EPCS booting problem

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I recently upgraded to 9.1 (today) for both Quartus and NIOS II EDS. Ever since then, whenever I try to program the EPCS, it states that it was successful, but when I power cycle, it never boots up. I scope the data/clk lines on the EPCS flash chip and they are actively cycling as if it's continously trying to boot, but never does. My code/config file hasn't changed.    I've tried rebooting my machine, using a different USB blaster, re-installing drivers, nothing works. If I load the SOF file and load the debug, I can run it from the EDS.  Anyone else experience something similar?   Thanks,  Mike

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Altera has already published the 9.1 SP1 (for both Quartus and NIOS) which contain this patch and thus fixes the EPCS problem.   You can download it from the Altera's website.   Best Regards, Jari  --- Quote End ---     Are you sure the Nios II 91SP1 Flash Program work normally?  However, I download Nios ii 91SP1, install it. Neither the Nios II IDE or Nios II SBT, after using Flash programmer to download programming file into EPCS, it can not boot normally as the 91 did. I am so gloomy about the 91 and 91SP1.   There is a good idea to download programing file into EPCS via JTAG in Quartus II. In QII, file->Convert Programming Files.., Convert sof into jjc, then it works.   Thank you all the same.   Regards, Yuphone Chang

[Altera_Forum]

Yes, i can confirm that the Quartus 9.1SP1 solves this issue. 

Also that Quartus 9.1SP1 can be installed over Quartus 9.1 with the patch mentioned in this thread.  Did you only upgrade the nios2eds from 9.1 to 9.1SP1 ?? You will have you upgrade the Quartus as well to 9.1SP1.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Yes, i can confirm that the Quartus 9.1SP1 solves this issue. Also that Quartus 9.1SP1 can be installed over Quartus 9.1 with the patch mentioned in this thread.   Did you only upgrade the nios2eds from 9.1 to 9.1SP1 ?? You will have you upgrade the Quartus as well to 9.1SP1.  --- Quote End ---     I am so sorry that I gave a wrong message before. I just install NII 9.1SP1, then I use Flash Programmer, it does not work ok with abnormal boot. When I download QII 9.1 SP1 completely, and install it. I recompilate the QII, now both the Nios II IDE and the Nios II SBT, the EPCS works normally.   However, when I use Nios II SBT Flash Programmer, after enable the "Erase Flash Before Programming", the EPCS does not work normally again. The other options are OK, just watch out the "Erase Flash Before Programming" option.   Thanks everybody who helped and helping me.   Yours sincerely, Yuphone Chang

[Altera_Forum]

I've installed the 9.1Sp1 but it doesn't solve the problem for me.

[Altera_Forum]

I have installed the new version and it doesn't work also for my Stratix IV GX board using BUP. 

 Here are my steps: 1. Convert .sof to .flash: sof2flash --input=<yourfile_hw>.sof --output=<yourfile>_hw.flash --offset=0xC20000 --pfl --optionbit=0x00018000   2. Convert .elf to .flash: elf2flash --base=0x0A000000 --end=0x0BFFFFFF --reset=0x0A820000 --input=<yourfile_sw>.elf --output=<yourfile>_sw.flash --boot=$SOPC_KIT_NIOS2/components/altera_nios2/boot_loader_cfi.srec   3. Program hardware: nios2-flash-programmer --base=0x08000000 <yourfile>_hw.flash    4. Program software: nios2-flash-programmer --base=0x0A000000 <yourfile>_sw.flash   Do I also need to program in the <yourfile>_hw.map.flash file ?   Please let me know if my steps are correct.   Thanks.

[Altera_Forum]

I don't see that your Board Update Portal (BUP) you are trying to use targets an EPCS. 

inside the epcs, the first data or image is the fpga image. after that is the software image. so the elf2flash must be called with the option --after "fpagimage.flash" also there is no --epcs option used.  this thread is about the epcs booting problem introduced with Quartus 9.1 that is fixed with patch 0.63 or SP1  are trying to use a parallel flash ?

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks MSchmitt, 

 Sorry for the confusion. I guess I need to create a new thread for this. I am using CFI flash as provided inside Stratix 4 GX board devkit BUP example folder.

[Altera_Forum]

I know this is an old thread, but I found a solution for this. I was getting bad RBF files using bitstream compression for my Stratix II part when I had told the main Quartus software to generate the RBF files in the settings checkbox. If I instead generated the RBF file using the commandline tool, the problem went away. Here's how to do it. 

 Make a file, call it "options.txt", put this one line in it BITSTREAM_COMPRESSION=ON  Now run this commandline quartus_cpf -c --option=options.txt Project.sof Project.rbf  This worked great. I've not tried making a POF file in this manner, but quartus_cpf allows you to do that, too. Just type "quartus_cpf -h" to get help on how to do it.