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Altera_Forum
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19 years ago

Problem starting up linux on Nios II Cyclone

Hi everybody, despite my earlier post I now have a big problem with trying to start linux. The kernel and filesystem compile ok, with a few warnings on the way. What I get when I try to log on through Nios II SDK shell is:

$ nios2-terminal
nios2-terminal: connected to hardware target using JTAG UART on cable
nios2-terminal: "USB-Blaster ", device 1, instance 0
nios2-terminal: (Use the IDE stop button or Ctrl-C to terminate)
Linux version 2.6.11-uc0 () (gcc version 3.4.1 (Altera Nios II 5.0 b7
3))# 1 Fri Jun 9 09:01:43 2006
uClinux/Nios II
Altera Nios II support (C) 2004 Microtronix Datacom Ltd.
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock0 ro
PID hash table entries: 128 (order: 7, 2048 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Memory available: 14392k/16384k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (1491k kernel code, 305k data)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
NET: Registered protocol family 16
Serial: JTAG UART driver $Revision: 1.4 $
ttyJ0 at MMIO 0x821208d0 (irq = 1) is a jtag_uart
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
smc_probe: 50000 Khz Nios
SMSC LAN91C111 Driver (v2.1), (Linux Kernel 2.6)
eth0: SMC91C11xFD(rev:1) at 0x82110300 IRQ:6 MEMSIZE:8192b NOWAIT:0 ADDR: 00:07:
ed:0b:57:93
smc_probe: 50000 Khz Nios
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 50MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
CF: ctl=0
Altera NDK flash (AMD): Found 1 x8 devices at 0x0 in 8-bit bank
 Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table at 0x0040
Altera NDK flash (AMD): CFI does not contain boot bank location. Assuming top.
number of CFI chips: 1
cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling erase-suspend-program due to code brokenness.
cmdlinepart partition parsing not available
RedBoot partition parsing not available
Using Altera NDK partition definition
Creating 4 MTD partitions on "Altera NDK flash (AMD)":
0x00200000-0x00600000 : "romfs/jffs2"
0x00000000-0x00200000 : "loader/kernel"
0x00600000-0x00700000 : "User configuration"
0x00700000-0x00800000 : "safe configuration"
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
VFS: Mounted root (romfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 64k freed (0x11a0000 - 0x11af000)
expand: from=/ramfs.img to=/dev/ram0
expand: from=/ramfs.img to=/dev/ram1
init: exec failed
init: exec failed
init: exec failed
init: exec failed
init: exec failed
init: exec failed
nios2-terminal: exiting due to ^C on host
/cygdrive/c/altera/kits/nios2_50/examples/verilog/niosII_cyclone_1c20/linux_eth_
usb
$

Those "init: exec failed" messages keep coming and coming unless I terminate the connection with ctrl-C.

As you may notice, it complains about "code brokenness". The linux is the same linux I got from this website, and the .ptf and .sof I'm using are from the Microtronix Eth -USB Expansion kits CD. I used the Quick Start Guide as a reference in setting up the kernel and the filesystem, so nothing special was done.

Anyone have any idea what's going on?

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by hippo@Jun 9 2006, 09:53 AM

    work on linux and follow the wiki

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16057)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    At the moment I can&#39;t switch to Linux, unfortunately.

    The sample image (zImage_std_1c20) worked fine, so thanks. At least I&#39;m making some progress and now I know the board works.

    Can you give me any pointers how I could get the linux working using the IDE? The tools provided by the manufacturer should work if you ask me... http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif .

    Have you any experience working with the .sof:s provided in the linux distro or the Microtronix Eth - USB Expansion kit? I understood that they were exactly what I needed, but I guess I was wrong...
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by repa+jun 9 2006, 04:02 pm--><div class='quotetop'>quote (repa @ jun 9 2006, 04:02 pm)</div>

    --- quote start ---

    <!--quotebegin-hippo@Jun 9 2006, 09:53 AM

    work on linux and follow the wiki

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16057)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    At the moment I can&#39;t switch to Linux, unfortunately.

    The sample image (zImage_std_1c20) worked fine, so thanks. At least I&#39;m making some progress and now I know the board works.

    Can you give me any pointers how I could get the linux working using the IDE? The tools provided by the manufacturer should work if you ask me... http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif .

    Have you any experience working with the .sof:s provided in the linux distro or the Microtronix Eth - USB Expansion kit? I understood that they were exactly what I needed, but I guess I was wrong...

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16059)</div>

    [/b]

    --- Quote End ---

    Under Windows, a Linux environment can easily be constructed using coLinux

    http://www.colinux.org/ (http://www.colinux.org/)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by hippo@Jun 9 2006, 04:37 PM

    under windows, a linux environment can easily be constructed using colinux

    http://www.colinux.org/ (http://www.colinux.org/)

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16066)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    I caved in and managed to set up a linux workstation, but thanks anyways. What I&#39;m going to do now is compile the image on the linux workstation and just upload it using the SDK shell. I hope this works out. If not... well, I&#39;ll be posting a few more newbie questions then http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif .
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by repa+jun 12 2006, 04:02 pm--><div class='quotetop'>quote (repa @ jun 12 2006, 04:02 pm)</div>

    --- quote start ---

    <!--quotebegin-hippo@Jun 9 2006, 04:37 PM

    under windows, a linux environment can easily be constructed using colinux

    http://www.colinux.org/ (http://www.colinux.org/)

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16066)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    I caved in and managed to set up a linux workstation, but thanks anyways. What I&#39;m going to do now is compile the image on the linux workstation and just upload it using the SDK shell. I hope this works out. If not... well, I&#39;ll be posting a few more newbie questions then http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif .

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16105)</div>

    [/b]

    --- Quote End ---

    Great. There is a very helpful uClinux wiki site for blackfin, and it apply to nios2 as well.

    http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/ (http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    So... after a few false starts I tried working on linux. The results weren&#39;t that great either. First of all, "make menuconfig" didn&#39;t work. It just stopped after a few lines and despite waiting patiently for something like 10 minutes, nothing happened. "make config" at least went further, but it didn&#39;t let me customize the kernel settings. Also, linux_hwselect probably didn&#39;t work either, because, despite running it ok, I got errors later on declaring I should run it.

    Too bad I&#39;m running so short on time, otherwise I would try setting up a different linux distro to work on, as I&#39;m suspecting something fishy is going on with the OS...
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by repa@Jun 14 2006, 01:18 PM

    so... after a few false starts i tried working on linux. the results weren&#39;t that great either. first of all, "make menuconfig" didn&#39;t work. it just stopped after a few lines and despite waiting patiently for something like 10 minutes, nothing happened. "make config" at least went further, but it didn&#39;t let me customize the kernel settings. also, linux_hwselect probably didn&#39;t work either, because, despite running it ok, i got errors later on declaring i should run it.

    too bad i&#39;m running so short on time, otherwise i would try setting up a different linux distro to work on, as i&#39;m suspecting something fishy is going on with the os...

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=16166)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    I tried to compile nios2 uClinux without problem on coLinux.

    http://nioswiki.jot.com/wikihome/operating...ux/nios2colinux (http://nioswiki.jot.com/wikihome/operatingsystems/%c2%b5clinux/nios2colinux)