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Can't run basic NIOS and SOPC Tutorials in 72?

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I am trying to do tutorials of NIOS IDE and SOPC, but cannot complete either of them! Are there software issues in v7.2 software? 

 

I have Quartus/SOPC Builder/NIOS II IDE (all 7.2) installed on a PC. I have uninstalled and re-installed these tools but to no avail. Here are some details of what's happening: 

 

1. While doing the "nios ii hardware development tutorial", when I reach page 1-26 ("Generate the SOPC Builder System"), I am getting the following error in the "System Generation" window in SOPC Builder: "Error: Generation skipped because the system has validation errors."  

 

To begin with, what does this error mean - looks to be extremely generic in nature.. and can't find any documentation of it online? I have also tripple checked, and re-done the steps, to ensure that the configured system matches the screenshot shown in Figure 1-13. 

 

2. While doing tu-n2c2h2 ("accelerating nios ii system with c2h compiler tutorial (on fft) "), I am unable to build the project. After selecting the two configurations mentioned in Figure 2.....  

 

>> when I try to build the system (with "Analyze all accelerators" & "Use HW accelerator in place of SW implementation" in C2H window), I get the following error:  

 

--- Quote Start ---  

C2H: Hardware accelerator was selected for linking with the analyze-only option, which does not update the accelerator drivers. An existing accelerator driver was not found (because it has not been built, or the directory was cleaned).  

Select the "Build and Generate" option to regenerate the accelerator drivers, or select the "Use software implementation" option for the accelerators that do not have drivers : alt_c2h_software_only_fft.c. 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

>> Using the "Software Implementation" selection in C2H window gives a java.lang error:  

 

--- Quote Start ---  

Progress: Loading system from fileC:/altera/72/nios2tutorial/c2h_fft_cyclone_ii/FFT_system.sopc... 

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException 

at com.altera.sopceditor.util.EditorUtils.setQuartusProjectInfo(EditorUtils.java:1778) 

at com.altera.c2h.C2HGenerate.createEnsemble(C2HGenerate.java:130) 

at com.altera.sopceditor.app.EnsembleApp.start(EnsembleApp.java:164) 

at com.altera.c2h.C2HGenerate.main(C2HGenerate.java:72) 

make: *** [c2h_hdl-t] Error 1 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

* Surely booth these issues look to be tool related! So the question is, has anyone run into these errors, and know how they can be fixed/circumvented?  

* Anyone know when SP1 for 72 is going to be out? 

* If the suggestion is rolling back to 7.1 or 7.0, where could I get'em from (for download)? 

 

Cheers, 

horizon_t
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I believe that the Tutorial is in the process of being updated to 7.2 tools right now. 

 

File an SR and they can tell you how to download the 7.1 version of the tools.
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Altera_Forum
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Thanks for the response Avatar. Have filed a SR - hope to get a response soon. 

 

I am really curious though, should these tutorials need any updating in the first place - afterall, these are the basic functions that customers would like to port their 7.1 projects and work "out of box"!! Others' running into similar issues?
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Altera_Forum
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Yes I am having a number of problems porting old components and hence old systems to the new 7.1 and 7.2 way of doing things. Alas you are not alone which may not be such a comfort to you :(

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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For the nios ii hardware development tutorial just edit the nios processor cpu and on the first tab select for the reset vector and the exception vector the memory in witch they will be contained, for example, sram. 

 

For the FFT tutorial, those instructions won't work for 7.2. It is better if you edit the the_top_file.c and the pound_defines.h to run only one of the two c2h accelerators. For example, for the software_only erase all the pragma references and the RAM buffers from the header file and the function call to the accelerated version from the main file. If you are still interested in this Tutorial let me know and I can give you a working version. 

 

By the way, both versions have errors. The signs in the butterflies calculations are wrong. Minus sign must be a plus and the plus a minus. This is because the multiplication of two imaginary numbers return a real product, which must be multiplied by -1.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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"Error: Generation skipped because the system has validation errors."  

 

about this problem, does anyone give me a hand for this?
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Well, I think I already answered that. edit the nios processor cpu and on the first tab select for the reset vector and the exception vector the memory in witch they will be contained, for example, sram. If that is not the problem, it could be useful to see a screenshot of your system in the SOPC Builder.

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I used Quartus 7.2 (SP3) . 

 

I do it following for you (Edit the nios processor cpu and on the first tab select for the reset vector and the exception vector the memory in witch they will be contained) 

but i didn't see and changed reset vector and exception vector . I can't change
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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quanghien666 

 

It looks like you are newer in this thread, not sure. 

 

You will only see items to pull down in there after you have added memory to the design. 

Add some memory, then come back to the CPU component (double click it) and then you should see some memory that you can assign.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Thank you Avatar, 

 

I see my mistakes, because I don't add memory in the SoPC. And Avatar has labs to practise for it which to easy understand. Thanks :)
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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My pleasure, care to add to my reputation points??

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Thanks, it solve my problem of this error

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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how do i add flash memory to the my_first niosii tutorial for LED blink in Quartus and Nios 7.2?

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