sof2flash command through Nios II shell not working

[ERagu]

I'm developing on Windows 10 for the Arria V GX Starter Kit. For the past year or so, when I've wanted to write to non-volatile memory, I took the output .sof file from Quartus and run it through this command, as specified in the documentation:

sof2flash --input=input_file_name.sof --output=output_file_name.flash --offset=0x01640000 --pfl --optionbit=0x00018000 --programmingmode=FPP

This used to work fine. I recently moved to a new Windows 10 machine and installed the Nios II shell through Quartus Prime 18.1. I try to run the same command, even on .sof files that I've previously converted fine, and I get this error message:

Zero length string Oct 17, 2018 1:06:17 PM com.altera.commandApplication.CmdApp severe SEVERE: sof2flash: Error creating intermediate files, exiting

What's going on here? Is there a number I can call to ask?

[Abe · Accepted solution]

Well, I just checked the command from a Windows 10 NIOS-2 prompt and it works fine. Check that the SOF file has been generated using the latest 18.1 version of Quartus. This could happen if you're using an SOF created by an earlier version.

[GuaBin_N_Intel]

I don't have such issue in win10. ​Did you try any older Quartus version ,eg 18.0std or regenerate the .sof in the same version?

[ERagu]

Abe's answer worked, it turned out I was using a different version of NIOS than the version of Quartus I was using to compile.