Quartus 21.1 - JTAG communication on Ubuntu 20.04

VendaskyCZ · ‎01-12-2022

Hello, I just installed Quartus 21.1 Prime Lite on Ubuntu 20.04. I am trying to use it with Intel DE10-Lite. I am able to open Quartus and run it. When I open Tools -> Programmer and click to Hardware setup, I can see that my board is connected. See the screenshot in the attachment. Then when I code back to the Programmer window and click Add file and load the sof file, everything seems to be OK. But then when I click Start, it takes quite a while and programming then fails. From the Quartus window, I can see that the JTAG chain can't be accessed.

Then when I go to the installation folder of Quartus and its binary folder, I try to execute jtagconfig script. The output of the scripts is as follows:

vendasky@vendasky-HP-ZBook-Firefly-15-G7-Mobile-Workstation:~/intelFPGA_lite/21.1/quartus/bin$ ./jtagconfig
1) USB-Blaster [1-4]

Unable to read device chain - JTAG chain broken

I tried restarting the jtagd running following commands as root:

# killall -9 jtagd

# jtagd

Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem. Then I tried adding rules file into /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usbblaster.rules. The content of this file is:

# USB Blaster
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6001", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6002", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6003", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"

# USB Blaster II
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6010", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6810", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"

This didn't solve the problem either. Then I followed steps for Linux from this tutorial: https://ecen3350.rocks/static/usb-blaster.pdf. I checked that the required file exists using the following command:

vendasky@vendasky-HP-ZBook-Firefly-15-G7-Mobile-Workstation:~/intelFPGA_lite/21.1/quartus/bin$ ls -l /etc/jtagd/jtagd.pgm_parts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1272852 Jan 11 16:34 /etc/jtagd/jtagd.pgm_parts

But problem was not solved either. Then I tried installing libraries recommended in https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683472/21-4/software-requirements-07130.html. After restart of the machine problem still was not solved.

I also tried checking if the device is connected:

vendasky@vendasky-HP-ZBook-Firefly-15-G7-Mobile-Workstation:/etc$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 06cb:00df Synaptics, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 045e:07b2 Microsoft Corp. 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 used by mouse Wireless Desktop 900
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 041e:324d Creative Technology, Ltd USB-Blaster
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b6bf Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP HD Camera
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 09fb:6001 Altera Blaster
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

As you can see it is connected.

Could you please tell me what should I do to set up the JTAG communication?

NickO · ‎06-07-2022

I have much the same question.

I tried to outline my own workaround here - https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-Quartus-Prime-Software/JTAG-error-Unexpected-error-in-JTAG-server-error-code-35-and-Can/m-p/1390610#M74039

However, it is far from ideal as I keep having to disconnect and reconnect my DE0-Nano board. I am also mystified why it is needed.

I would really like to see a proper solution.