A bunch of questions ..please !

>>Hello All,

>>

>>I'm new to Altera and uClinux..

Welcome http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

>>I have a Cyclone1 dev. board.. and succeeded in installing uClinux 1.4..

>>

>>but i have some questions,, please help >>

>>

>>1: When i use the flash programmer with the Linux included HW .. a counter starts on the >>7Segments display.. what is this ?? isnt linux free..??

Do not worry! That&#39;s just a counter which starts to run as an indication that the kernel runs. You can disable it in the kernel if you dislike it.

>>2-I want to compile MPLAYER (video player) on it .. bt before the "make" process .. i must run the "./configure" to check some system&#39;s flags.. could this be done on the NIOSII IDE ?? how ?

You&#39;d want the toolchain build by Hippo to do serieus cross-compilation under Linux. The NiosII IDE is very limited and slow.

>>3- What libraries must i include in the uClinux installation to run the MPLAYER correctly ??

I&#39;m not sure what you like to do with mplayer, but as I use on my workstation it displays images on a framebuffer device....

I think you should start off with getting a "video-card" for the NiosII (There are frame-buffer cards available from Altera IIRC) and get a small X-server running before you even start to think about mplayer (unless you want to watch a movie over the serial console with aalib http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif ).

>>4- Did any1 here managed to decode video streams using Cyclone1 ?? is it capable ??

Dunno, sorry

>>Thanks a lot ..

>>

>>Yours,

>>Tarek. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

You&#39;ve got to remember that a FPGA with a NIOSII is not a workstation!

Your welcome http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif

Hello again.

Millions of thanks Mr. wgoossens

ok ill start figuring out what is toolchain..but i was working on windows... what are the tools needed for linux?

i mean is there something like Quartus, SOPC, NIOSII IDE.. under linux?

..

i really dont understand what are "video-card" for the NiosII , and "aalib"..

whaat i wanted to do is trying to port the video output YUV stream to some of the FPGA&#39;s pins .. so i can interface with an external small LCD display..

at this case i will have no need for x-server ..isnt it ? http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif

can any1 please tell me what are the AALIB and this "video-card" .. maybe it can help .. ! http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif

thanks a lot...

sorry.. im very new to this tools .. so please be patient ...

Thanks in advance ..

Tarek

You can find the buildroot guide here,

http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3174 (http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3174)

There are quartus2, nios2 IDE on Linux from Altera. But You&#39;d better use two PCs, one for XP and the other for Linux. Use XP for quartusII/niosII to compile hardware, and use Linux for software. They can share files with samba. You can use VNC, so that you need only one screen/keyboard/mouse to control both.

Most of the Linux software can be built on command line console.

You can check Altera&#39;s CycloneII DSP dev board, it has the VGA and audio code.

Please note that current Nios2 is MMUless. Some software may need modification to run.

There is Nano-X (microwin) ported to uClinux.

You should check the mplayer doc. You need some work on the video driver.

Cheer!