SOPC Builder Freeze Problem

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I am a beginner about altera products. I get altera DE1 development & education board few days ago and i'm having trouble installing and running Quartus II software. Methods that i applied to resolve is listed above:  1. First i installed Quartus II Web Edition 9.1 sp1 to my Windows Vista Sp1 os computer. Quartus worked fine but When i tried to start SOPC Builder, i got stuck on SOPC Builder splash screen with "Saving your ip search path in C:\Documents and Settings\ISF\.altera.quartus\ip\..." message on it. I waited it for a long time(hours) to start but nothing happened.  2. Then i installed Quartus to a Windows XP SP2 os Virtual Machine on Sun VirtualBox 3.1.4. SOPC Builder started properly but Virtualbox could not manage to connect to altera board because of usb difficulties about Virtual Machine.  3. So i decided to install it to windows xp sp3 computer in our university embedded systems lab. This time SOPC builder failed displaying the same splash screen.  4. Then i thought that java has trouble creating a file, and i created an empty user_components.ipx file manually. Then it passed that step but this time it got stuck in "Initializing Module Library.." step, and user_components.ipx file was still empty. Then i copied user_components.ipx file directly from the SOPC builder that works in virtualbox, and nothing has changed.   Note: All machines that SOPC Builder doesn't work had last version of java runtime environment(Version 6 Update 18 (build 1.6.0_18-b07)) installed.  We need to get through these technical difficulties and start development as fast as we can, so any help would be great.

[Altera_Forum]

It seems like we found a solution. If an environment variable is added named "SOPC_BUILDER_CLASSIC" with value "1" manually, sopc builder starts to work normally. 

 I hope that Altera developers pay more attention on this problem..

[Altera_Forum]

Ozan, 

 As a future note, when using virtualization NEVER count on USB stuff to work properly. Quartus II does provide other options, however. You can setup your host to serve up a remote JTAG (over ethernet/virtual ethernet) to your guest OS.  I do this all of the time, but I choose Linux over Windows because (in general) Linux is about 10x faster than Windows on SOPC Builder and Nios II stuff (Cygwin blows!). Besides, if you have a choice, why would you choose Windows? Windows (even Windows 7) _still_ throws off random BSODs. I prefer a more stable/reliable working environment.  -slacker

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I'm having the same problem. I've tried adding an environmental variable. It makes your SOPC builder to open in v7.0 appearence. I tried the same things.After adding and launching SOPC, the system successfully generated, but again I got another problem. The older SOPC didn't create the ".sopcinfo" file.(Older version's file system is a little different i think.) Thus, I can't create a project which is using this system i created, on niosIIv9.1. Unless i can launch SOPC in 9.1 in normal ways, i won't be able to create a proper and useable system. (Linux might be better i've never used linux befor so I can only use windows. A little help on windows would realy help :) )  Again any help would be great.  EDIT: I tried on virtual machine too. I don't get a problem about USB connection. I used the board succesfully. But again, SOPCv9.1 didn't started.  -srht

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I have had the same problem. I have found the reason and the work around.   In windows, regional settings is causing the trouble. In windows if your regional settings format is other than English, SOPC builder is freeze on start up showing ""Saving your ip search....".  The workaround to the problem, is to open "Control Panel" > "Region and Language" or "Regional Settings" dialog , on Format Page select English(American).  With this workaround you may use SOPC Builder normally even in non-English version of Windows. But Altera should notice the problem and can provide fix in future releases.   Bye.  Selcuk BASAK

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Hi,  I have had the same problem. I have found the reason and the work around.   In windows, regional settings is causing the trouble. In windows if your regional settings format is other than English, SOPC builder is freeze on start up showing ""Saving your ip search....".  The workaround to the problem, is to open "Control Panel" > "Region and Language" or "Regional Settings" dialog , on Format Page select English(American).  With this workaround you may use SOPC Builder normally even in non-English version of Windows. But Altera should notice the problem and can provide fix in future releases.   Bye.  Selcuk BASAK  --- Quote End ---    On our projects we agreed to use one of my friend's PC(The only one who didn't get any errors :) ) Though, this setting change worked for me :D .  Thanks for your help.  Sincerely  srht