Quartus 13.1 (Web Edition) installation tips

1. 32-bit compatibility libraries

  A few 32-bit compatibility libraries should be available, some even 
_before Quartus installation_ because the Altera installer needs them. 
The Altera Software Installation and Licensing document lists the RPM 
packages to be installed for a Red Hat Linux Enterprise system, the 
problem about getting those libraries installed with Ubuntu is to find 
out which Ubuntu packages contain them. This is not so easy, since no 
complete list of the needed libraries is available. Those needed to 
let the Altera Installer operate properly are listed in the following 
document: 

   https://www.altera.com/support/support-resources/knowledge-base/solutions/rd05302012_638.html 

  The following packages are installed in my own Ubuntu 16.04 system, 
where Quartus 13.1 seems to work: 

libc6-i386
lib32ncurses5
libxtst6:i386 (*)
libXext:i386
libX11-6:i386
libxau6:i386
libxdmcp6:i386
libfreetype6:i386
libfontconfig1:i386
libexpat1:i386

   (*) N.B. this package is not found by search in the Synaptic Package 
   Manager, yet it does exist in the Xenial main repository... install 
   it from the command line by:

      sudo apt-get install libxtst6:i386


2. Shell environment variables

Certain environment variables should be set before starting Quartus for 
the first time. Since the Quartus installation process may start it 
the process completes, maybe it's good to set-up the shell environment 
before installing Quartus. This is done in my Ubuntu 16.04 installation 
by adding the following lines in the .profile file in my home directory:

export QUARTUS_64BIT=1
export QUARTUS_ROOTDIR="/opt/altera/13.1/quartus"
export SOPC_KIT_NIOS2="/opt/altera/13.1/nios2eds" 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/linux"

and by replacing PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" with 

PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:/opt/gezel/bin:$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin:$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/sopc_builder/bin:$QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/University_Program/Monitor_Program/bin:$PATH"
 
which also extends $PATH with paths for the Gezel executables and for 
Altera University Program (see below) executables. 

N.B. I actually keep two versions of the .profile file: one as above, 
the other one without the LD_LIBRARY_PATH line; .profile is actually a 
symlink to either file, depending on whether I need to run the Qsys 
tool under Quartus during the session (then the LD_LIBRARY_PATH line 
is needed), or otherwise run Acroread during the session (in which case 
the LD_LIBRARY_PATH line would confuse acroread with quartus libraries, 
so it should _not_ be there). 


3. Two-phase download and installation

  As mentioned in the Quartus 13.1 download page: 

   http://dl.altera.com/13.1/?edition=web 

updates are available, yet their download and installation should be 
performed _after_ download of the base tarball and Quartus installation 
from are completed. So, see first the Download and install instructions 
under the Combined Files tab in the aforementioned page and press the 
fat arrow on the right of Quartus-web-13.1.0.162-linux.tar (not the 
_Updates Available_ link, which is close to the fat arrow but leads to  
the Updates tab). When the installation of the base software is done, 
then you may switch to the Updates tab and thereby perform the second 
phase, see Download and install instructions under this tab. You only 
need to download and install the Quartus II Software v13.1 Update 4, 
since it includes all previous updates.   


4. University Program Installer 

  A separate download and installation which should follow the previous 
ones is that of Altera's University Program software, which includes 
the Altera Monitor Program, a few IP cores, and more. Download the 
University Program Installer tarball, altera_upds_setup.tar, from: 

   https://www.altera.com/support/training/university/materials-software.html#University-Program-Installer

Then extract the tarball contents and follow the instructions found in 
the readme.txt file under the extracted directory, EXCEPT that: 

 a. the software should _not_ be installed with root privileges, since 
    otherwise no user environment variables would be set; 

 b. the instructions given in the usb_blaster.txt file (in the same 
    directory) to configure the USB-Blaster cable under RHEL 5 and above 
    should be modified according to section 5 below.


5. USB-Blaster cable configuration

  Add the following lines to file /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usbblaster.rules 
(create the file with this path if it does not exist):

# Altera USB-Blaster for Quartus FPGA Software
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6001", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6002", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6003", MODE="0666"
# USB-Blaster II
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6010", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTR{idProduct}=="6810", MODE="0666"

then follow remaining instructions in usb_blaster.txt, starting from 
step 2 therein.


6. Library fix

  The libstdc++ shared library included in the Quartus installation is 
not fit to interoperability with Ubuntu 16.04 applications, causing 
module load failures such as the following one: 


    /opt/altera/13.1/quartus/linux64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.20' 
    not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libproxy.so.1)
    Failed to load module: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gio/modules/libgiolibproxy.so
    /usr/lib/firefox/firefox: /opt/altera/13.1/quartus/linux64/libstdc++.so.6: 
    version `GLIBCXX_3.4.21' not found (required by /usr/lib/firefox/firefox)

  Here is a workaround to this and other similar troubles: in directory 
/opt/altera/13.1/quartus/linux64 :

   mv -vf libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.orig
   ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 .


7. Monitor Program fix 

  After downloading the Nios system to the FPGA, the subsequent loading 
of an executable gives the following alert in the Terminal pane (at the 
bottom left corner) of the Monitor program window:

bash:
/opt/altera/13.1/University_Program/Monitor_Program/bin/nios-monitor-terminal:
File o directory non esistente

but such a file does exist, however, in directory:
/opt/altera/13.1/University_Program/Monitor_Program/bin/bin/

Moreover, data rendering in the disassembly pane is messy, unusable as 
a matter of fact.

partial workaround:
   cd /opt/altera/13.1/University_Program/Monitor_Program/bin
   ln -s bin/nios-monitor-terminal* .

the bash alert no longer shows up, yet disassembly data rendering is 
still messy... the problem with this is just the two-subcolumn widths 
of the Goto instruction column on the left (the problem does not 
arise with version 16.0 of the software). 

--

   Author: Giuseppe Scollo, University of Catania, DMI
   Date: 15 October 2016