I have a design created in QuartusII 7.1, it uses a NIOSII.
To bring up the bare hardware, I download the sof to our hardware using "quartus_pgm" and then use nios2-gdb-server and nios2-elf-gdb to connect to the NIOSII and run a little jtag uploader program which places a boot load into flash. Next power cycle the new system boots from flash.
This is all working in v7.1 and is automated with scripts.
Our production systems, however, are using Quartus v6.0 as most of our current products are generated with this.
Repeating the same steps (external programs quartus-pgm, nios2-gdb-server , nios2-elf-gdb) in v6.0 with an sof generated in v7.1 is causing problems.
Generally, I get a SIGTRAP when entering commands in gdb and subsequent memory access commands (from gdb) all indicate the memory is all 0xff and cannot be written to.
Should I be able to load sof / run gdb on the NIOSII with a version of quartus older than that used to generate the sof in the first place?
Are there differences in the embedded JTAG / NIOSII / memory interface components that would be affected by an external program?
Note : quartus-pgm always succeeds, nios2-gdb-server almost always succeeds, and nios2-elf-gdb causes the most trouble.
Suggestions on how to make this work are welcome.
(Duplicating the production systems is expensive but not out of the question)
