Crash when programming .sof file

I need more data on the frequency, but I guesstimate the chances of failure to be 1:10.

The loopback cable means that the the Arria 10 PCIe eval card is in the PC and that I have connected the USB Blaster of that eval card to the same PC.

The command I used to program the FPGA is the below. The second time I ran it, using the same .sof file, just 30 minutes afterwards without any other change that I'm aware of, it worked.

Hmm.... come to think of it... We've upgraded to Quartus 20.1 elsewhere, but the niso2-configure-sof command is still from Quartus 17.3 (as I recall).

# program FPGA

nios2-configure-sof top.sof

The output is:

Searching for SOF file:

in .

top.sof

*** Fatal Error: Segment Violation at 0x22f700000076

Module: quartus_pgm

Stack Trace:

0xf8ea: rml::internal::internalPoolFree(rml::internal::MemoryPool*, void*) + 0x4a (tbbmalloc.so.2)

0x1729: operator delete(void*) + 0x9 (tbbmalloc_proxy.so.2)

0x2083e: S4_SII_BIT::~S4_SII_BIT() + 0x3e (pgm_build_npcf)

0x20901: S4_SII::~S4_SII() + 0x5b (pgm_build_npcf)

0x209de: NPCF_DEVICE_INFO::set_s4_s2_list(std::vector<S4_SII*, std::allocator<S4_SII*> >*, bool, bool) + 0x4c (pgm_build_npcf)

0x24655: NPCF_DEVICE_INFO::~NPCF_DEVICE_INFO() + 0x169 (pgm_build_npcf)

0x246e7: NPCF_INFO::~NPCF_INFO() + 0x41 (pgm_build_npcf)

0xe183c: FBGEN_GEN::~FBGEN_GEN() + 0x5c (pgm_fbgen)

0xe1e19: FBGEN_GEN::~FBGEN_GEN() + 0x9 (pgm_fbgen)

0x420be3: PGMIO_FBGEN_PROXY::~PGMIO_FBGEN_PROXY() + 0x13 (pgm_pgmio)

0x2c2d5c: PGMIO_F2P::create_bitstream(PGM_CHAIN_ELEMENT*, std::vector<std::string, std::allocator<std::string> >*, PGMIO_CCF*) + 0x1dc (pgm_pgmio)

0x284c14: PGM_CHAIN_ELEMENT::generate_bv_list(bool) + 0x104 (pgm_pgmio)

0x28868d: PGM_CHAIN_ELEMENT::create_chain_element(PGM_CHAIN_ELEMENT*, bool, FIO_PATH*, bool, PGMIO_CONFIG_SCHEME, bool, bool) + 0xd2d (pgm_pgmio)

0x232d9: PGME_PROGRAMMER::lookup_device(PGM_CHAIN_ELEMENT*, PGMIO_CONFIG_SCHEME, bool, bool, bool) + 0x29 (pgm_pgme)

0x2175d: QPGM_FRAMEWORK::create_element(std::string, std::string, unsigned int, unsigned int) + 0x601 (quartus_pgm)

0x23b91: QPGM_FRAMEWORK::process_operation(std::string*) + 0x1e93 (quartus_pgm)

0x24cde: QPGM_FRAMEWORK::post_check_arguments() + 0x2d6 (quartus_pgm)

0x1c08f: qexe_standard_main(QEXE_FRAMEWORK*, QEXE_OPTION_DEFINITION const**, int, char const**) + 0x1bc (comp_qexe)

0x1fd97: qpgm_main(int, char const**) + 0x5e (quartus_pgm)

0x40720: msg_main_thread(void*) + 0x10 (ccl_msg)

0x602c: thr_final_wrapper + 0xc (ccl_thr)

0x407df: msg_thread_wrapper(void* (*)(void*), void*) + 0x62 (ccl_msg)

0xa559: mem_thread_wrapper(void* (*)(void*), void*) + 0x99 (ccl_mem)

0x8f92: err_thread_wrapper(void* (*)(void*), void*) + 0x27 (ccl_err)

0x63f2: thr_thread_wrapper + 0x15 (ccl_thr)

0x427e2: msg_exe_main(int, char const**, int (*)(int, char const**)) + 0xa3 (ccl_msg)

0x1fe21: main + 0x26 (quartus_pgm)

0x270b3: __libc_start_main + 0xf3 (c.so.6)

End-trace

Failed to program top.sof, erasing possibly corrupt top.sof