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Introduction

This document provides information on installation and setup of Quartus II v8.1 under Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) using the following configuration:

  • Windows guest on a Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) host using virtualization via VirtualBox

  • Quartus II v8.1 running on Windows guest

  • Altera device connected to host computer

At the end of this tutorial, you should be able setup the configuration mentioned above and use Quartus II v8.1 both for design digital circuits and load them in Altera devices using Quartus II IDE, without the need to aquire a subscription license.

Although it is possible for the following instructions to work under a different version of Ubuntu, it is very important to use the indicated version of Quartus II software, as it has been reported that previous releases have some problems during installation on Linux flavors that are different from the ones officially supported (Red Hat Linux Enterprise 4/5 (32/64 bit), SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 (32/64-bit) and CentOS 4/5 (32/64 bit)).

About Quartus II

At the time of writing this tutorial, Altera provides Quartus II software in two different versions:

  1. Quartus II Web Edition - Free version available only for Windows
  2. Quartus II Subscription Edition - Free 30 day trial. After that period, subscription license is required. Available for Windows and Linux

Although Quartus II Subscription Edition needs a license in order to work, several command line tools are provided as part of the installation that can be used without the need of that license. Two important commands of these tools that we will use during this tutorial are jtagd and jtagconfig.

jtagd communicates with and loads previously compiled designs into Altera devices using JTAG standard in two different connection modes:

  • Local mode - The Altera device is fisically conected to the computer in which jtagd is running

  • Remote mode - The Altera device is fisically connected to a remote computer that acts as a server. Quartus II software running on the local computer communicates with the remote Altera device via the remote server

jtagconfig allows us to register and configure connection cables and Altera devices, and setup jtagd to act as a JTAG server

Setting up configuration

The following is a big picture of the steps that will be explained in this tutorial:

  1. Install Quartus II Web Edition in the guest system to be able to create, compile and load designs into Altera devices

  2. Set up a JTAG server on host computer

    1. Install Quartus II Subscription Edition in the host machine to be able to use jtagd and jtagconfig

    2. Use jtagd and jtagconfig to setup a JTAG server

  3. Communicate the Quartus II Web Edition installed in the guest system with the JTAG server running on the host via virtual networking

  4. Test configuration by loading a compiled design into Altera device

Setting up Quartus II Web Edition 8.1 in the Windows guest

  1. Install VirtualBox (either normal or OSE version) on the host computer.

  2. Create a new virtual machine and install WindowsXP or Windows Vista on it (only this versions of Windows are supported by Quartus II software)

  3. Download Quartus II Web Edition Software v8.1 from Altera's site

  4. Install Quartus II Web Edition Software v8.1 in previously created Windows guest. No license file is required in this version of Quartus II software

At the end of this section, you should be able to run Quartus II on your Windows guest:

  • quartus_windows_virtualbox.jpg

Setting up the JTAG server

Setup environment for Quartus II installation script

  1. Remove csh and install tcsh on the host system 

    sudo apt-get remove csh tcsh
sudo apt-get install tcsh

  2. Make sure that /bin/sh points to bash. 

    ls -l /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2008-11-06 11:53 /bin/sh -> bash

    If it's not pointing to bash, delete existing link and create a new one 

    sudo rm /bin/sh
sudo ln -s bash /bin/sh

Install Quartus II Subscription Edition

  1. Download Quartus II Subscription Edition Software v8.1 for Linux from Altera's site

  2. Untar 81_quartus_linux.tar in the the host computer, in a directory of your choice

  3. Go to the directory where you untared the software and execute installation script 
    ./install

  4. Follow the instructions to complete the default installation. If you decide to do a custom installation, read readme.txt or the installation script help 

    ./install --help

  5. If you are using USB Blaster to connect the Altera device to the host computer, you will need to enable usbfs, which is disabled by default on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Follow this instructions to do so. If you want to enable USB access to your VirtualBox installation (currently not available for OSE version) follow the instructions as is. Otherwise, change the group vboxusers for a group you'd like to provide the access to usbfs.

Test your installation

Connect and turn on the Altera device to the host computer. Follow the instruction according to the cable you are using:

  • USB Blaster - USB cable connection is automatically detected when connected to the host computer, so executing jtagconfig should list the available Altera devices currently connected 

    $ALTERA_HOME/quartus/bin/jtagconfig
..
  • LPT cable -

At the end of this section you should be able to execute jtagd and jtagconfig, that should be found in $ALTERA_HOME/quartus/bin. You will also be able to execute Quartus II IDE with free 30 day trial, although binary compilation and design loading into Altera devices are disabled. 

$ALTERA_HOME/quartus/bin/quartus

  • quartus_ubuntu.jpg

Create a Ubuntu service for ''jtagd''

jtagd should be run as a service to be able to work as a JTAG server. The correct way to do this is installing it in the system run levels mechanism as follows:

  1. Download jtagd init script from here

  2. Place the script in /etc/init.d/ directory

  3. Create /etc/rcn.d symbolic links 

    sudo update-rc.d jtagd defaults

    The defaults option will create links to start service in 2, 3, 4 and 5 run levels and links to stop service in 0, 1 and 6 run levels

  4. Create /etc/jtagd directory

  5. Create an empty file called /etc/jtagd/jtagd.conf (needed to store jtagd configuration, which is managed by jtagconfig)

  6. Create the following symbolic link 
    sudo ln -s $ALTERA_HOME/quartus/linux/pgm_parts.txt /etc/jtagd/

  7. Start jtagd service 

    sudo invoke-rc.d jtagd

    If everything is going ok you'll be able to connect successfully with your Altera device as before

  8. Configure jtagd service to act as a JTAG server 

    sudo $ALTERA_HOME/quartus/bin/jtagconfig --enableremote <password>

At the end of this section you should be able to see jtagd in your current executing processes 

ps -eaf | grep jtagd

root      5531     1  0 Nov12 ?        00:00:00 jtagd
cristo   14898 12145  0 00:24 pts/1    00:00:00 grep jtagd

And a process listening on tcp port 1309 

netstat -lpt

(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info
 will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 localhost:ipp           *:*                     LISTEN      -               
tcp        0      0 *:1309                  *:*                     LISTEN      -

Create a virtual network between guest and host systems

In this section we will create a simple virtual network between guest virtual machine and host computer using VirtualBox's HIC Networking. As the purpose of this tutorial is to setup a connection between Quartus II software in guest virtual machine with an Altera device connected to host computer, the network will just allow communication between guest, host and other computers connected to the same network. Depending on your network configuration, it is probable for your guest system not to be able to have access to any outside network.

If you would like to setup a different type of virtual network, please refeer to VirtualBox networking tutorial. No matter what virtual networking mode you choose, just make sure you are able to successfully ping between guest and host systems.

In order to create the virtual network, we will provide to VirtualBox two scripts: one for creating and setting up a temporal virtual network interface (so-called TAP interface), and one for teardown and remove it from the host system.

Acknowledgments

The following hipothetic settings will be used to explain the virtual network configuration:

  • Host computer
    • Network id: 192.168.0.0/24
    • Network DHCP range: 192.168.0.2-100
    • Network default gateway: 192.168.0.1

    • User running VirtualBox: vboxuser

  • Guest Computer
    • IP: 192.168.0.200 (static ip outside DHCP range to avoid conflicts)
    • DNS server: Any DNS server
    • Network default gateway: 192.168.0.1 (same value that host computer)

Setting up VirtualBox HIC Network

  1. Create the virtual interface creation script
    • The following is a script that creates and sets up a temporal TAP interface in the host system. It also adds routing information to let the kernel know how to identify the created interface (using the IP 192.168.0.200 mentioned before). Save it in a location of your choice and make it executable. 
    # Create a new TAP interface for the user 'vboxuser' and remember its name.
interface=`VBoxTunctl -b -u vboxuser`

# If for some reason the interface could not be created, return 1 to
# tell this to VirtualBox.
if [ -z "$interface" ]; then
exit 1
fi

# Write the name of the interface to the standard output.
echo $interface

# Bring up the interface.
/sbin/ifconfig $interface up

# Add information to kernel routing tables.
route add -host 192.168.0.200 dev $interface
  2. Create the virtual interface deletion script
    • The following is a script that tears down and removes the temporal TAP interface created by the script shown in the previous step. It also removes the routing information assigned to that interface. Save it in a location of your choice and make it executable 
    # Bring down the interface. The second script parameter is
# the interface name.
/sbin/ifconfig $2 down

# Remove information from kernel routing tables.
route del -host 192.168.0.200 dev $2

# And use VBoxTunctl to remove the interface.
VBoxTunctl -d $2

  3. Configure HCI networking in VirtualBox using the previously created scripts

    1. On VirtualBox's main screen, select the Windows guest virtual machine

    2. Go to Machine->Settings->Network

    3. Select a new network adapter by selecting
    4. In the "Attached to" combo, select the "Host Interface" option
  4. Go to

  5. Set Host Interface in Attached to combo

  6. Set gksudo $PATH_TO_NETWORKSCRIPTS/setup.sh in Setup Application field and gksudo $PATH_TO_NETWORKSCRIPTS/teardown.sh in Terminate Application field

  7. Press OK button

Test communication

Test configuration

See Also

A see also section can be used to point users towards other trusted Ubuntu resources. For example, if a page exists in the official documentation on http://help.ubuntu.com, you can link to such a page. This section is optional.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.

External Links

An external links section can be used to point users towards general information about the subject matter of the page, such as a wikipedia entry or project homepage. This section is optional.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.

  • <Link> - Explanation of link.