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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

DE2-115 Triple Ethernet nios download fails

Hi,

Im trying to use the triple ethernet example for my de2-115 board. I am using quartus 13.0. I follow the tutorial, and compile it. It compiles just fine. Im using the Eclipse Nios tool to build the SW portion. Unfortunately, i cant download the nios elf. the download fails. I cant understand why.

I do have a nios license, and a full build license that came with another board, but the sof is a time-limited sof because of the TSE core.

I make sure im downloading the correct time limited sof, and i leave the little warning window, so as not to kill the nios.

I do see the nios in the run configurations when i refresh and im ignoring the system id etc. So im confident that the nios sof is downloaded correctly.

Even when i use a simple hello world template and just the basic helloworld.c example, i still cant download

So my questions are:

1)rather than the generic "nios elf download failed," is there a way to tell WHY it failed? might be useful in debug.

2)what template should i be using once i can download? simple socket? rgmii?

3)how can i tell if the nios is in reset? ive read that if the nios is in reset, that i might not be able to download. Im not physically in front of the board, so i cant press key[0], but i could make it reset some other way

4)are there any complete examples using de2-115 board and the eclipse environment?

Im happy to attach files. just let me know what you need

thanks guys!!

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    As a first step, go to the CD and download the sof file of one of the pre-compiled projects that contains a NIOS. This will confirm that your board's FPGA is good and it can download. Follow the "My first NIOS" tutorial in the CD. This will confirm you are following the steps to create a NIOS and it's software and can download it. If that works, try copying the pre-compiled project you tested earlier, doing a clean and make sure you can re-create a more complex build on your computer with your version of quartus. Don't worry about Ethernet until you are sure these basic steps work.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    Hi Galfonz

    I should have mentioned that ive created several projects already, so im familiar with the build process. I have this particular board working over jtag uart to control a couple of spi interfaces to a device under test. So i know the board is working correctly. Im just having some issues with the ethernet examples. Can you help?

    thanks
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    One thing to be aware of. The DE2-115 uses two different Ethernet PHY chips depending on when it was made. It shouldn't matter, except that sometimes it does. The DE2-115 can also use different means of communicating between the FPGA and PHY chip. Make sure the software matches the hardware configuration of the board. You should be able to transmit without changing anything in the PHY (assuming the hardware and software configurations match). In order to receive packets, your software needs to program the MAC address into the PHY chip. Make sure that is working as well.