Tutorial: Installation of Intel Quartus Prime Lite & ModelSim Starter Edition on Linux openSUSE Tumbleweed

I have used the following versions for this tutorial:

• Quartus Prime Lite Edition 19.1
• Operating System: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (Kernel: 5.3.7-1-default) (2019-11)

Download and install Quartus Prime

Download link: http://fpgasoftware.intel.com/?edition=lite

Install Quartus Prime by executing the installer (execute with sudo). I choose the following installation path: /opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/

There are some Issues you have to solve when using Quartus Prime and ModelSim under Linux. If you want to apply the changes of this tutorial then just download this repository and use the files from there.

Issues with Quartus Prime

Start Quartus by executing:

/opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/quartus/bin/quartus

Error:

When you start Quartus Programmer it will give throw the following error:

Error (209053): Unexpected error in JTAG server -- error code 89

Issue

You have to install the Programming Cable Drivers. Follow the Quartus Installation Manual (Section: 3.7. Step 3: Install Programming Cable Drivers): https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/manual/quartus_install.pdf

If you don't want to read the manual, then follow this solution:

Solution

1. Copyt the file 51-usbblaster.rules (provided by this repository) to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usbblaster.rules
2. change the owner of this file to root (# chown root:root 51-usbblaster.rules)
3. Reboot your system

Issues with ModelSim

Start ModelSim by executing:

/opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/modelsim_ase/bin/vsim

Error:

cant load lib...

Issue

ModelSim needs certain 32-bit packages

Solution

Install the following 32-bit packages (with YaST or zypper):

• libXft2-32bit
• libncurses5-32bit

Error:

Error: cannot find "/opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/modelsim_ase/bin/../linux_rh60/vsim"

Issue

ModelSim does not support the current kernel version

Solution

Modify the file /opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/modelsim_ase/vco (with root rights) At about line 200 at the case $utype in statement add a line that matches your kernel: 5.[0-9]*) vco="linux" ;;

Error:

"ncFyP12 -+"
    (file "/mtitcl/vsim/vsim" line 1)
** Fatal: Read failure in vlm process (0,0)

Issue

The library freetype2 is too new and will not work with vsim. Additionally the old freetype2 library also requires an old fontconfig library.

Solution

Add this library manually to Modelsim. Either download the source files and compile it your own or download the folder with already compiled binaries.

The instruction for compiling the libraries your own is located at the bottom of this page. If you want to download the already compiled binaries then follow these steps:

1. Extract the archives fontconfig-2.12.4-32bit-compiled.tar.gz and freetype-2.4.7-32bit-compiled.tar.gz provided by this repository. Copy them either to your home directory or to the folder /opt[...]/modelsim_ase/bin32 (you have to create this folder) - I have stored them under /home/simon/etc/packages

2. Add the new path to the variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH for ModelSim. Modify the file /opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/modelsim_ase/vco (with root rights) and add the following lines to the beginning of the file :

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/simon/etc/packages/freetype-2.4.7-32bit/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/simon/etc/packages/fontconfig-2.12.4-32bit/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Desktop Icons

If you want to have desktop icons to start Quartus and ModelSim you can copy the .desktop files provided by this repository to your Desktop folder.

• Quartus Prime 19.1 Lite Edition.desktop
• ModelSim - Quartus 19.1.desktop

Environment Variables

Some programms require certain environment variables that point to the path of the binaries. The following environment variables worked for me.

Add these lines to your ~/.bashrc file:

QUARTUS_PATH="/opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/quartus"
MODELSIM_PATH="/opt/intelFPGA_lite/19.1/modelsim_ase"

QUARTUS_BIN="$QUARTUS_PATH/bin"
MODELSIM_BIN="$MODELSIM_PATH/bin"
PATH="$PATH:$QUARTUS_BIN"
PATH="$PATH:$MODELSIM_BIN"
export PATH
export QSYS_ROOTDIR="$QUARTUS_PATH/sopc_builder/bin"

Instruction for compiling the 32-bit packages required by ModelSim your own

1. Install the following packages on your system with YaST or zypper:

• gcc-32bit
• libexpat-devel-32bit
• gperf

2. Download the old Source Packages (freetype-2.4.7 & fontconfig-2.12.4)

• https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/
• http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/8.1/general/fontconfig.html

You can also find the source packages in this repository. (fontconfig-2.12.4-source.tar.bz2 and freetype-2.4.7-source.tar.bz2)

3. Compile them with make

Set the variable CFLAGS to -m32 for compiling it to a 32-bit package. Additionally set the prefix to some directory in your home directory to install it there because you don't want to install it to your operating system.

freetype-2.4.7

$ CFLAGS=-m32 ./configure --prefix=/home/simon/etc/packages/freetype-2.4.7-32bit
$ make install

Set the same variables as before and additionally add the path to the previousely compiled freetype package to the variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH

fontconfig-2.12.4

$ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/home/simon/etc/packages/freetype-2.4.7-32bit/lib/pkgconfig:PKG_CONFIG_PATH CFLAGS=-m32 ./configure --prefix=/home/simon/etc/packages/fontconfig-2.12.4-32bit
$ make install

Resources

• https://twoerner.blogspot.com/2017/10/running-modelsim-altera-from-quartus.html
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Altera_Design_Software