Problem dloading vmlinux to 2C35

the vmlinux.flash is S-record format, a kind of hex file. so it take up more space than the actual binary size.

the vmlinux elf file contains debug symbols, so it may reach 10M. you can use "xxxx-strip" to remove the symbols, and it should be around 2M.

You should try to download the elf to dram as a beginning.

I did a

strip --target=srec vmlinux

and the original 8314kb got skimmed down to 7685kb, which still seems quite big. Should I be using some other options?

And where is the system library I should be looking for to set to RAM rather than FLASH?

Sorry if the question seems a bit basic but if you don't mind giving step by step instructions for that?

Thanks a lot!

Finally, I borrowed a CycloneII dev board, and worked out.

You should have quartusII v5.1 sp1, and NiosII v5.1 sp1.

There is no need to strip the vmlinux.

First open the project and download the sof of your board with QuartusII programmer. eg, if you use CycloneII dev board,

it is altera/kits/nios2/examples/verilog/niosII_cycloneII_2c35/standard/ standard.sof

Next, open two "Nios II SDK shell" windows.

From one, run "nios2-terminal".

From two, run "nios2-download -g vmlinux"

I just tried that but I'm still getting the same error though

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00

Resetting and pausing target processor: not responding

Resetting and trying again: FAILED

Leaving target processor paused

I'm trying this with the standard.sof from the CD but I'm using the DE2 Cyclone II 2C35 board which doesn't have ddr_sdram. I assume if I create my own design (ie .sof and .ptf) and use that .ptf I should be able to get the sdram option during hwselect when compiling the kernel?

Currently, I don't have an option for sdram with the std_2C35.ptf and it instead only gives the options for ddr_sdram, ext_ssram and epcs_controller for selecting a device ot execute the kernel from.

The DE2 is different from CycloneII dev board.

You can find in the kit dir,

DE2_System/DE2_demonstrations/DE2_NET

use file nios_0.ptf for kernel hwselect

use file DE2_NET.sof for the board.

Hi hippo,

I've got the DE2_NET.sof on the board. After that,

I tried using nios2-download:

nios2-download -g vmlinux

and it shows

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-o]", device 1, instance 0x00

Pausing target processor: OK

Downloaded 2563KB in 32.2s

Verified OK

Starting processor at address 0x0000000[/b]

--- Quote End ---

I assume it downloaded onto the board fine but the nios2-terminal I started doesn&#39;t show anything beyond this

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

connected to hardware target using JTAG UART on cable

"USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0

<Used hte IDE stop button or Ctrl-C to terminate>[/b]

--- Quote End ---

How do I actually get to type in the uClinux commandline?

I also tried

nios2-elf-objcopy -O binary vmlinux vmlinux.bin
bin2flash --location=0x0 --input=vmlinux.bin --output=vmlinux.flash
nios2-flash-programmer --base=0x800000 vmlinux.flash

(I&#39;ve verified in the nios_system.h file that the cfi flash does indeed start at that address)

And it shows:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00

Resetting and pausing target processor: OK

Checksummed/read 1024kB in 22.9s

Erased 576kB in 20.1s

Program failed

Leaving target processor paused[/b]

--- Quote End ---

I&#39;m assuming this is happening because the vmlinux.bin is quite large ~2.5MB (cfi flash is only 1 MB) and I&#39;m not sure how to reduce that size by much (strip vmlinux only gets the vmlinux&#39;s original 8 MB down to about 7MB)

Would appreciate very much any direction you could give on this!

Thanks!

The previous steps to generate flash file was wrong. I will tell you about that later. Let first run it in ram.

Built the kernel with jtag uart. with minimal config first. and minimal rootfs.

cp ~/download/kernel.config .config

make ..... hwselect SYSPTF=....../nios_0.ptf

make ..... menuconfig

change Device drivers--> Char devices -> serial drivers -->

unselect Nios serial support,

select Altera JTAG UART support and support for console on Altera JTAG UART

exit and save

make .....

There is no need to do strip.

(if nios2-terminal is open, close nios2-terminal with control-C.)

Use Quartus to download the DE2_NET.sof to the board.

Open a nios2 sdk shell, (there is no need to open two sdk shell, one is OK).

run "nios2-download -g vmlinux"

(the nios2 does not run yet, it will wait for jtag uart on nios2-terminal)

then run "nios2-terminal"

Hi hippo,

Thanks, I got this after opening up nios2-terminal-

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

Linux version 2.6.11-uc0 (Ricky@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 3.4.5)# 6 Sa

t Mar 4 20:28:04 EST 2006

uClinux/Nios II

Altera Nios II support © 2004 Microtronix Datacom Ltd.

Built 1 zonelists

Kernel command line:

PID hash table entries: 64 (order: 6, 1024 bytes)

Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)

Inode-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)

Memory available: 5456k/8192k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (704k kernel code, 1912k data)

Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)[/b]

--- Quote End ---

seems like linux is now on the board but it seems to go into some kind of weird loop where it keeps outputting the following:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

Free pages: 0kB (0kB HighMem)

Active:1023 inactive:148 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:0 slab:191 mapped:0

pagetables:0

DMA free:0kB min:0kB low:0kB high:0kB active:4092kB inactive:592kB present:8192k

B pages_scanned:2552 all_unreclaimable? no

lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0

Normal free:0kB min:0kB low:0kB high:0kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:0kB pag

es_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no

lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0

HighMem free:0kB min:0kB low:0kB high:0kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:0kB pa

ges_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no

lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0

DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 0*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB

0*4096kB = 0kB

Normal: empty

HighMem: empty

oom-killer: gfp_mask=0xd2

DMA per-cpu:

cpu 0 hot: low 2, high 6, batch 1

cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 2, batch 1

Normal per-cpu: empty

HighMem per-cpu: empty[/b]

--- Quote End ---

thanks in advance!