Hi, I was trying to download the vmlinux.flash image to the board and received this error Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00 Resetting and pausing target processor: FAILED (I get this immediately so it&#39;s not the same problem as the one described as happening after 20 seconds for which Altera&#39;s put out a fix for) I used the standard.sof and std_2C25.ptf but I&#39;m not sure whether that is the correct design to use for linux or whether we need to create our own sof? Also, I&#39;m wondering why my vmlinux.flash size was so large at about 8.3 mb? Is it supposed to be that size since I saw this in the toolchain setup thread: Memory available: 63744k/65536k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (694k kernel code, 417k data) Lastly, since the flash memory size isn&#39;t too big, is it possible to use the RAM instead of the flash for the kernel? Would I need to compile the kernel with different options in that case? Thanks a lot in advance!

You can definitely download the kernel to RAM - just in the properties for the system library, make sure all the code/data locations are set to RAM instead of some sort of Flash. Then, to run, you can either download the .elf file directly using nios2-download, or clicking &#39;run as Nios II hardware&#39;.. (or something like that).

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&#39;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&#39;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&#39;m trying this with the standard.sof from the CD but I&#39;m using the DE2 Cyclone II 2C35 board which doesn&#39;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&#39;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.

Problem dloading vmlinux to 2C35 | Altera Community

15 Replies

Altera_Forum

Honored Contributor

20 years ago

The 8 MB sdram of DEII is very tight for uclinux.

remove unused applets in busybox, keep only init, msh, and some coreutils.

remove unused files in ~/rootfs/etc, keep only inittab

remove unused dev nodes in ~/download/rootfs_list, keep only console,zero,null.

cd ~/buildroot/build_nios2/busybox
make menuconfig
make
cd ~/buildroot
make
rm -rf ~/rootfs
cp -a ~/buildroot/build_nios2/root ~/rootfs
cd ~/rootfs#  remove include and lib to save space#  the dev nodes are generated via ~/download/rootfs_list
rm -rf dev usr/include usr/lib etc/*#  you may use this instead of the one from buildroot
cp ~/download/inittab etc#  clean headers for uClinux-dist
cd ~/buildroot/build_nios2/staging_dir/include/linux
rm config.h autoconf.h
touch config.h autoconf.h
cd ~/linux-2.6.x#  rebuild image for initramfs
make ARCH=nios2nommu CROSS_COMPILE=nios2-linux-uclibc-

Altera_Forum

Honored Contributor

20 years ago

Thanks, hippo! Looks like its working now http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

uClinux/Nios II
Altera Nios II support (C) 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: 6984k/8192k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (704k kernel code, 385k data)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Linux NoNET1.0 for Linux 2.6
Serial: JTAG UART driver $Revision: 1.4 $
ttyJ0 at MMIO 0x81004000 (irq = 1) is a jtag_uart
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered
Freeing unused kernel memory: 304k freed (0xba000 - 0x105000)
init started:  BusyBox v1.1.1-pre0 (2006.03.06-00:20+0000) multi-call binary
BusyBox v1.1.1-pre0 (2006.03.06-00:20+0000) Built-in shell (msh)
Enter &#39;help&#39; for a list of built-in commands.
#

By the way, if I had to install the bluez module into the linux kernel as well as the driver for the IP core for USB, would that likely cause any problems with running out of RAM?

Also, in the toolchain, the compiler used to compile was

nios2-linux-uclibc-gcc hello.c -o hello -elf2flt

If I already have a compiled object file (compiled with g++), is there any way of converting the object file with something like elf2flt?

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
The kernel is working now.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
--- Quote Start ---
By the way, if I had to install the bluez module into the linux kernel as well as the driver for the IP core for USB, would that likely cause any problems with running out of RAM?[/b]
--- Quote End ---

Add them one by one. It is still possible to run out of ram. Check in only what is required. Or if you could, change the sdram chip to a 16Mx16 device, check your PCB if extra MA lines are required.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
--- Quote Start ---
If I already have a compiled object file (compiled with g++), is there any way of converting the object file with something like elf2flt?[/b]
--- Quote End ---

You can add the elf2flt flags. Note the libstdc++ might still have problems, it compiled and linked with elf2flt, but it crashed when running. I am not a c++ user, and I don't know how to resolve (and I am quite busy now).
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
when i nios2-download -g vmlinux!

it appears:

SOPC Builder]$ nios2-download -g vmlinux
ios2-elf-objcopy: './vmlinux': No such file
/vmlinux.srec: Unable to open input file
m: cannot remove `./vmlinux.srec': No such file or directory
/altera/kits/nios2_51/examples

why ?

where my 'vmlinux.bin' file shoulde lay?
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
20 years ago
--- Quote Start ---
originally posted by iriver@Apr 13 2006, 08:26 PM
when i nios2-download -g vmlinux!

it appears:

sopc builder]$ nios2-download -g vmlinux
ios2-elf-objcopy: './vmlinux': no such file
/vmlinux.srec: unable to open input file
m: cannot remove `./vmlinux.srec': no such file or directory
/altera/kits/nios2_51/examples

why ?

where my 'vmlinux.bin' file shoulde lay?
<div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=14330)
--- quote end ---

--- Quote End ---

the vmlinux is in your kernel build dir .
and if you make zImage , arch/nios2nommu/boot/zImage .

Note the drives mapping in nios2 sdk shell,
drive c: is /cygdrive/c/
drive d: is /cygdrive/d/

if you map your linux home to h: on windows with samba server,
then it is /cygdrive/h/linux-2.6.x/vmlinux
or /cygdrive/h/linux-2.6.x/vmlinux/arch/nios2nommu/boot/zImage

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Problem dloading vmlinux to 2C35

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