Couldn't install usb blaster driver on HP dv4-1020us notebook (64bit Vista)

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Seems it is. This is not just a warning, Vista 64-bit requires signed drivers, and Altera drivers seem to be unsigned.

You would need to contact Altera.

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I'm now switching to Windows XP.

Yes, Vista 64 requires signed drivers and Altera knows that already. Here is the answer from support:

"...However, unfortunately, we don’t have a plan to change the driver in a near future sin..."

But you can install vmWare (on the same PC) with just Win2000 or XP and start the JTAG-Server. From Vista you have just remote JTAG and it works perfectly (for me)

Kest

It seems the driver is signed, but it expired on 1st October 2007.

On Vista pre-SP1 it can be turned off using bcdedit. On SP1 it has to be done manually on every boot using the boot menu - press F8 and select Disable device driver signing requirement.

There is a utility called ReadyDriver Plus which claims to simulate user input and turns it off during boot time, but it didn't work for me as I use grub for booting.

Hi ,

I have a similar problem as u guys face. I have to install the driber for ISP1362 USB deice/host controller. I did all the steps as said in the DE2_LED Demonstration. My board is detected as an unknown device. But as said in the Read me file of the Demonstration,it never ask for the driver. I tried to go to the Add Hardware and try to search for the device, but it is just listed as an unknown device and does not have any mean to guide to the path where the .inf driver is situated.

I am using a 32 it Xp-Sp3 operating system.

I hope some one can help me in this regard.

Thakns and Best Regards,

Mahesh

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The driver installs ok for me (usbblst.inf on WinXP). However it does not seem to install the USB Serial ports in the COM port list. Does anyone know why this might be?

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The USB Blaster is not supposed to appear as a COM port.

What happens when you try to actually use the USB blaster? For example, when you choose "Programmer" from the Tools menu in Quartus, does it find the USB blaster?

You can get around this in a bit of a long winded way via following the MSDN instructions to sign a test driver.

This is a requirement from Vista64 sp1 onwards

Basically you need to grab the WinDDK

After installation go to c:\winddk\6.xx(version)\bin\selfsign

Create a self signed root certificate:

MakeCert –r –pe –ss PrivateCertStore –n "CN=mydomain.com(Test)" testcert.cer

You must then use this certificate to sign the usbblstr.sys file in the x64 folder

I simply copied it to the selfsign folder as I'm lazy

Signtool sign /v /s PrivateCertStore /n mydomain.com(Test) /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll usbblstr.sys

Now copy that file back to where it was.

You must now add the self signed certificates to your certificate store

use "certmgr" to do this eg type it in the run box..

Add the certificate to BOTH!

trusted root certification authorities certificate store (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906279.aspx) and the trusted publishers certificate store (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906252.aspx)

Now we must put windows into test mode for bootup from now on

bcdedit /set testsigning on

Now reboot your system, and you should boot up in test mode. eg around the edge of the screen it'll say testmode..

You can get rid of that watermark.. but I can't remember how right now.. (google it)

ok now we need to install the driver, plug in the jtag device and cancel the auto driver search thingy coz it goes and searches the web and takes a while. Go to device manager and right click on the driver, and tell it you want to install the driver. Browse to the driver folder (not all the way down into the x64 folder though just the actual "drivers" folder down the quartus path.. and tell it to search subfolders.. It'll find the driver and pop up with a warning message about unsigned drivers yadda yadda. Tell it is ok I know what I'm doing.. and it should go ahead and install the driver.

Whalla you now have a usbblaster that works..

Now we just have to wait for Altera / FTDI to get the thing signed properly..

Cheers

Richard

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Now we just have to wait for Altera / FTDI to get the thing signed properly..

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Altera already has created a properly signed driver. It was distributed with older versions of Quartus. I know at least Quartus II 7.2 SP2 came with a signed driver. For newer versions of Quartus, I just keep using the old driver and it seems to work fine.

I haven't tried Quartus II 9.0 yet. I wonder if they finally included a signed driver again.