legacy Xilinx software

I've been using Ise WebPack 10.1 for some time, as it is the last version
that supported the Spartan 2E chips.  I don't do a lot on the
2E anymore, but there are a number of units in the field with
those chips.  Anyway, I'm still using Spartan 3A and 3AN, as
well as 9500XL and Coolrunner II CPLDs.  I recently realized
my main desktop computer has been running 12 years straight,
and is probably living on borrowed time.  So, I'm trying to
set up a new system.  Xilinx doesn't allow WebPack 10.1 to
run on X86_64 systems, but some people report workarounds.
So far, I have not gotten it to install on Linux.  I
installed the 32-bit libraries and bypassed the first-level
setup script, but I get to a page where you enter your
Xilinx registration code, and then it allows you to select the
components you want, but WebPack is greyed out.  So, apparently
at that script it also detects the 64-bit system.

Then, I tried downloading the current version of Vivado WebPack,
but it supports only a VERY small range of -7 parts, and no
CPLDs.  Didn't seem like a very useful piece of software.
And, there's no way I can afford $4000 to be allowed to run
5-year old software.  What gives?  WebPack used to be a completely
viable option for developing on the mid-range parts from
several families.

  I'm going to try copying over all my files from the 10.1
install on the old machine and see if that works.  If not, does
anyone know what older Ise Webpack will support Spartan 3A
plus CPLD's and run on a 64-bit Linux system?  I tried looking
this up on Xilinx.com, but it was REALLY difficult to find any
mention of what chips are supported by what software.

Thanks for any tips!

Jon

On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:40:56 -0600
Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> wrote:

> I've been using Ise WebPack 10.1 for some time, as it is the last version
> that supported the Spartan 2E chips.  I don't do a lot on the
> 2E anymore, but there are a number of units in the field with
> those chips.  Anyway, I'm still using Spartan 3A and 3AN, as
> well as 9500XL and Coolrunner II CPLDs.  I recently realized
> my main desktop computer has been running 12 years straight,
> and is probably living on borrowed time.  So, I'm trying to
> set up a new system.  Xilinx doesn't allow WebPack 10.1 to
> run on X86_64 systems, but some people report workarounds.
> So far, I have not gotten it to install on Linux.  I
> installed the 32-bit libraries and bypassed the first-level
> setup script, but I get to a page where you enter your
> Xilinx registration code, and then it allows you to select the
> components you want, but WebPack is greyed out.  So, apparently
> at that script it also detects the 64-bit system.
> 
> Then, I tried downloading the current version of Vivado WebPack,
> but it supports only a VERY small range of -7 parts, and no
> CPLDs.  Didn't seem like a very useful piece of software.
> And, there's no way I can afford $4000 to be allowed to run
> 5-year old software.  What gives?  WebPack used to be a completely
> viable option for developing on the mid-range parts from
> several families.
> 
>   I'm going to try copying over all my files from the 10.1
> install on the old machine and see if that works.  If not, does
> anyone know what older Ise Webpack will support Spartan 3A
> plus CPLD's and run on a 64-bit Linux system?  I tried looking
> this up on Xilinx.com, but it was REALLY difficult to find any
> mention of what chips are supported by what software.
> 
> Thanks for any tips!
> 
> Jon

Xilinx's software, in my experience, does not play well with others.
I've taken to running even my later versions in VirtualBox VMs.  This
way whatever nonsensical fights FlexLM wants to have with other
programs can get trapped in individual sandboxes.

So it seems by that logic, you should be able to set up a VM running a
32-bit OS (I've had excellent luck with CentOS, far better than
anything Debian derived), and install 10.1 on it.

-- 
Rob Gaddi, Highland Technology -- www.highlandtechnology.com
Email address domain is currently out of order.  See above to fix.

Rob Gaddi wrote:


> Xilinx's software, in my experience, does not play well with others.
> I've taken to running even my later versions in VirtualBox VMs.  This
> way whatever nonsensical fights FlexLM wants to have with other
> programs can get trapped in individual sandboxes.
> 
> So it seems by that logic, you should be able to set up a VM running a
> 32-bit OS (I've had excellent luck with CentOS, far better than
> anything Debian derived), and install 10.1 on it.
> 
Yes, FlexLM, even on Windows, was a messy and very poorly documented
system.  I did get it to work after migrating a very old Foundation
4.2 system by making the virtual Win 2K system's drive serial number
match the system the license keys were originally created for.
I had to do that because Xilinx couldn't generate keys for 3rd party
software anymore.

I really HATE to have all these separate VMs running.  I have one VM for
Windows CAD software, but have moved everything I can to native Linux.

Anyway, after some more digging, it seems Ise WebPack 12.2 explicitly
works on 64-bit systems and supports the CPLDs and Spartan 3A.  So, I
think I'm going to go with that, assuming I can get it to install.

Many of the older products have documentation/release notes links that
don't work, so it was pretty difficult to tell what was and wasn't
supported by various older versions.  But, the link for 12.2 did work.

Thanks,

Jon

Am 11.11.2013 23:40, schrieb Jon Elson:
> I've been using Ise WebPack 10.1 for some time, as it is the last version
> that supported the Spartan 2E chips.  I don't do a lot on the
> 2E anymore, but there are a number of units in the field with
> those chips.  Anyway, I'm still using Spartan 3A and 3AN, as
> well as 9500XL and Coolrunner II CPLDs.  I recently realized
> my main desktop computer has been running 12 years straight,
> and is probably living on borrowed time.  So, I'm trying to
> set up a new system.  Xilinx doesn't allow WebPack 10.1 to
> run on X86_64 systems, but some people report workarounds.

I run 10.1 on a virtual XP machine and it works, including
the USB download cable. Also my old Modelsim 6, Sigasi,
and the current Altium designer. Vivado Webpack works, too,
but I installed it only for curiousity, not for real work.

One nice thing is that I can move the virtual machine from
the workstation to my Dell Precision laptop and I have everything
I need.

I even exported the virtual machine from Virtual Box and then
imported it into VMware Workstation, and it simply ran ( 2 weeks ago).
Access to shared folders seems to be slow in my case on VMware, some
friends say it's not for their systems. It looks like the XP
network interface runs into timeouts when searching hosts, I'll sort
that out when I have some time.

USB and graphics integration is better on VMware, at least for my taste.

My machines run Xubuntu, maybe MINT soon.

regards, Gerhard

On 11/11/2013 6:28 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
> Rob Gaddi wrote:
>
>
>> Xilinx's software, in my experience, does not play well with others.
>> I've taken to running even my later versions in VirtualBox VMs.  This
>> way whatever nonsensical fights FlexLM wants to have with other
>> programs can get trapped in individual sandboxes.
>>
>> So it seems by that logic, you should be able to set up a VM running a
>> 32-bit OS (I've had excellent luck with CentOS, far better than
>> anything Debian derived), and install 10.1 on it.
>>
> Yes, FlexLM, even on Windows, was a messy and very poorly documented
> system.  I did get it to work after migrating a very old Foundation
> 4.2 system by making the virtual Win 2K system's drive serial number
> match the system the license keys were originally created for.
> I had to do that because Xilinx couldn't generate keys for 3rd party
> software anymore.
>
> I really HATE to have all these separate VMs running.  I have one VM for
> Windows CAD software, but have moved everything I can to native Linux.
>
> Anyway, after some more digging, it seems Ise WebPack 12.2 explicitly
> works on 64-bit systems and supports the CPLDs and Spartan 3A.  So, I
> think I'm going to go with that, assuming I can get it to install.
>
> Many of the older products have documentation/release notes links that
> don't work, so it was pretty difficult to tell what was and wasn't
> supported by various older versions.  But, the link for 12.2 did work.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jon
>

If you're willing to drop the Spartan 2, 2e, Virtex 2 and older
parts, you can go right up to the latest ISE (not Vivado) which
is 14.7 IIRC.  However if you're not interested in the 7-series,
I think 13.4 is a very stable and usable platform.  It also has
some very usable improvements to ISIM, if you don't have another
simulator at hand.  Basically the part support changed going from
10.1.03 to 11.x and nothing was dropped from ISE since then.
Vivado, on the other hand does not support anything older than
7-series and never will.

I still have a very old system running 32-bit XP, so I can't
comment on the virtual machine.  I also run Foundation 4.1i
on the same machine, so altogether there are quite a few
versions of ISE installed.  Lately I've been using 13.4 for
all of my Virtex 5 and Spartan 6 work, and just getting into
some 7-series projects with 14.6

 From what I can tell, Vivado is not ready for prime time
and I don't have the will to beta test it.  If I do use it,
it will only be because they stop adding new support for
7-series to the ISE product.

-- 
Gabor

Gabor wrote:


> 
> If you're willing to drop the Spartan 2, 2e, Virtex 2 and older
> parts, you can go right up to the latest ISE (not Vivado) which
> is 14.7 IIRC.  However if you're not interested in the 7-series,
> I think 13.4 is a very stable and usable platform.
How about XC9500XL and CoolRunner II CPLD's?
The Xilinx download page doesn't have working release notes for
most of the older Ise versions.

> It also has 
> some very usable improvements to ISIM, if you don't have another
> simulator at hand.  Basically the part support changed going from
> 10.1.03 to 11.x and nothing was dropped from ISE since then.
OK, sounds good!

Well, I tried 12.2, and it installed just fine, but got an error
message while trying to read the license file.  All the things on
the main page that seem like they connect to your browser
(Firefox in my case) get the same message about GLIBCXX(specific version)
not found.  But, it seemed to run anyway (maybe 30-day trial license)
so I tried synthesizing a simple vhdl file, and it crashed with a
2-page traceback.  UGH!

Then, I copied over my 10.1 Webpack install using sftp, and it almost
works!  I did a complete compile of that same VHDL, worked fine
(and was quite a bit faster than my old computer).  But, Impact
wouldn't even start from the GUI, complained about "Cable operation is
not supported" on the 64-bit platform.  I'll have to tinker with this
a bit and see if I can come up with a version of Impact that works.
I don't need it to be integrated with the GUI either.

I also didn't try isim, and that may need me to generate a new license.

Thanks,

Jon

Jon Elson wrote:

[snip]

>> I think 13.4 is a very stable and usable platform.
> How about XC9500XL and CoolRunner II CPLD's?
> The Xilinx download page doesn't have working release notes for
> most of the older Ise versions.
> 

The CPLD's are also in the latest versions of ISE, however there have
not been any improvements other than simulation that would warrant
upgrading.

>> It also has 
>> some very usable improvements to ISIM, if you don't have another
>> simulator at hand.  Basically the part support changed going from
>> 10.1.03 to 11.x and nothing was dropped from ISE since then.
> OK, sounds good!
> 
> Well, I tried 12.2, and it installed just fine, but got an error
> message while trying to read the license file.  All the things on
> the main page that seem like they connect to your browser
> (Firefox in my case) get the same message about GLIBCXX(specific version)
> not found.  But, it seemed to run anyway (maybe 30-day trial license)
> so I tried synthesizing a simple vhdl file, and it crashed with a
> 2-page traceback.  UGH!
> 

There is a license manager you can access from the GUI under Help.
That would tell you if you're using an eval license.  Also I would
double check whether 12.2 actually supports your OS.  I was under the
impression that OS support was enhanced in much more recent releases
like 14.x  On the other hand, that may only affect the newer Windows
versions (Vista, and 7).  I don't think Windows 8 is supported yet.

> Then, I copied over my 10.1 Webpack install using sftp, and it almost
> works!  I did a complete compile of that same VHDL, worked fine
> (and was quite a bit faster than my old computer).  But, Impact
> wouldn't even start from the GUI, complained about "Cable operation is
> not supported" on the 64-bit platform.  I'll have to tinker with this
> a bit and see if I can come up with a version of Impact that works.
> I don't need it to be integrated with the GUI either.
> 

Impact was never very good with 64 bits.  On the other hand, you don't
really need old versions of Impact.  The newest Impact should still
support the old devices, as well as old bit files.

> I also didn't try isim, and that may need me to generate a new license.
> 

As I said, ISIM got a lot better in the 13.x releases.  For one thing
they added the Re-Launch button to work around the issue that you can't
recompile and restart from within ISIM.

-- 
Gabor

GaborSzakacs wrote:

>
> There is a license manager you can access from the GUI under Help.
Right, but none of these buttons do anything.  There is a "License
manager" button, and an "obtain license" button, these do nothing.
I think it is because it uses your default browser, and there is
a library mismatch that prevents the interface to the browser
from running.


> That would tell you if you're using an eval license.  Also I would
> double check whether 12.2 actually supports your OS.  I was under the
> impression that OS support was enhanced in much more recent releases
> like 14.x  On the other hand, that may only affect the newer Windows
> versions (Vista, and 7).  I don't think Windows 8 is supported yet.
> 
LINUX!  It seems other than some library problems, none of the
Linux versions actually care about the OS version.


>> Then, I copied over my 10.1 Webpack install using sftp, and it almost
>> works!  I did a complete compile of that same VHDL, worked fine
>> (and was quite a bit faster than my old computer).  But, Impact
>> wouldn't even start from the GUI, complained about "Cable operation is
>> not supported" on the 64-bit platform.  I'll have to tinker with this
>> a bit and see if I can come up with a version of Impact that works.
>> I don't need it to be integrated with the GUI either.
>> 
> 
> Impact was never very good with 64 bits.  On the other hand, you don't
> really need old versions of Impact.  The newest Impact should still
> support the old devices, as well as old bit files.
> 
Yes, that's what I'm thinking, but I'd have to get a new version of
Impact installed.  I see some "lab" versions of ise that probably have
impact and a few other things in them that ought to do it.

>> I also didn't try isim, and that may need me to generate a new license.
>> 
> 
> As I said, ISIM got a lot better in the 13.x releases.  For one thing
> they added the Re-Launch button to work around the issue that you can't
> recompile and restart from within ISIM.
> 
OK, I couldn't get the release notes for 13.x to work from the download
web page.  But, maybe I should try to download 13!

Thanks,

Jon

Jon Elson wrote:
> GaborSzakacs wrote:
> 
>> There is a license manager you can access from the GUI under Help.
> Right, but none of these buttons do anything.  There is a "License
> manager" button, and an "obtain license" button, these do nothing.
> I think it is because it uses your default browser, and there is
> a library mismatch that prevents the interface to the browser
> from running.
> 

The license manager should be standalone.  Try starting it from
the command line with:

xlcm

or

xlcm -manage

If you can't find the executable, that could explain the fact that
the buttons don't work.  On my WinXP system, the executable is in
ISE_DS/common/bin/nt under the installation.

-- 
Gabor

In article <l5u8k9$jll$1@dont-email.me>,
GaborSzakacs  <gabor@alacron.com> wrote:
>Jon Elson wrote:
>> GaborSzakacs wrote:
>> 
>>> There is a license manager you can access from the GUI under Help.
>> Right, but none of these buttons do anything.  There is a "License
>> manager" button, and an "obtain license" button, these do nothing.
>> I think it is because it uses your default browser, and there is
>> a library mismatch that prevents the interface to the browser
>> from running.
>> 
>
>The license manager should be standalone.  Try starting it from
>the command line with:
>
>xlcm
>
>or
>
>xlcm -manage
>
>If you can't find the executable, that could explain the fact that
>the buttons don't work.  On my WinXP system, the executable is in
>ISE_DS/common/bin/nt under the installation.

For what it's worth - we've NEVER had any luck with any of the flex-lm
wizards like xlcm.  Cadence/Modelsim/Xilinx they just don't work. Xilinx
xlcm, just crashes.  The others all report an invalid license, when
in fact they're valid and work just fine.

Now, on the other hand setting up the license server on a linux box,
and just controlling the licensing by hand isn't any trouble at all.
Took a few hours of reading the flex-lm docs 6 or 7 years ago.  Now,
just copy any *.lic into appropriate directory (minor edits to
fix the daemon pathname), and run "lmutil lmreread".  Done.  
Hasn't failed us in all that time.  All the end users need to do is 
make sure that env variable:
LM_LICENSE_FILE = 1717@license_server

And tell them NOT to run the license manager gui.  That one variable 
(and single lmgrd) dishes out all licenses (Xilinx/Modelsim/Cadence/
others...)

Regards,

Mark