Linux/ModelSim: can't access Tools > Edit preferences

[ELave]

I've just run up the altera-18.0 ModelSim starter edition for the first time, on Centos/RH 6.10, Gnome.

I'm on a HiDPI (4K) display and the output is too small to be comfortable. As a first step, I've tried Tools > Edit preferences, but I get a tcl error:

Couldn't load file "[..modelsim_ase]/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so"

This file does actually exist, and is as expected (a 32-bit .so), so the error is presumably a tcl failure of some sort - possibly not following a symlink.

Any ideas, or some other way to get usable output on HiDPI? Thanks.

[KhaiChein_Y_Intel]

Hi,

May I know your ModelSim installation path?

Thanks.

[ELave]

Hi KYeoh - it's /home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/.

[ELave]

And the complere error message is "Couldn't load file /home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so". This also appears sometimes when I'm running a simualtion, but I don't know why.

[KhaiChein_Y_Intel]

Hi,

May I know the location of libScintillaTk1.12.so? Can you check the library path?

Thanks.

[ELave]

It's in exactly the right place, at /home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so, and 'file' reports that it is a 32-bit '.so' file. So, the error message is wrong. The file exists.

I think the only possible confusion is that the 'linux' part of the path is a symlink, which is common in ModelSim installations. However, something has got confused about it.

[ELave]

This isn't a symlink problem - I removed the 'linux' symlink, and copied in the linuxaloem code, with the same result.

This is almost certainly a 32/64-bit problem, or a tcl version problem. The shared object which implements 'Tools>Edit preferences' is:

$ file /home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so

/home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, not stripped

I'm on Centos/RH 6.2, x86_64, tclsh 8.5. Can someone at Intel please give me a definitive answer on what is supported? Do you actually have to run this on a 32-bit system?

Stack trace below, when 'Tools>Edit preferences' is clicked:

Couldn't load file "/home/eda/modelsim/altera-18.0/modelsim_ase/linux/ScintillaTk/libScintillaTk1.12.so": libstdc++.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

   while executing

".vcop Eval Console::PrefDialog"

   invoked from within

".#mBar.#mBar#tools invoke active"

   ("uplevel" body line 1)

   invoked from within

"uplevel #0 [list $w invoke active]"

   (procedure "tk::MenuInvoke" line 50)

   invoked from within

"tk::MenuInvoke .#mBar.#mBar#tools 1"

   (command bound to event)

[KhaiChein_Y_Intel]

Hi,

Do you have LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment setting?

Thanks

[ELave]

It's set to '.:.', ie. nothing, but why would that be relevant? The error message clearly shows that the software already has the full path to the library. It claims that there is no library at that location, but the required library is clearly at that exact location. Besides, the ModelSim installation has no settings script (that I can find) that sets up anything, let alone LD_LIBRARY_PATH. And I can't imagine that a tool vendor would ask you to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH - that's just a hack.

Some searching shows that this is likely to be a 32/64-bit problem. I also have experience of trying to get ModelSim PE, which is 32-bit, running on an RH7 64-bit system for an evaluation. It's difficult, and I gave up, even after a lot of input from the FAE.

The problem is that no-one at ModelSim, or Intel, or possibly anywhere else, has started witha 64-bit version of a supported system, and then tried downgrading it enough to run 32-bit ModelSim with no problems at all. My Centos 6.2 system has the 32-bit compatibility libraries installed, but that is clearly not sufficient. And no-one in their right mind is going to install an obsolete 32-bit system from scratch just to run ModelSim.

[KhaiChein_Y_Intel]

Hi,

Have you install libstdc++.so.6 ?

Thanks

[ELave]

Hi KYeoh - libstdc++ is the C++ runtime library. Every Linux system that ships with gcc 3.4.0 or later (ie. everything since 2004) ships with libstdcc++.so.6. It would probably be impossible to run Linux without this library.

[ELave]

Hi KYeoh - I tried removing .modelsim, as you suggested, but it made no difference.

I'm curious, though - why would you think that was relevant?

Would you mind answering this question, please:

Is anyone in Intel actually running your ModelSim distributable on Linux? If so, do they have the libscintilla problem? And exactly which Linux distro are they running? If they are running 64-bit, what 32-bit libraries have they installed?

[ELave]

Note that there are other problems, which I haven't really been keeping track of. You can't open a dataflow window, for example, because 'nlviewST.so' supposedly doesn't exist. However, it does exist, and is in the correct location, and is a 32-bit .so, as expected.

[KhaiChein_Y_Intel]

Hi Elave,

You may check the OS here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/support/support-resources/download/os-support.html

ModelSim Intel FPGA Edition / ModelSim Intel FPGA Starter Edition is officially supported in Redhat only.

You have to install the following additional RPM packages:

• 32-bit libraries: unixODBC-libs, unixODBC, ncurses, ncurses-libs, libzmq3, libXext, alsalib,

libXtst, libXft, libxml2, libedit, libX11, libXi.

Thanks.