Re: gEDA-user: fpga

[msokolov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Sokolov)]

Darrell Harmon <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I also use Xilinx ISE Webpack. Xilinx only supports it
> on RHEL, but it works alright on debian.

The Xilinx ISE Webpack is the worst crock of $hit I have ever seen.
They've done everything they could to make it impossible to install and
use.  The distribution that they give you to download is not a .tar.gz
file that the rest of the civilised world uses to distribute software,
but a .sh file containing a /bin/sh script followed by binary data.
Running it produces a bunch of other files.  The latter contain:

1. Second level shell scripts which invoke (2)
2. A binary called xilsetup
3. A pile of ZIP files with names devoid of meaning

The xilsetup binary, and thus the shell script that runs it, refuses to
run, complaining about missing libXm.so.3.  It's obviously some sort of
X library, not sure which one, but it doesn't really matter for me since
even if I got libXm.so.3 the next thing it'll complain about will be me
not having an X display.

Not being able to run the installer, I tried to unpack the ZIPs manually,
but not so fast - the miscreants have encrypted them!!!

Now I suppose that if I really, really, really had to, I could set up an
X display on a picnic table outside the house just for the duration of
the installation (there is no room inside the house for one), but since
the installer is built with Wind/U (see http://www.bristol.com/windu/
for an idea of just what kind of crock of $hit I'm talking about), I
have every reason to expect that the actual tools themselves are built
with it too, i.e., they are Weenblows software shoehorned into UNIX, and
will be equally un-runnable.

> You will need Motif from non-free.

Is that what libXm.so.3 is?

> It was somewhat difficult to get working , and is a slow pig.

I will never, ever, ever use Xilinx again.  They have lost my business.
It'll be all Altera from here forward.  Altera's Quartus software is
also non-free, but it has the following advantages:

1. A Linux version exists, and it's real native UNIX, no Winblows
   emulation under the hood.
2. The CD on which said Linux version is distributed contains normal
   tarballs that can be unpacked by hand.  I never used their installer,
   although the latter is just a simple shell scrpt.
3. I was able to obtain a copy of said CD at no cost through some social
   engineering.
4. The GUI is not necessary, there are command line tools that need no X
   display or weird libraries, just plain UNIX.
5. Altera's license system is trivial to crack.

> I was unable to get the altera M$ Windows software to work under debian/wine.

Their Winblows software is unnecessary, there is a native Linux version.

> I would prefer to use altera, but if there software is unusable it is not an 
> option. 

The Linux version is quite usable, you just have to give up your citizenship
in copyrighting nations and become a citizen of a country whose
constitution prohibits intellectual property and other forms of slavery
and encourages and empowers its citizens to wage war against copyright
holders and seize their intellectual property by force.

> Maybe someday Xilinx or Altera will release the documentation on the 
> bitstream and we can use free/open software to take a design from 
> an idea to implentation.

That of course would be ideal, but until then I'm using the solution that
I've outlined here.

MS