Cyclone IV GX FPGA Development board not recognised by PC when in PCIe slot

[Altera_Forum]

Just received a Cyclone IV GX FPGA Development kit and downloaded the demo c4gx_PCIe_gen1_x1.sof to it but when the PC boots up id does not recognise the board. I am unable to install a driver for it. The board is switched on and the dip switches are per factory default. Has anyone else experienced the same and knows what the problem is? 

 Thanks  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

PCI and PCIe devices are enumerated at power-on by the BIOS. This means that if you download the .sof to the board, you need to warm-reboot the PC containing the board. This is generally not an issue if your PCIe machine is not your development machine :) 

 Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Dave, 

 Thanks for your reply.  I did as the instructions said and downloaded the file whilst the PC was in the bios and then quit the bios. PC started OK but board was not recognised. I did a reboot and still the same.  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Hugh, 

  --- Quote Start ---   I did as the instructions said and downloaded the file whilst the PC was in the bios and then quit the bios. PC started OK but board was not recognised. I did a reboot and still the same.   --- Quote End ---   Ok, are you sure that the particular design you are downloading "works"? Eg., is there an LED that starts blinking or something? And does this particular design example include a PCIe end-point?  The development kits usually come with a Board-Test-System (BTS) design. Did you confirm your hardware works by running that example in stand-alone mode? The BTS design probably does not have a PCIe core in it.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Dave, 

 I downloaded a BTS test file into the development board and tried the BTS software in stand alone mode. That worked OK.  I then downloaded the demo sof file into the board in stand alone mode and that works, well I assume it does as the board behaves differently and a user LED blinks. The same happens when I put the board into the PC and program it in situ. The PC I am using is Windows 7 and not XP but I would assume that it would see the board regardless of operating system.  The sof file I am using is the one from the demo directory in the kit (c4gx_PCIe_gen1_x1.sof) which I assume works. I just need a starting point that works.  Cheers  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Hugh, 

 Thanks for confirming that your kit works, and that you are downloading a design that should contain a PCIe end-point.  Would you mind booting Linux using a LiveCD and typing lspci at a command prompt?  Take a read of the PDF document linked in this thread ... it has some PCIe test notes ...  http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35678  The PDF does not include your board, but a couple of other PCIe end-point designs on Cyclone IV and Stratix IV boards.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Dave, 

 Tried the Linux command lspci and nothing was listed. The alive LED on the pcie board is flashing so I assume that the board is working. I have now tried another demo this time using a c4gx_qsys_ocie_gen1x4.sof file.  The PC I am using is a HP I will try a Dell to see if it works in that, just wondering if it is a speed issue or something to do with the pcie slot or something.  Cheers  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---   Tried the Linux command lspci and nothing was listed. The alive LED on the pcie board is flashing so I assume that the board is working. I have now tried another demo this time using a c4gx_qsys_ocie_gen1x4.sof file.   --- Quote End ---   Ok, those steps all sound reasonable.    --- Quote Start ---   The PC I am using is a HP I will try a Dell to see if it works in that, just wondering if it is a speed issue or something to do with the pcie slot or something.   --- Quote End ---   That sounds like a good idea.  If that fails to work, then you could add a SignalTap II instance to the PCIe example design, and trace the state of the PCIe interface.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

The card works in a Dell Windows 7 pc but cannot be installed due to not finding the drivers. The card also works in an XP pc but again no driver can be found. The example demo has a dev id of 0004 in the inf file but the dev id set on the PCI card is E001. Oddly the filename for the inf file is altpcie_perf_demo_e001.inf. 

 Anyone experienced this problem and know of the correct file to use? I tried changing the Dev ID in the file from 0004 to e001 this started to work in the sense it found the driver but then failed to load.  Cheers  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  The card works in a Dell Windows 7 pc   --- Quote End ---   Great, progress!    --- Quote Start ---   but cannot be installed due to not finding the drivers. The card also works in an XP pc but again no driver can be found. The example demo has a dev id of 0004 in the inf file but the dev id set on the PCI card is E001. Oddly the filename for the inf file is altpcie_perf_demo_e001.inf.  Anyone experienced this problem and know of the correct file to use? I tried changing the Dev ID in the file from 0004 to e001 this started to work in the sense it found the driver but then failed to load.   --- Quote End ---   Do you have to use Windows? Under Linux you can access PCIe devices directly, which is often sufficient to "check things out" and then you can deal with software issues later, eg., you can perform your hardware tests under Linux, even though eventually you may deploy under Windows.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

Has to be Windows 7 and nothing else. 

 Cheers  Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Hugh, 

  --- Quote Start ---  Has to be Windows 7 and nothing else.  --- Quote End ---   C'mon, that's a terrible attitude :)  Seriously though, as a developer, you need to have a wide range of "development" tools. Just think of Linux as a tool. You can use it to isolate a problem, and then move onto the next problem.  Have you written device drivers before? Altera has example Windows drivers provided by Jungo (I've not used them, so I'm not sure if they include source). You can write your own Windows driver using the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). I've not used the latest versions, but the older development tools were clunky. I'd recommend reading the "NT Insider" from OSR http://www.osronline.com/, they have excellent discussions on drivers (and if you can subcontract driver development, would be someone to check out).  There are several Linux drivers available for development kits, eg.,  http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/linux_pcie_driver  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Dave, 

 It's a corporate network and Windows 7 is the only OS allowed.  Cheers Hugh

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---   It's a corporate network and Windows 7 is the only OS allowed.   --- Quote End ---   Your Linux driver development machine does not need to be on a network ... :)  For example, why not have your PCIe card plugged into a desktop running Linux that is not connected to the network, and your Quartus development machine running Windows 7 and connected to the corporate network (for accessing the Quartus license server). No problem, right?  Cheers, Dave