Why do I get the error Internal Error "No Active Family" when trying to generate a programming JAM file via command line "quartus_pfg"

Description

When trying to generate a JAM programing file (.jam) via the quartus_pfg command line from a Chain Description File (.cdf).

quartus_pfg -c <file>.cdf <file>.jam

You may get the following error message:

Internal Error: Sub-system: PGMIO, File: /quartus/pgm/pgmio/pgmio_jam.cpp, Line: 2873

No Active Family

Stack Trace:

Quartus     0x3cce3e: PGMIO_JAM::jam2_filter(int, PGMIO_JTAG_UNI_ENGINE*, std::basic_ifstream >&, std::ostream&) + 0x582 (pgm_pgmio)

Quartus     0x3d0a7a: PGMIO_JAM::jam2_create_file(int, PGMIO_JTAG_UNI_ENGINE*) + 0x846 (pgm_pgmio)

Quartus     0x3d4ec2: PGMIO_JAM::create_output_file(std::vector >*, FIO_PATH const&, bool) + 0x3e8c (pgm_pgmio)


This error may be due to an issue were the source programming files on the .cdf file not being valid.

Resolution

To work around this problem, verify your programing source file or files with the following command line:

quartus_pfg -i <source>.sof

This command will help you determine if your source file or files are valid and invalid and provide additional info on the issues with the invalid files for troubleshooting.

Replace the invalid files with valid ones once identified.