nios board, apex, tutorial doesn't work

Hi Chi, Make sure that you have programmed the APEX device with the pof file generated by the Quartus compile prior to downloading the srec file. When you program the device using the Quartus II Programmer, it should say that the device programmed successfully. If that does not happen check that the download cable is connected properly to the board and that you have followed the tutorial instructions correctly.

- Subroto Datta Altera Corp.

This is perhaps a silly question, but did you try pressing the cpu reset button? If the processor is off running something else, then it won't be listening on the com port, and you need to reset it to get it back to the monitor program.

Also try running nios-run as a simple terminal "nr -t" and reset the processor - assuming you are using the standard monitor program, it should print a basic message on the terminal so that you can see that it's working.