Nios 2 can't locate the USB Cable

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

 I made a testing system for my LCD with the SOPC builder. I was able to program and verify it as well in Eclipse. However when I started my PC today, I saw that the C program can not run, since under "Run Configurations" no cables were found. I tried to hit the "Refresh Connections" button multiple times, since it usually works. But no use.. Meanwhile I noticed that my other Nios projects also fail to execute due to the very same reason. Anybody knows what's going on? What shall I do?  Thanks in advance

[Altera_Forum]

I assume you mean the Nios IDE can't find the USB Blaster cable? I've had that problem often, I think it's just a quirk with the EDS. I found that just closing down the IDE and restarting it usually fixes the problem. I've also had the jtag interface lock up if I run the jtag uart interface and leave it idle for awhile - the only way I can fix it is to completely close and reopen all of my Altera software. 

 Sometimes I can get the CLI tools to work if the IDE is acting up. i.e. nios2-download and nios2-terminal.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for the reply. I tried that multiple times, also restarting the computer and running as administrator and so on.. But none of these worked. The board is OK, because I can run pure VHDL designs which do not include software. But when power on the board and open the nios2 shell and type "nios2-terminal", it says the following: 

"There are no JTAG UARTs available which match the --device and --instance options you provided". I have googled these also but nothing useful. Any idea how to solve this?

[Altera_Forum]

Assuming you're running windows, do you see Altera USB-Blaster in your device manager (under Universal Serial Bus Controllers)? Does the Quartus II programmer recognize your programmer? You could try removing the driver and reinstalling it.

[Altera_Forum]

Quarus recognizes it. I also reinstalled it and still nothing changed. It's pretty annoying.

[Altera_Forum]

Ok I double checked that a Jtag Uart component is present in the SOPC builder. I am certainly not downloading a wrong sopc info file. And the board is not defected since I can throw in pure VHDL designs and verify these. So what else can it be? I am about to go crazy. Please help :S

[Altera_Forum]

Have you tried just a simple design, with a nios/e, onchip ram with instruction and data lines hooked up, and a jtag uart? Are you sure your clock and reset lines are correct going to the system?

[Altera_Forum]

Yes. Actually I was able to run this project yesterday and everything was fine. Today I turned on my PC and I can not "Run as Hardware" in NIOS IDE. I am sure that I did not change anything in the project. What am I missing?

[Altera_Forum]

Ok, as I mentioned before, I do sometimes get that message when trying to run the program from the IDE. In this state, can you download your elf via the cli using nios2-download?

[Altera_Forum]

When I run it from the cli, it gives the following output. 

 https://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6637   Any ideas on what to do?

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you so much for your help, but I guess a clean start can cover up the possible mess I made. So re-installed the software and problem got solved finally.

[Altera_Forum]

Glad you got it working. 

 Cheers.