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Broddo's avatar
Broddo
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
1 year ago

nios2-bsp-editor library paths and IPX files

I've successfully created my own IP components (hw and sw) and software only components. I typically add this to a project by creating a folder called "IP" in the root directory of the project. nios2-bsp-editor can find these files no problem.

However, I would also like to create my own OS variations. This is so that I can easily add RTOSs such as FreeRTOS and embOS to my project and that the corresponding source files/libraries will be copied to the correct locations in the bsp directory. This does seem to be support - indeed there are commands to create an OS in a _sw.tcl file: create_os, set_sw_property extends_bsp_type etc.

In order to actually make this work however, I have found that that I have to modify the component.ipx file provided in the nios2eds/components folder. If I add my OS plugin here, everything works as expected. nios2-bsp-editor and nios2-bsp-generate-files find the OS, files are copied correctly and compilation completes successfully. This is less than ideal though - I don't want to edit files provided by Quartus directly. I also want to be able to check my entire project into source control and have it generate the BSP without me needing to make further modifications. I need my projects to be portable between build machines.

If I place the OS component into the IP subdirectory of my project, then I am able to create the BSP by issuing the command: nios2-bsp freertos bsp qsys.sopcinfo

However, if I try to launch nios2-bsp-editor or run nios2-bsp-generate-files using this method, I get the error: 

SEVERE: Available BSP type values for the --type argument are: [hal, ucosii]
SEVERE: BSP type "FreeRTOS" unknown.
SEVERE: NullPointerException

Is there anyway I can help these programs find my OS component?

Nios Cpu

6 Replies

  • wwanalim_intel's avatar
    wwanalim_intel
    Icon for Contributor rankContributor
    1 year ago

    Hi,

    Greetings and welcome to Intel's forum.

    Please give me some time to check on this issue and will get back to you with the update.

    Thank you.

    Regards,

    Fathulnaim



    • Broddo's avatar
      Broddo
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
      1 year ago

      Yes, I understand that you do not support FreeRTOS on NiosII - but that is ok. I do not need support here. I have FreeRTOS working on NiosII already. The problem is that in order to define my own operating system component, I must install it into the nios2eds/components folder of the Quartus install in order for it to work. This goes for any operating system, not just FreeRTOS - I was only using that as an example.

      The link you provided doesn't help - in that case, it seems the user came to the same conclusion I did - RTOSs can only be added to the nios2eds folder for them to be found.

      I find this odd as it seems nios2-bsp is able to find and at least start generating a BSP if I place my operating system component in my local IP folder (which is much preferred). But the other bsp-related programs refuse to work unless I move the OS component into the nios2eds folder. This just seems to be a limitation of the bsp programs.

      I was hoping for a simpler solution - for example, a way to specify where to look for libraries on the command-line. I would like to package my applications along with the BSP and operating systems. But as it stands, I can't do that - every build machine needs series of separate steps in order to have the RTOS accessible.

  • wwanalim_intel's avatar
    wwanalim_intel
    Icon for Contributor rankContributor
    1 year ago

    Hi Barry,

    Thank you for the understanding, Nios2 do support FreeRTOS but FreeRTOS is not included in the BSP Editor.


    Unfortunately, we are sorry to inform as there is no documentation to port Rtos and it BSP generation into Nios2 from us as it is out of our coverage. We also do not have the solution based on your reply which is to package the applications along with the BSP and operating systems.


    I will feedback this information to marketing to further evaluate for future use.

    We are very sorry to inform this.

    Thank you.


  • Broddo's avatar
    Broddo
    Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
    1 year ago

    No problem, I'll continue working as I currently am then.

    Thanks for looking into this for me.

  • wwanalim_intel's avatar
    wwanalim_intel
    Icon for Contributor rankContributor
    1 year ago

    I’m glad that your question has been addressed, I now transition this thread to community support. If you have a new question, Please login to ‘https://supporttickets.intel.com’, view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you. After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support. The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.