Ashling RISC Free IDE fails to download ELF file

Hi Rajesh,

Thanks for the reply to my CASE. Actually i have tried many different speed settings , 1,4,16,24 MHz and they all failed with the same error message. It seems like the Ashling RISC IDE is blocked somehow from accessing the JTAG channel. I have no idea why that might be. Have you used this Ashling RISC IDE before and got it to work ?
I am running my design on a windows 10 PC.

Thanks, Dr Barry H

Hello Rajeesh,

Thanks for the extra help. I will try this out. I Have discovered one problem was that the Windows 10 PC i was working with had Norton 360 AV installed, and even though it never reported any blocking events, ad all logs appeared to suggest it was not interfering with the debugger and Compiler, i must have been doing something., because today i uninstalled it all, rebooted, and tried running the debugger again, and it got a lot further:
Here is the log now : 

Ashling GDB Server for RISC-V (ash-riscv-gdb-server).

v25.2.1, 09-May-2025, (c)Ashling Microsystems Ltd 2024.

Initializing connection ...

Unable to setup Adaptive Clock

Connected to target device with IDCODE 0x31050dd using USB-Blaster-2 (2) via JTAG at adaptive speed.

Info : Active Harts Detected : 1

Info : Core[0] Hart[0] halted

Info : [0] System architecture : RV32

Info : [0] Debug version : v1.00

Info : [0] Number of hardware breakpoints available : 1

Info : [0] Number of program buffers: 8

Info : [0] Number of data registers: 2

Info : [0] Memory access -> Program buffer

Info : [0] Memory access -> Abstract access memory

Info : [0] CSR & FP Register access -> Abstract commands

Waiting for debugger connection on port 63780.

Press 'Q' to Quit.

Got a debugger connection from 127.0.0.1 on port 63780.

Then from the Debug Terminal i see this and it crashes:

GNU gdb (GDB) 13.2

Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.

This GDB was configured as "--host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --target=riscv32-unknown-elf".

Type "show configuration" for configuration details.

For bug reporting instructions, please see:

<https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.

Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:

<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.

For help, type "help".

Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".

Warning: Instruction specification contains imm field

Warning: Instruction specification contains imm field

Warning: Instruction specification contains imm field

...Then it crashes ...ends up here :

void break_operation (void) {

#ifdef ALT_CPU_HAS_DEBUG_STUB

NIOSV_EBREAK();

#else // ALT_CPU_HAS_DEBUG_STUB

while(1) ;

#endif // ALT_CPU_HAS_DEBUG_STUB

}

Main never opens.....i assume something in the build went wrong but not sure what or why because it seemed to build OK.

LINUX BUILDS: I have also tried building your designs on my UBUNUT PC, and after doing all the configurations for the linux tools and the environment setup, get the following error messages from the Ashling IDE, i assume something is still not quite right in the Linux project configuartion, how do i tell it where the CMakecache.txt file is please ?:

Compile log from Ubuntu  24.04:

Description Resource Path Location Type

File CMakeCache.txt does not exist, unable to build project bsp CMakecache.txt Problem could not load cache bsp C/C++ Problem

Project 'bsp' has no explicit encoding set bsp /bsp No explicit project encoding

Project 'app_iperf' has no explicit encoding set app_iperf /app_iperf No explicit project encoding

File '/home/drbarryh/VAREX_Projects/25.1std_max10_package/software/bsp/build/default/compile_commands.json' was not created in the build. Your workbench will not know all include paths and preprocessor defines. bsp org.eclipse.cdt.jsoncdb.core.CompileCommandsJsonParser JSON compilation database

Thanks, Dr Barry H

Hi Rajeesh, I was trying to follow your instructions for generating a level 7 log file but i got an error message and the gdb failed to run. Here is the exact command line i put in the In the 'Debugger' tab of the launch configuration, in the 'Additional command-line arguments' field. The Directory D:/Intel_Alter_TSE_Solution/25.1std_max10_package/25.1std_max10_package/software/log_dir does exist, i created it myself ::

--probe-log-level 7 --probe-log-path "D:/Intel_Alter_TSE_Solution/25.1std_max10_package/25.1std_max10_package/software/log_dir"

Error in GDB server launch sequence

Ashling GDB Server for RISC-V (ash-riscv-gdb-server).

v25.2.1, 09-May-2025, (c)Ashling Microsystems Ltd 2024.

Setting probe log level to 0x7.

Error: Error: Cannot open probe log file in specified/default directory: d:\intel_alter_tse_solution\25.1std_max10_package\25.1std_max10_package\software

Ashling GDB Server for RISC-V (ash-riscv-gdb-server).

v25.2.1, 09-May-2025, (c)Ashling Microsystems Ltd 2024.

Setting probe log level to 0x7.

Error: Error: Cannot open probe log file in specified/default directory: d:\intel_alter_tse_solution\25.1std_max10_package\25.1std_max10_package\software

I have attached a screenshot which shows the debugger  setup page

Can you please take a look and see what the problem is here ?

Thanks, Dr Barry H

Hi Rajessh,

I have a couple of questions to ask you about the MAX10 designs. 

Q1: Am i intended to use the tcl script bsp_script_original.tcl which is located here:  \25.1std_max10_package\software  to build an Ashling IDE project from scratch ?

If yes would i run it from the Software Directory in a NIOSV console ?

Q2: During sending this command : $ niosv-download -g -r software/app_iperf/build/app_iperf.elf -c 1

I see the following suspicious looking messages:

INFO: Starting gdb. Running "riscv32-unknown-elf-gdb -batch -ex set non-stop on -ex set arch riscv:rv32 -ex set remotetimeout 60 -ex target extended-remote localhost:64265 -ex monitor swreset 1 1 -ex load software/app_iperf/build/app_iperf.elf -ex set $mstatus &= ~(0x00000088) -ex continue&".

The target architecture is set to "riscv:rv32".

warning: No executable has been specified and target does not support

determining executable automatically. Try using the "file" command.

warning: No executable has been specified and target does not support

determining executable automatically. Try using the "file" command.

Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.

0x00000004 in ?? ()

Invalid reset option

Are these messages (in bold) meant to be there and the NIOSV CPU can recover from the SIGINT and this invalid reset option and the warning about the missing executable file ? I am not that familiar with this flow so can you explain what is going on please ?

Thanks, Dr Barry H

Hi,

The issue discuss both debug (which was related to antivirus) was  and desing related items; could you brief the exact issue you are facing with USB Blaster II? Ashling RiscFree does support USB Blaster II and the debug should work. 

Regards,

Rejeesh