I tried using my existing xilinx.com account to download it, and I get into an endless loop where I'm shown a button that says "click here to register" then another button that says "click here to download if you're already registered". The second button just takes me to the same page again, over and over.
I tried creating a new account on xilinx.com and with this account I can't even log into the abovementioned infinite-loop page; it doesn't accept the new username/password.
Has anyone ever worked out the magic combination of browser versions and whatever other magic the PITAs at xilinx require?
I remember the good old days when the vendors would have BBS services. You would log in and get what you needed immediately and totally free - OK, it was an international call for me (I was in Australia) but at least it was instant.
Then everybody upgraded to offering ftp sites. Internet access was still charged by the hour in my country, so it wasn't strictly free to me, but again at least the access was immediate and unrestricted. You log in, you browse to what you want, you download it.
Now every vendor must hide behind a gigabyte of Javascript, popup windows, Flash animations, server-side includes to query a database so it can tell me my own name every time I load the page ("$NAME, Welcome to the download site!"). And everything is in a constant state of "almost working"ness. Everyone goes to the utmost possible lengths to hide a simple one-click URL to download a file; they want you to go through eleven million pages of portals and advertisements and "let's see what the referrer was so we can judge our advertising effectiveness".
Damn, I am old. That is why my websites don't even use frames.
I recently had this problem downloading the latest version at home. If you have a standalone firewall in place, and you are running a Win32 platform, then check the 'generic host process' permissions. I normally turn off all access as 'servers for internet' (because I am not actiing as a server for anyone or anything), but the download requires *you* to act as a server. Stupid, really.
In addition, for some features, you need to turn on Java (which is even more stupid - I never use Java on websites, and if a vendor requires it, they are usually dropped from any designs I may be doing).
I am using Win32 (W2KPro), Firefox with NoScript (but Xilinx.com enabled) and ZoneAlarm Pro for the firewall, and once I tweaked the firewall settings the download worked.
Don't try to download the 'web install'. The xilinx servers go up and down like YoYos and the install will complain about *your* internet connection, when in fact it's the Xilinx servers. The full install, though, is almost 1GByte (that's not a typo).
I put it in simplistic terms as I expect the email went to a marketdroid, because permitting servers can be ok with precautions, of course.
I am installing the webpack on my home system so I can work on projects while here. Whilst trying to do this, one first reaches this page:
formatting link
There is a button for the download which accesses a webpage at:
formatting link
I was continually being redirected back to the access page (above).
It turns out that the page involved requires Generic Host process for Win32 services to be enabled as a server for the internet. This is an incredibly bad practice, as it is the method by which many drive-by virii, trojans and various malware are intalled. On this system I do not permit that particular service to be a server in the internet zone under normal conditions. Indeed, there are virtually no services permitted to be internet servers by default on this system; it is, after all, used by my family, including a teen who might click on items he should not, and a wife who is not technically savvy.
You should change the web access to not require this, but in the meantime, at least put a note on the page that this needs to be enabled in the local firewall. By requiring this, you force advanced users to open up their systems to all forms of attack that otherwise they are protected from.
I note that I have never needed to give this permission to the Generic Host service for *any other download from any other vendor*.
My Internet access, like most peoples', goes through a hardware router that NATs my local network onto a single real IP address. I can't connect directly to the Internet because there is other hardware that requires 24/7 connectivity - alarms will ring and pain will occur if I unplug the cable.
... where? I've never seen a checkbox like this I don't use Windows Firewall. I use Norton Antivirus. But even on a machine where I have no software firewall, I get the same symptom.
Xilinx's webmaster should be shot. His manager should be shot too, for not keeping the situation under control. And HIS manager should be boiled in oil, twice.
They never test anything. As a data point, I've spent 38 billable hours just trying to get to the point of getting a simple tutorial example to build and run. (Not counting this WebPACK shenanigan).
I have to have Java installed because I do some development in that language, so that's not a problem.
If so, this may be a long-standing Xilinx webpage bug.
You can either get creative about finding or guessing the actual download URL (works for me for most "register first" app notes and associated files, but might not work for Webpack)
or try using another browser, if you can work out which one Xilinx test their webpages with.
Yes: Their webmaster is incompetent and should be fired. At least their webmaster is not a trained monkey. Trained monkeys would do a better job.
It's not in the page with the download button. When you click the download button, you go to
formatting link
but the server immediately redirects you back to the "register or download" page. However, as I was writing this message I had a sudden idea, and it worked.
I don't use Windows Firewall. because I recently had to 're-purpose' my dedicated firewall / NAT / router box and have yet to replace it, I installed ZoneAlarm Pro, which gives me a lot of control of processes that may access different zones (for both inbound and outbound connections). I got an email back from Xilinx that basically said 'that's the way it is. It's free' My view on that is that so is their competition's.
I started a thread a while back on the worst websites, and Xilinx is quite up there. My comment was 'you need to know specifically what you are looking for and where it is before you start'. I had a call from my CM the other day asking about a download cable, and I told them to check the Xilinx site - they called back after an hour of frustration. Fortunately, I already had the PDF they needed at the office so I logged in and got it for them.
My experience too. Then there's the 'upgrade' to 8.1 - it's a bloated, stinking hog. 1GByte full install download (I can do that, but it's still huge). Where Impact started alost immediately before, now it takes an age, and it won't let me just open it and right click - no - EVERYTHING has to be associated with a f*ing project. D*mb sh*ts.
Oh, I have it installed, I just don't permit remote sites to run java applets.
And don't get me going on Webpack (well, ISE) requiring the use of Internet Exploder for it's html rendering - how about using the system browser? IDTenT error, apparently. IE is so locked on this system, it can read text and that's it.
As a data point, webpack just downloaded fine for me. The registration, questionaire and process was the same as the last time I tried it (last year?) It was 970MB and took 1 hour 44 minutes over DSL. I am using Firefox 1.5.0.5.
The hardest part was remembering my user name and password.
But I am in Redwood City, California, so it only had to go a few miles.
Amazing. Maybe they have multiple servers for load sharing, and the one handling the East Coast is the one that's f#$cked up?
I think I went above the call of duty - I tried three different browsers on three different machines, one of which was a completely vanilla installation of MSIE on Windows XP - I had literally only just unwrapped the machine. If a web site doesn't work on a system that generic, it's WAY broken.
It didn't work most of the time in one download step when I tried it (sometime only a few MB were missing), even with 2 Mbit DSL, like I have. A download manager like LeechGet solved it. Maybe Xilinx should buy something like this tool for their distribution, or setup a Torrent link.
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Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
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