No CFI table found at address 0x00000000

I ran into the same problem yesterday. I had a qsys system that was implemented and running, but I needed to add a Flash component for booting on power-up. After adding the Flash components in the System Contents view, I generated and compiled my design. Using the command line to program the device, I used these commands in a batch file:

nios2_command_shell.sh sof2flash --input=top_module.sof --output=flash_hw.flash --offset=0x20C0000 --pfl --optionbit=0x00030000 --programmingmode=PS

nios2_command_shell.sh nios2-flash-programmer --base=0x0 flash_hw.flash

The first command worked, but the programmer (2nd command) gave me the error ==> No CFI table found at address 0x00000000

I solved the problem because I realized I did not attached the data_master of the Nios to my avalon memory mapped slave port of the instanced External Flash. In fact, I only had the instruction master connected.

See the attached image for my solution. Hope this helps.