NIOS and OCI

This is from memory since work doesn't have access to newsgroups so here
goes.

We have a Stratrix development board with the NIOS software package. Along
with that
is FS2 debugger. I have worked through the enclosed tutorials both the HW
and SW.
All was well and the debugger worked fine. I then wanted to add my own
hardware into the
PGA. I created a new project popped open Quartus 3.0 and SOPC builder
creating a NIOS
based system pretty much if not identical to the one in the tutorials. I
used the germs_monitor.c.
Popped open two SDK shells, one for nr -t -r and the other to compile and
down load the
C code. nd -d hello_nios.c and nb hello_nios.out following the tutorial.
Well I get messages that
it (OCI?) can not get the com1 port but the debugger window pops up. No
green bar in the
source code which indicates that communications is down. I have yet to get
this setup, Stratix board and
debugger to work on anything other than the tutorials. While in the SDk
shell I did move to my project
dir.

Anybody out there have similar experiences?

Thanks
Jerry

"Jerry" <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:vn70f8iodqolc4@corp.supernews.com...
> This is from memory since work doesn't have access to newsgroups so here
> goes.
>
> We have a Stratrix development board with the NIOS software package. Along
> with that
> is FS2 debugger. I have worked through the enclosed tutorials both the HW
> and SW.
> All was well and the debugger worked fine. I then wanted to add my own
> hardware into the
> PGA. I created a new project popped open Quartus 3.0 and SOPC builder
> creating a NIOS
> based system pretty much if not identical to the one in the tutorials. I
> used the germs_monitor.c.
> Popped open two SDK shells, one for nr -t -r and the other to compile and
> down load the
> C code. nd -d hello_nios.c and nb hello_nios.out following the tutorial.
> Well I get messages that
> it (OCI?) can not get the com1 port but the debugger window pops up. No
> green bar in the
> source code which indicates that communications is down. I have yet to get
> this setup, Stratix board and
> debugger to work on anything other than the tutorials. While in the SDk
> shell I did move to my project
> dir.
>
> Anybody out there have similar experiences?
>
> Thanks
> Jerry
>
>

Hi Jerry,

Any progress?  I haven't built a Nios system from scratch.  I always start
with one of the examples.  I suspect that some of the supporting files in
theNios SDK expect particular names for certain signals and entities.

I do have a friend who implemented a Nios16 on a custom board with the
smallest Cyclone so it does/can work. :)

Ken

No luck, my FAE won't call back and I don't have much hair left to pull.

Maybe he is on vacation and Monday all will be right.

keep you posted.

Jerry

"Kenneth Land" <kland1@neuralog1.com> wrote in message
news:vnb2eiqgd5fd96@news.supernews.com...
>
> "Jerry" <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:vn70f8iodqolc4@corp.supernews.com...
> > This is from memory since work doesn't have access to newsgroups so here
> > goes.
> >
> > We have a Stratrix development board with the NIOS software package.
Along
> > with that
> > is FS2 debugger. I have worked through the enclosed tutorials both the
HW
> > and SW.
> > All was well and the debugger worked fine. I then wanted to add my own
> > hardware into the
> > PGA. I created a new project popped open Quartus 3.0 and SOPC builder
> > creating a NIOS
> > based system pretty much if not identical to the one in the tutorials. I
> > used the germs_monitor.c.
> > Popped open two SDK shells, one for nr -t -r and the other to compile
and
> > down load the
> > C code. nd -d hello_nios.c and nb hello_nios.out following the tutorial.
> > Well I get messages that
> > it (OCI?) can not get the com1 port but the debugger window pops up. No
> > green bar in the
> > source code which indicates that communications is down. I have yet to
get
> > this setup, Stratix board and
> > debugger to work on anything other than the tutorials. While in the SDk
> > shell I did move to my project
> > dir.
> >
> > Anybody out there have similar experiences?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Jerry
> >
> >
>
> Hi Jerry,
>
> Any progress?  I haven't built a Nios system from scratch.  I always start
> with one of the examples.  I suspect that some of the supporting files in
> theNios SDK expect particular names for certain signals and entities.
>
> I do have a friend who implemented a Nios16 on a custom board with the
> smallest Cyclone so it does/can work. :)
>
> Ken
>
>

"Jerry" <nospam@nowhere.com> writes:

> C code. nd -d hello_nios.c and nb hello_nios.out following the
> tutorial. Well I get messages that it (OCI?) can not get the com1


Maybe a stupid question, but did you check the "Enable NIOS OCI debug
module" in the Debug tab when you creted your NIOS CPU in the SOPC
Builder?

In the NIOS more CPU settings you can select if you want your
primarely debug port to be any UART you have specified or using OCI
over the JTAG port. 

The latter is useful if you don't have any UARTs in your system.
However, I had some problems that some library routines (the plugs
ethernet library) will do serial port calls even if there are no UARTs
in the system (see news:m3brtht54l.fsf@scimul.dolphinics.no ).


Petter

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

> Well I get messages that
> it (OCI?) can not get the com1 port but the debugger window pops up. No
> green bar in the
> source code which indicates that communications is down. I have yet to get
> this setup, Stratix board and
> debugger to work on anything other than the tutorials. While in the SDk
> shell I did move to my project
> dir.

Jerry,

I haven't seen this myself, but the biggest clue here is that GDB is
trying to connect to the debug target via COM1 -- recall that the OCI
comm/debug core talks through JTAG only! Older releases of Nios had an
additional GUI option allowing you to select a debug communication
UART (this was before OCI), so I am wondering if this is a case of
versionitis.

The short of it is: Make sure OCI is enabled in the CPU wizard,
generate the system, compile your code using "nb" (nios-build), and
then run "nd" (nios-debug) on the object file -- if this still fails
feel free to email me your system's .ptf file and the commands you're
using to get this going.

Jesse Kempa
Altera Corp.
jkempa at altera dot com

Thanks for the inputs. I will try these Tuesday at work. I'm pretty sure I
checked the box
OCI debug box. Doesn't hurt to triple check things. I'm sure its me, and not
the board or
software. Just would be nice to have an app note titled "Rolling your own
system with NIOS and OCI"
The tutorials already have everything set up for you.

Regards
Jerry

"Jerry" <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:vn70f8iodqolc4@corp.supernews.com...
> This is from memory since work doesn't have access to newsgroups so here
> goes.
>
> We have a Stratrix development board with the NIOS software package. Along
> with that
> is FS2 debugger. I have worked through the enclosed tutorials both the HW
> and SW.
> All was well and the debugger worked fine. I then wanted to add my own
> hardware into the
> PGA. I created a new project popped open Quartus 3.0 and SOPC builder
> creating a NIOS
> based system pretty much if not identical to the one in the tutorials. I
> used the germs_monitor.c.
> Popped open two SDK shells, one for nr -t -r and the other to compile and
> down load the
> C code. nd -d hello_nios.c and nb hello_nios.out following the tutorial.
> Well I get messages that
> it (OCI?) can not get the com1 port but the debugger window pops up. No
> green bar in the
> source code which indicates that communications is down. I have yet to get
> this setup, Stratix board and
> debugger to work on anything other than the tutorials. While in the SDk
> shell I did move to my project
> dir.
>
> Anybody out there have similar experiences?
>
> Thanks
> Jerry
>
>