Quartus in a virtual machine

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, I have quartus web edition running on my linux machine using a window xp virtual machine. The VM that I am using is VirtualBox. I was able to get the usbblaster to "bridge" and be recognized enough by windows to request and install the usb blaster drivers. However when I try to do an auto detect on my cyclone 3 starter board I just get a messagebox window with "Unable to scan device chain. Can't scan JTAG chain". Quartus on the VM does seem to find the USB blaster, but seems unable to use it. Does anyone have any insight? Maybe I could just build sof files on the virtual machine and download to the cyclone 3 with some linux utility ? Any insight appreciated.

[Altera_Forum]

I've had decent luck with usb devices using VMWare Workstation (or player if you just need to run virtual machines). Also, a linux version of quartus would probably solve your problems.

[Altera_Forum]

yes, you can use the command-line programmer under linux without a quartus license. I'm using this to do the reverse of you, running the nios II IDE in a linux guest on a vista host. USB connection is working fine for me inside virtualbox. (in fact if windows sees and installs the driver, it's most probably your quartus settings that are off)

[Altera_Forum]

the tool is quartus_pgm, inside /opt/altera8.0/quartus/bin/ 

 its man file is a bit nonstandard. make sure to take a look at: quartus_pgm --help quartus_pgm --help=mode quartus_pgm --help=operation

[Altera_Forum]

I've run every version of Quartus since version 6 in a VMware VM, and since version 7 on VMware Fusion on Mac OS X which any problem at all, including SignalTap etc. 

 I suspect that VirtualBox simply doesn't have a good enough USB handling.  I tried to get Quartus running under CrossOver (a commercial version of Wine), but it basically didn't work for me.  Tommy

[Altera_Forum]

at the moment i'm having the same problem running the quartus II 8.0 programmer in a windows XP virtualbox guest-OS. in an other VM which runs a ubuntu 7.10 (yeah i konw, pretty old) the USB bridge works well. therefor i think it's more likely that winXP resp. quartus II has a problem with the bridged usb-interface.

[Altera_Forum]

The virtualbox USB driver definately does suck, but I've never had windows/quartus detect the Blaster but not be able to use it. The problem's always that the USB Blaster somehow disappears (I think the screensaver sets this off) and then i have to disconnect inside VB, disconnect the cable, reconnect the cable, and reconnect inside VB. Ugh. I should switch to vmware but VB is so damn good otherwise...

[Altera_Forum]

I find it much easier to use the standalone programmer on a physical host. And connect from the Quartus virtual machine to the jtag server using TCP/IP. Like this you don't install any USB drivers on the virtual machine at all.

[Altera_Forum]

i agree with you alex! VB is indeed a pretty good tool ;) but what does the procedure you explained do? are you able to use the usb blaster after this procedure? @vjAlter: thats a quite a good idea, is there any tutorial available which shows how to setup a standalone programmer with JTAG-server in linux?

[Altera_Forum]

Yes, I'm able to use it again. If I don't follow this procedure, if I just try to disconnect/reconnect the USB Blaster inside VirtualBox's Devices menu to try to get the VM to detect it again it doesn't work and VB throws some sort of error dialog related to USB. After that, I must restart the whole computer to get it to stop throwing that dialog. This is on a 32bit Vista SP1 host. On Vista 64bit I get a BSOD when I try USB.