Nonexistent "Nios II Hardware" Debug Config

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This is beyond upsetting. I opened a new ticket under mySupport Oct. 29, took 3 or so days to respond, they asked a few questions about the issues with the board, and they ended up telling me to email university@altera.com...

THEY HAVE NOT RESPONDED THUS FAR, AND IT'S BEEN 3 FULL DAYS!!!

I have not been able to use my board since I received it a month ago. In addition to the debugger problem I'm having, the .sopcinfo and .sof files I was provided on one of the CD's that came with the board are NOT compatible with my board.

Also, it seems like no one here on the forums knows a possible solution here.

Am I really alone on this issue???

SMH x1000000!!!!!!

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I don't think 3 days is necessarily a terribly long time for input on a subtle, insidious issue like this, but it is confusing. I got some tips from tech support as follows, though none of them appeared to work for me. Altera was as usual very friendly and professional and offered additional help if I end up needing it. I have temporarily worked around this problem by running Quartus 9.1 on a Windows XP PC. For what it's worth, here is the advice I got (tech's name removed to not throw them back under the bus on this one):

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Hi Brad,

This is <tech name> with Altera embedded applications. One thing that could have happened is that Eclipse has defaulted to the "C/C++" perspective instead of the "Nios II" or "Nios II Debug" perspective. This would cause only the "Local C/C++ Application" to show under "Run as..." or "Debug as...".

Can you try the following under the Eclipse GUI (once it is brought up):

1. Click on the "Window -> Open Perspective" menu item at the top menu bar

2. Click on "Nios II". You may need to select "Other..." first if the "Nios II" perspective does not appear.

Once in the Nios II perspective, if you right click on a project, can you select "Debug as -> Nios II Hardware"?

Another thing to try is to clean out some temporary settings with Eclipse. Do do this you can do:

1. Click on the Windows "start" menu and select "Altera 9.1* -> Nios II EDS * -> Nios II 9.1 Command Shell"

2. From the command shell prompt, run "eclipse-nios2 -clean"

And, one more thing to try:

1. Edit your eclipse.ini file to add the following "-Dosgi" line to the bottom after the -vmargs link. The eclipse.ini file can be found here: C:\altera\<version>\nios2eds\bin\eclipse_nios2\eclipse.ini

-Dosgi.compatibility.errorOnFailedStart="false"

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you give these a try, if these works, if they do not work, or if you get stuck along the way. I'll be happy to help out. I can also setup a webex, if you like (and if you can share your screen)... I might be able to look over your shoulder and see what you are seeing and debug further.

Let me know.

Thanks and regards,

<tech name>

Altera Embedded Applications - North America