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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Creating a hex-file

It cannot be that hard:

I have a nios2 project (including onchip_ram with "Enable non-default initialization file" checked) that can be compiled to an elf-file.

But i don't get any hex-file when i compile my project.

I have been looking up and down in my nios-ide, have scanned the altera forums and have been questioning google for several hours.

I have found serveral hints what to do but for some strange reason nothing really works.

Hint 1: mem_init_install, mem_init.mk

In my bsp i find the file mem_init.mk. But i really don't know what to do with it to get a hex-file.

In nios ide i can do "Make targets\Create..." an manually add "mem_init_install".

But afterwards when i try to invoke it by "Make targets\Build..." i get this error "make: *** No rule to make target 'mem_init_install' ".

Hint 2: elf2hex

When i use elf2hex

(java -jar elf2hex.jar --input=Project.elf --width=32 --base=0x4000 --end=0x77FF) (base and end address come from my onchip_ram in the sopc-builder)

i really get a hex-file.

But when i now try to update the memory initialization files in quartus2

i get this warning "Warning: Width of data items in "onchip_ram.hex" is greater than the memory width. Wrapping data items to subsequent addresses."

So the hex-file isn't ok. Changing the parameter width to "--width=4" in hope to create a hex-file that looks like the default "onchip_ram.hex" will only produce an error "Width: 4 isn't a valid width".

Any help will be greatly appreciated

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    You could try "--width=8" for byte addressing, the width parameter changes the data width in the file. Not sure if this will help.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    My solution: this batch-file

    @echo off

    if exist Project.hex del Project.hex

    set BIN_PATH="C:\altera\91\nios2eds\bin"

    java -jar %BIN_PATH%\elf2hex.jar --input=Project.elf --width=32 --base=0x4000 --end=0x77FF --record=4

    copy /Y Project.hex ..\..\onchip_ram.hex

    pause
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Shouldn't the Eclipse tools be able to generate this automatically with just a

    click of a button/check_box?

    I have the same issue and would rather not create additional scripts unless necessary.

    Isn't all the information elf2hex needs passed with the SOPC system?

    In the worst case I can add a line to some edit box in the NIOS II eclipse project

    properties dialog.

    Or specifically what is the Altera recommended/approved method for performing

    this seemingly very common task.

    Thoughts?

    Thanks,

    Cos
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    This used to work, give it a try:

    1) Go to your project explorer, right-click on your project.

    2) select make targets -> build

    3) in the pop-up window, choose mem_init_generate then click build

    4) under your project folder, you will find mem_init subfolder

    5) look inside to see if there is anything useful (should have hex file and qip file for Quartus)

    benc
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I had the exact same issue. I noticed 3 things:

    1. The project would still run correctly even though Quartus gave me the warning about the .hex files.

    2. The SBT would only create a .hex file that was being used by Quartus if I first ran the project "as modelsim". Then the SBT would build me a new .hex file, but not if I simply built the project. Through my own research I found out that the command "make mem_init_generate" in the NIOS console would build new .hex files after I made changes to the C code.

    3. For some reason multiple .hex files were created in various folders, and the one in the "mem_init" folder was the one being used by Quartus and not being updated by rebuilding the project. There were other .hex files in another folder that were being updated, but I can't remember where they were off the top of my head.

    It seems to me that the tools should just auto regenerate a .hex file with every project rebuild, and store it in a place that Quartus already looks at, instead of me having to flounder around and make these changes and find a work around. Just a suggestion to Altera... :)