Which Linux Distro to use for Xilinx tools

I believe Sysgen is Windows only. So, I don't think there is any way to satisfy your requirement.

If this is incorrect, that would be fantastic news to me, as Sysgen is one of the few things still tying me to Windows.

I use OpenSUSE 10.3/10.2 at work and have used all of the Xilinx tools successfully under it. For my cable drivers, I use the open-source drivers available at:

I currently have a patch for the driver that allows for a parallel cable to be used by both ChipScope and XMD at the same time. I'm still working on the USB version. I'm also working on an ECP patch for the driver to get the parallel cable running at higher speeds. Four minutes is way too long to wait for an image to program.

I have run into a couple of problems with some of the older tools like fpga editor, pace, and floorplanner. To run these, I had to run them using "env DISPLAY=:0 " otherwise they would complain that they couldn't find X server.

Now, I would NOT recommend OpenSUSE. I personally love Ubuntu and have read posts in the Ubuntu forums about people using the same tools under that distro with no problems. I have to use OpenSUSE because of restrictions at work.

Also, Xilinx has, on more than one occasion, told me to use Linux for the development because their tools 'work better' under Linux than windows.

I don't know about sysgen, since I don't use it.

-- Mike

Thanks a lot Mike, If, Ubuntu works good for Xilinx, should i go with Debian , otherwise , i can go with SUSE also....

You can use

,any software that is stuck with ms-win can be handled with ,or be run under vmware or qemu. Freebsd also use libusb asfair.

Using Vmware,, or any virtualization technique to install windows on top of Linux is not a good solution,, --as it will take a hell lot of time of compile,,, I have already tried,,wine,, but i does not work perfectly,, i will not suggest wine or vmware,,or quem in context of xilinx tools, I will try with Debian,

The newer virtualization technqiues like Xen etc.. runs at near native execution speed. It's not perfect, but it can solve the task. Another approach is a dedicated ms-win box wich is remote controlled via VNC or RDP.

I have had reasonable success with the ISE and EDK 9.x tools installed on Fedora and CentOS. I have also very briefly tried Kubuntu 7.? and OpenSuse 10.2. I gave up on OpenSuse due to time constraints. I would avoid using the tools in a virtual environment (VMware, etc.) if you also need to use the parallel or USB programming cable. It is a known issue, for VMware at least, that the Xilinx USB programmer does not work reliably with the Xilinx drivers installed within a virtual machine. This is true for both the Xilinx supplied proprietary driver (IF you can manage to even get it to install!) and the open-source user-space driver mentioned previously.

--Tom

I use CentOS exclusively -

It is a source-level, free rebuild/clone of RHEL, which is Xilinx's official supported Linux distro. This means that all of Xilinx's advice re: Linux usage, applies, without actually purchasing RHEL.

I am using both CentOS 4 and CentOS 5. A few workarounds required with CentOS 5 (as would be required with RHEL 5 as well), to get the Xilinx tools running happily under SELinux. But, the Xilinx cable drivers, and everything else I've used so far, all work nicely.

Regards,

John

Thanks but again I will not support RDP . Matlab and some software will not start via this type of remote login, infact i do not want to use Xen also because I do not want WinXP at all. I will try centos, as I am Fedora user, so Centos will be a similar one to me.

Thanks Everybody, I will try first with Centos and then Debian

For me, things work nearly out of the box on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, which I'm running on my (dual boot) MacBookPro - FPGA design is the only reason for having a second OS on that machine. I haven't tried EDK, Sysgen or Chipscope though, and I use Octave instead of Matlab. The nice thing about Ubuntu is that the Xilinx simulator works (in Suse it only creates error messages).

Installing Ubuntu on a second partition was very easy thanks to Bootcamp, rEFIt and some other nifty tools. I set aside 5GB for my Linux/Xilinx partition. Imagine my surprise when, after installing the WebPack, I ran out of space already doing the webupdate...

Regards, Paul Boven.

Try Centos 4, which is equivalent to RHEL 4.

Hi !

You can have a see to CentOS distro. This is a recompiled RedHat without modifying sources (so not like Fedora). I am using it in a production environment. It is a very powerfull, fast distro and very stable and reliable. But this is jst a working environment, no compiz or something else .... :) All softwares and also all drivers are running just fine.

Xilinx is uning it on its AN.

Else you can use Ubuntu, wich have the best community support I've ever seen. You will find many websites describing how to install Xilinx tools and drivers.

Best regards.

a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@o77g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

There is a YUM repo with Beryl RPMs for CentOS 5 - so I have a very powerful workstation and visual bling in one machine :)

I must take a minute to rave about my new setup - Dell OptiPlex 755 Core2-Duo @ 3GHz with 4GB RAM, 2x150GB 7200 RPM SATA drives in RAID 1 configuration, CentOS 5, dual widescreen 22" LCD panels all for about AU$2500. Hard to argue with that. Xilinx tool performance is great, and I can do a clean MicroBlaze Linux software platform rebuild in under

5 minutes - kernel, apps, libs, everything. And Beryl/Compiz for desktop eye candy - life is good.

John