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kamilsok
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:30 am    Post subject: Do many FPGA/embedded developers use Gentoo? Reply with quote

I was wondering, since I'm a developer myself and on the Gentoo learning curve, are there many FPGA, embedded etc. designers/developers in the Gentoo community or at least using Gentoo?

I know, that Gentoo is popular among software developers of many kinds (or should I say languages), but fields mentioned above are a niche compared to general programming.

So.. it would be good to know, that, besides Gentoo/Linux specific support, help for that kind of development speciallity is also not far away :)
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Naib
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do fpga stuff here and there so yes
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kamilsok
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naib wrote:
I do fpga stuff here and there so yes


1 and counting:)

May I ask, which tools to You use for HDL.. editor, compiler etc?
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Naib
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Xilinx suite + gvim (thei inbuilt editor is crap)
I have kinda cut down on coding since we are having to use Actel devices and no linux suite
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kamilsok
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For me it's Xilinx tools mostly (since I have a Spartan-3AN starter kit for home usage), also vim as editor (was consideing emacs, but vim turned out to be faster, when it comes for managing basics.. for Emacs fans, this is just my opinion:)) and gHDL for basic compilation (although ISE built-in compiler worked for me in the past).

Also, after establishing my system, I plan to give some open source tools a try (alliance i.e.).

BTW how is Gentoo doing as a development workstation? Is it better/worse in any way, then other Linux distros?
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Naib
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ahh spartan 3AN, I have one of those on a card I designed
http://fluidmotion.dyndns.org/files/exciter-populated.JPG

nice little chip, especially flash-based.


As far as developing? for FPGA's/VHDL much of muchness but for other languages because gentoo has the entire dev (ie headers) installed by default it is easier
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kamilsok
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As for me, main focus would be on FPGA (so HDL, synthesis etc.), then uP programming (so C/C++ development), scripting (Tcl, Python) and learning Linux of course.

I've recently found out, that because of their nature, Unix-based systems in general support development on far better basis, the i.e. Windows.


OT Sorry for lack of one space in the post title.
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John R. Graham
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do embedded system development on Gentoo. I work on Cisco's IPTV set top boxes, many of which are also Linux (although not Gentoo) based.
kamilsok wrote:
OT Sorry for lack of one space in the post title.
Fixed that for you. :wink:

- John
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kamilsok
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also wanted to ask about the available tools.. how their stability/reliability compared to precompiled packages? I've seen some material about installing Xilinx tools along with the drivers. Has any one got any experiences/tips worth mentioning on that field (drivers, working with ISE etc.)?
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nasask8r
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've used both Xilinx ISE and Altera Quartus in Gentoo.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Uff..last month was a loooong one. RHCSA certification (passed..very good), then internal Linux training (didn't finish in time..not so good), but finally, after 2 months of overwork, I have time to work on my Gentoo workstation setup. Hope to share on some of my experiences with development tools etc..
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radio_flyer
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 6:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My workstation is Gentoo, but I do FPGA builds (Xilinx mostly) in a virtual machine running CentOS. This is because CentOS (RedHat) is officially 'supported' by Xilinx (if you can call it that), because it eliminates issues that crop up when Gentoo shifts below my feet like a sandy beach, and because I can still launch the old virtual machines with their old ISE versions long after CentOS and Xilinx have stopped supporting them. I use NFS to mount my work directory in Gentoo to the virtual machine(s) so I can use my Gentoo environment for writing code, version control, etc. The ability of a virtual machine to archive the complete development environment for an FPGA design comes in really handy a few years down the road if you need to make a minor change to a design.
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billium
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:19 pm    Post subject: Digilent Reply with quote

As you all seem to be xilinx , has anybody used Digilent's adept runtime? I'm using the 64 bit but when I run even:
Code:
djtgcfg --help


I get a segfault on two 64 bit Gentoo boxes, but it works & programs the FPGAs o.k. on an Arch 64 box.

Xilink's WebPack 13.3 works great.
@
Naib .. your link is broken, can you repost (out of interest) please?

Billy


Last edited by billium on Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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nasask8r
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's been a while, but I fooled around with trying to get the Digilent Adept software to run for a couple hours then gave up and just used Xilinx's iMPACT.
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billium
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Digilent have an Webpack addon for impact but I think it needs the runtime to be working.
I have a Nexys2 what are you using?
That was a fast reply :)

Billy
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nasask8r
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was using the Basys2 board. I thought I documented how I got it going, but I can't seem to find it now... :-(

Haha, yeah, I'm mostly an occasional lurker here, and I had email notifications turned on.
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regomodo
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 8:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Digilent Reply with quote

billium wrote:
As you all seem to be xilinx , has anybody used Digilent's adept runtime? I'm using the 64 bit but when I run even:
Code:
djtgcfg --help


I get a segfault on two 64 bit Gentoo boxes, but it works & programs the FPGAs o.k. on an Arch 64 box.

Xilink's WebPack 13.3 works great.
@
Naib .. your link is broken, can you repost (out of interest) please?

Billy


I'm getting segfaults on my 64bit box too. I tried rebuilding libusb-1 but no luck.
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