cant open CIII ref designs

[Altera_Forum]

I get an error trying to open any of the cycloneIII ref designs in Q7.1(full) 

 Error: Error reading Quartus II Settings File C:/qdesigns/mandelbrot_c2h/C2H_Mandelbrot.qsf, line 230  Info: set_global_assignment -name QIP_FILE system.qip  It looks like it has a problem with the .qip file. This file type is new to me, but the file is present and readable. I am using the Altera ToolSwitch util to hop between Q5.0 and Q7.1, so I wonder if this util is not preserving some needed path or setting.

[Altera_Forum]

you need Quartus 7.2 in order to open the desing files

[Altera_Forum]

OK, so try changing all the sets and paths manually. 

 Then fully shut down and restart the PC.  Then give it a try and let us all know.

[Altera_Forum]

Using 7.1 you might be able to copy over the video components and blow away any .qip references in the Quartus II project. That design started in 7.1 so it *should* be possible. I recommend migrating to 7.2 though since that's the version that the design ships as. 

 Cheers, JCJB

[Altera_Forum]

I uninstalled 7.1 and installed the 7.2 tools. I am able to open the projects. The problem now is that I cannot compile any of the SW examples for the CIII starter board.  

 For example trying the NiosII_small project with the 'hello world small' app, I get symbol '_exit' undefined in generated.x for the syslib. The file syslib does not include any reference to this symbol, and the line# flagged is beyond the end of the file anyway. It seems like there is a path missing or some other incompatibility between.  Hmmm... I did not rebuild and regen the project before I compiled under the IDE. Maybe thats it.

[Altera_Forum]

Actually you want to go to the Nios II command line and compile from there. The software projects use the new command line tools. You should be able to go into the software project folder and type "make" to compile any of the software projects. 

 It's possible to use the Nios II IDE to compile the projects but just as a heads up with the C2H Mandelbrot design, the hardware accelerators are already present in the system. In order for them to be targeted by software properly you might need to "re-accelerate" them which means you would have to recompile the hardware project.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks, that does let me compile those examples under 7.2. Good to know.  

What happened was I wanted a quick Nios ref design with a bdf representation. I had another disk, 'CycloneIII_Starter_Kit-v7.1.0'. which already had the 'CIII_NiosII_Small' project with a bdf. When I tried it I ran into the link error 'undefined _exit', and I also found I could not re-gen the project.   I finally figured out that these problems were because the examples installed with all files read-only. The tools are not good at telling that a failure is due to file permissions...  Once I copied the example and changed file permissions, I was able to re-gen, re-synth, and compile the 'hello_world_small' app targeted to the new ptf. The sof is time limited since I am using the 7.1 web version.  New problem: I can download the time limited sof to the board, but I cannot run the app.  I get 'Error starting process. Exec error:Launching failed'.  I also see on the launch dialog '[Debugger]: The CPU is not supported by selected debugger.' I have level 1 debug on the nios in this design so this makes no sense.

[Altera_Forum]

Whoops, I meant to say I am using the 7.2 web edition tools.

[Altera_Forum]

Solved. 

http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7873&hl=launch#