the jic file. the software still cannot load after power-up.

One thing I noticed, after power-up, when i run "nios2-terminal", I can see the result of software running. To my understand, nios2-terminal did not download the software (am i right?). But if i did not run "nios2-terminal",

software did not run.

What is the problem with my steps? or is there anything I need to check based on the thing of "nios2-terminal"?

I use nios2-10.0 sp1. I suppose there should no epcs patch issue like 9.x.

Thanks very much,

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    15 years ago

    Hi,

    I have almost the same problem. Does your software start if you do:

    nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --base=0x21000 --go

    after power up? This will poke my software into starting, but I can't get it to start automatically at power up.

    Mark.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    15 years ago

    The nios2-flash-programmer has a bug in it, 9.1SP2. When you program EPCS with it, it does not work. Create programming file using Altera Stand Alone Programmer, then burn the file into EPCS.