Stratix 10 Downloading ELF process failed

[Jacob11]

Hi guys. I am getting the dreaded "downloading ELF process failed" message from Nios eclipse when trying to run a program. I have been trying to get Hello World to work on the Stratix 10 for 2 days and I am ready to pull my hair out. I have been developing for the MAX 10 with Nios for almost a year, so I understand the environment pretty well. Hello world should be simple.

What is really strange is that my colleague has been developing on the Stratix 10 for a few months. He has several working programs that he developed with Nios. As a test, we also loaded these programs on the Stratix 10 and they no longer work!!! No one has touched them.....they just say downloading Elf process failed. Same PC. Same board. Same cables. 2 months ago they worked....no one touched them and now they don't work. Super frustrating.

I don't understand why a company like Intel cannot provide meaningful error messaging for developers. Download Failed is simply not helpful....but I digress.

Please see the attached screen shots. They will show you the error, my C code, my Qsys environment, my HDL, the type of device. Everything.

I need to develop some actual programs for the Stratix 10, but I cannot even get hello world to work after 2 days of trying.

Please help if you have any ideas.

Thanks

Jacob

[Jacob11]

I should also add I am running on Linux CentOS8

[Jacob11]

Well, I managed to solve it.

It was just really complicated to setup the reset and reset release in Qsys. I have no idea how this project was working on my colleages machine, but it was working with no changes. Very strange indeed.

So, here is my Qsys in case anyone else needs help setting this up:

[Jacob11]

Well, I came in to work today and the error is back. After running the program 7-8 times yesterday with no errors. No changes were made, yet it doesn't work now.....man this is frustrating, and a total waste of what should be productive work hours.

[Jacob11]

Final update. I have abandoned the nios2 eclipse. I switched to the command line interface and everything is working perfectly. I would prefer to use the GUI, but until intel issues a major update it is just too much work. I spent almost a week trying to get hello world to work. Once I switched to command line....ALL my programs work including the UART and I2C stuff that I was really trying to develop.

Dear Intel: Please fix Nios development so that we can integrate with a nice, modern IDE. This eclipse that we have to use is the most buggy software I have ever encountered from a professional company.

[JingyangTeh]

Hi Jacob11

I am Jingyang and was recently assigned to this case.

Sorry for the late reply as there was a public holiday here.

We are deeply sorry about the experience you had so far with the Nios IDE.

Let me try to reproduce the steps that you are facing and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Jingyang, Teh

[Jacob11]

Thank you Jingyang.

This is such a weird problem. All pf last week, what I got from the Eclipse GUI was "download ELF failed," except for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon when it magically started working. Then the rest of the week up until Monday morning yesterday it was giving "download ELF failed."

So, yesterday after lunch I asked a more experienced colleague to look at this with me and see if he has any ideas. So, I ran the program from the GUI and it worked perfectly from the GUI.....lol. No errors....no issues.

I am not sure what settings are causing this issue at this time. Since everything works consistently in the command line, then I think there is some settings in Eclipse that are not correct. But the error message doesn't give any indication of what the problem could be, so I cannot fix it.

[JingyangTeh]

Hi Jacob

I tried the flow and it is working so far on my machine.

I took a look at your qsys design screenshot, is it possible if you connect the reset of other IP to the "Reset Relese IntelFPGA IP"?

Regards

Jingyang, Teh

[JingyangTeh]

Hi

Any update on this case?

Regards

Jingyang, Teh

[Jacob11]

Hello Jingyang. So far, I haven't had time to make these changes as I am working on another project.

For now i am quite happy with the command line interface. I will revisit this issue when I get some time later this week.

Jacob

[JingyangTeh]

Hi Jacob

Are you fine if we close this case and you could file a new ticket or reopen the case again?

Regards

Jingyang, Teh

[Jacob11]

Jingyang,

Yes, that is fine. I am assigned to a different task now so it will be a while before  I get back to it.

Thanks,

Jacob

[JingyangTeh]

Hi

Since this thread been resolve, I shall set this thread to close pending. If you still need further assistance, you are welcome reopen this thread within 20days or open a new thread, some one will be right with you. Please login to ‘https://supporttickets.intel.com’, view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you. After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support. The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.

If you happened to close this thread you might receive a survey. If you think you would rank your support experience less than 10 out of 10, please allow me to correct it before closing or if the problem can’t be corrected, please let me know the cause so that I may improve your future service experience.

Regards

Jingyang, Teh