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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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11 years ago

nios2-download hangs, then "There is a problem with your Quartus II installation"

Two months using DE1-kit with Quartus 7.2 from CDROM on Windows Vista 32 bit Home Basic. Worked fine for 2 months, then, just as learning how to use RAM memory in SOPC, nios2 "blew-up." I can download .sof's, but downloading .elf file yields the message as above, and says to try jtagconfig to diagnose problem.

Well, jtagconfig works fine, with one line with a 8 digit hex number and something like EP2C20. I've re-installed the Altera software several times, and no improvement. I downloaded Quartus 13.1 (?) for Linux on the same machine (dual boot), and that works! It will download .elfs with nios2-download, and run the CSK_ControlPanel and verify the download.

On the Vista side, I use the console, set up paths for the nios2eds/bin and nios2-gnu-tools/H-i686../bin for the niois2-gdb-server (which gets called), and use the nios2-download command with the demo software from Terasic for CSK_controlpanel. I can load the .sof, then, trying to load the .elf, it hangs for about 20-30 seconds, and then gives the error above. I need help because the software used to work just fine, and then suddenly stopped recently (I'm using a somewhat old laptop). But after reloading the Design Suite multiple times, the software still won't work. Many nights up till 3 am! Please help!

(I want to use Vista because Fedora 13 Linux doesn't have jtaguart drivers, which I am about to try for the first time with Vista, and because I have been using for the 2 months the Vista version).

(One more side note: the CDROM disk is a little beat up, had sticky glue from tab, with I could not wipe off. So recent installs were with the components, using minimal options, to avoid a complete failure of the installation, where nothing was installed.)

Thanks in advance! Learning FPGA's for a project at work.

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    After some more experiments, I copied from quartus/bin directory all of these files jtag*.dll into the nios2eds/bin directory. This got me past the error, but now I see that nios2-download prints "There are no JTAG cables available on your system." And this is after I've downloaded the .sof file. One step forward, but haven't recovered from the "blow-up" of nios2 a week ago.

    Dec 28, update: I've tried to clean out registry of all traces of Altera software, downloaded 7.2sp3 and installed. Now the symptom is that I cannot download a .sof, and the jtag server does not start. I then downloaded stand-alone programmer version 9.1, but this was no help either. The problem is that I can install / uninstall jtagserver with admin console in Vista x32, but I cannot "start" the server, it always stops right away after it is started. I copied a bunch of .dll 's to the windows\system32 directory, but that was no help either. The usb driver is installed, so that's not it. HERE'S MY QUESTION: what is jtag server doing that it does not start? Since there are no printouts, I really don't have any clues. Perhaps one possible is that the command sc query jtagserver, if issued right after boot-up, shows (on the first time) an error code of 1077 (0x435).

    Dec 29, update: uninstalled everything, deleted all traces of Altera in registry that I can find. Re-installed from CD version 7.2 (after copying CD to eliminate chance of bad area). Now jtagserver is RUNNING again! That's good, but I'm back to no JTAG cables available message from nios2-download. (I can still download .sof). Still is a real mystery. The AlteraUSBBlaster driver is present, is installed, says the Vista sc utility. The registry entries look good. Why can't nios2-download see anything? The .sof and .elf I am using are the Terasic control panel, which used to work. (.sof still works).
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Have you installed the 13.1 service pack 3?

    --- Quote End ---

    Thanks for picking this up. No, but I ** do ** have version 13 (.1 or .01) on the Linux side which is working. I think I will just give up on trying to resurrect the version 7.2 I had installed on the Windows Vista side. I believe the USBBlaster driver just doesn't install correctly by itself, barring a complete re-install, which had its own problems. I will just give up on version 7.2 now, because it's just too hard! As for installing the old windows 7.2 driver, some of the registry entries installed using the .inf file, but others would not install. So, after many failed attempts with Windows, I will use Linux.