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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

NIOS II won't run from power-on

I can't quite get NIOSII to run when power is applied.

The Flash Programmer seems to work and it will start after flashing if 'run from reset' is selected.

Resetting the CycloneIII hardware restarts NIOS properly.

I've used the Command Line to reset NIOS and it works. I've verified the code before and after power is removed and the code seems to be fine in the EPCS flash. Resetting the CycloneIII hardware works correctly after power is reapplied but NIOS won't start either with a hardware reset or using the --go command.

The only way of restarting NIOS is to download code using RUN from the Eclipse GUI! (This fails to complete properly but kicks NIOS into life. Using the 'nios2-download -g xxx.elf' and 'nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --go..' commands do not have the desired effect although there is no error)

Now resetting either hardware of from Command Line works again.

There is obvioulsy something vital missing - has anyone got to a similar situation and worked out how to fix this permanently!

Thank you

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Do this for me ...

    1 - From your Quartus project, open up the compilation report.

    2 - Look in the Fitter section "Fitter->Resource Section->RAM Summary"

    3 - Locate the RAM block inside your epcs_controller core (this will be down in your SoPC system obviously).

    4 - To the far right, check to see which MIF file was used during compilation.

    Jake
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Ricard:

    Please read the Post "Quartus 9.1 SP2 Warning". This isn't the problem you are experiencing, is it?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I think we have the answer :)

    I tried v10 which has more options when using RUN from the GUI - allowing you to check 'Download ELF' and 'Start processor' separately.

    It is only necessary to check the 'Start processor' option for RUN to go from 'power on' to running - without any apparent downloading.

    However, taking the command line(s) from the transcript and running it from a terminal window does not start the processor.

    The GUI interacts with the JTAG UART making stracke (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/member.php?u=27030)'s suggestion of disabling the LOG port look a strong possibility, although the Log port was already set to 'none' in the BSP Editor.

    but setting Stdin, Stdout and Stderr all to 'none' does allow the processor to run at power up.

    I'm very relieved to be able to get back to real development again - thanks to all of you for you help.