Nios® V/II Embedded Design Suite (EDS)
Support for Embedded Development Tools, Processors (SoCs and Nios® V/II processor), Embedded Development Suites (EDSs), Boot and Configuration, Operating Systems, C and C++

Testing some flash routines

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
1,147 Views

Hello, 

 

I am trying to test some flash routines, really just modified mem_test from Nios apps on a new product board that  

has no external reset. 

 

The board is a working FPGA( CIII) that has actually booted from the EPCS with no Nios 

 

What I have tried: 

1. My first thought, I thought I was being clever, was to convert my time-limited SOF to a JIC. Then download my Nios 

system into the EPCS. Since my Nios and test code are basically just a hex file attached to a SOF( using on-chip memory) 

I thought that I could just open a shell and listen with the nios2-terminal as I powered on the FPGA. 

 

This does not work, it may, because I cannot convert the time-limited SOF( I cannot attach the SOF file to the JIC creation). 

 

2. Program SOFw/ hex. This is okay, but I see no Nios messages from the shell with a nios2-terminal? 

 

3. Try debugging from IDE( seems like this is not recommended by Altera anymore, want users to use CLI). I try this after I have loaded SOF w/hex and I get strange message: 

Warning: trying to use little-endian srec with big-endian hardware 

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00 

Pausing target processor: not responding. 

Resetting and trying again: FAILED 

Leaving target processor paused 

 

Possibilities? 

1. Use the System Console, haven't tried yet. Help menu a little cryptic. Not sure how to restart Nios from Console. Maybe this will work? 

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. 

Regards 

 

0 Kudos
1 Reply
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
270 Views

Hello, 

 

Actually item#2 is working, but I missed because there is some strange behavior on the JTAG uart. This may be related to me using alt_printfs( small Cyclone) and thus the alt_stdio.h, good advice for reducing image from slacker.( The Small C library did not work  

for me) 

 

So, to recap using a flow of just Program( w/GUI in this case) SOF file with embedded Hex file( on-chip memory), 

and then opening a shell and the "nios2-terminal" , prints are buffered and displayed. 

 

Regards 

 

0 Kudos
Reply