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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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12 years ago

There are no Nios II CPUs with debug modules available

Hi,

I am facing this problem for over a week now, where when i try to debug as nios hardware the following error message shows up:

There are no Nios II CPUs with debug modules available which match the values

specified. Please check that your PLD is correctly configured, downloading a

new SOF file if necessary.

just to be clear:

i have downloaded the respective .sof file (with jtag uart, and a level 1 debug module enable) to the target board (cyclone 3 running at 80Mhz external clock).

the NIOS 2 processor has on-board ram, interval timer, PIO and a jtag uart.

the clock pin on the processor is directly attached to the 80Mhz external clock pin input, and the reset pin is connected to Vcc.

here is the HW configuration:

Target Connection:

JTAG cable:

automatic<currently: USB-Blaster [USB-0]>

JTAG device:

automatic<the device which has the processor>

Nios II Terminal commnuication device:

jtag_uart_0<stdin/stdout/stderr>

https://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7361

here is a screen shot of the processor:

https://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7362

with jtagconfig -n i got this:

[NiosII EDS]$ jtagconfig -n

1) USB-Blaster [USB-0]

020F30DD EP3C25/EP4CE22

Node 19104602

Node 0C006E02

Please advice.

Thanks.

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    i am sure i am using the right .sof file, i have altera quartus 9.0 license (so there are no *_time_limited.sof on the folder), and also i have been doing the same thing on another cyclone 3 board (EP3C40F324C8N where my board is using EP3C25Q240C8N) and it works on that board, the architecture of the processor is simple :

    a interval timer,

    a on-chip memory,

    a jtag uart,

    and the processor itself.

    the .sof file on both is uploaded without any error ( I even check the Config_Done pin on the fpga with a scope)

    and i am running the simple hello world example from the nios 2 IDE 9.0 with the correct .ptf file loaded respectively.

    successfully compile for both.

    But error occure when run as/debug as on my board(EP3C25Q240C8N).

    , so i am sure that there is nothing to do with the usb blaster, please advise... i am running out of ideals.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    Is your clock input correct? You could redirect it to a fpga output pin and check it with a scope, to be sure the FPGA is picking it up correctly, or feed it to a PLL and check the pll's "locked" output with Signaltap.

    What does Timequest say? Does your design meet all the timing requirements and are all the paths correctly constrained?

    If you go into System Console and scan the JTAG chain, do you see the Nios CPU and the JTAG UART in the connections tree?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    Hi, i got it work by using this command line:

    nios2-download -g hello_world_1.elf && nios2-terminal

    /cygdrive/d/niostest/hello_world_1/hello_world_1/Debug

    [NiosII EDS]$ nios2-download -g hello_world_1.elf && nios2-terminal

    Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x02

    Pausing target processor: OK

    Initializing CPU cache (if present)

    OK

    Downloaded 20KB in 0.3s (66.6KB/s)

    Verified OK

    Starting processor at address 0x000081C8

    nios2-terminal: connected to hardware target using JTAG UART on cable

    nios2-terminal: "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 2

    nios2-terminal: (Use the IDE stop button or Ctrl-C to terminate)

    hehehaha Nios II!

    But when i use Debug as (on the Nios2 9.0 IDE) it shows the same error:

    There are no Nios II CPUs with debug modules available which match the values

    specified. Please check that your PLD is correctly configured, downloading a

    new SOF file if necessary.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    Hmmm there seems to be a communication error between the IDE and Altera's JTAG server... unfortunately it means you'll probably have to keep using the command line tools.