Vivado not picking up Diligent board_files

Question

I am using vivado 2017.3.

I have used the following steps:

Downloaded the bdf_master, where I can see all of the Diligent board files, including the ultra96.
Uncompressed the archive.
placed the files in ~/vivado2017_3/Vivado/2017.3/data/boards/board_files.
Checked to see that privileges are not restrictive. All files and directories are owned by me, the user.
Restart Vivado. I have even rebooted the computer.

When I start a new project in Vivado, I attempt to add the "board file" I can not see any "vendor" board from Diligent. I am specifically looking for the ultra96 board file, which is clearly in the "board_files" directory.

Thank You

Tom

gecoz · Accepted Answer

With my Vivado 2017.4 installation on Debian, to load the Digilent board files I'm using the Vivado_init.tcl file, which is located in ~/.Xilinx/Vivado directory.

The file contains the setting for the board files repository path. In your case, you can try creating/editing the file, and writing the following:

set_param board.repoPaths [list "~/vivado2017_3/Vivado/2017.3/data/boards/board_files"]

This init file should be automatically picked up by Vivado on starting. (not sure if you will need to expand the ~ with the actual home path)

Fabio

miner_tom · Answer

Fabio, I think that you have set me on the path to finding out what is wrong. Perhaps there is a simple solution. I have several distributions of Vivado available on my drive, 2017.3, 2018.2, 2018.3, 2019.1, and NONE of them had a Vivado_init.tcl script. I searched the whole drive from / (ubuntu 2016.04.5). So, I created Vivado_init.tcl and put it into a root Vivado directory for 2017.3. Upon restarting the system and restarting Vivado, Vivado did not find it. I opened a tcl console and put in: set_param board.repoPaths [list "/home/tom/Downloads/vivado2017_3/Vivado/2017.3/data/boards/board_files"] Then I used entered "get_param board.repoPaths". The reponse was "/home/tom/Downloads/vivado2017_3/Vivado/2017.3/data/boards/board_files". After creating a new project I was, indeed, able to see the board files that I had put into the board_files directory. After exiting Vivado and restarting, the response to "get_param board.repoPaths" was nothing. The conclusion is that Vivado is simply not getting initialized at startup . Can you tell me a directory where I can put the Vivado_init.tcl script file so that it is read upon startup of Vivado? Thank You again Tom

jomoenginer · Answer

I was able to get the Ultra96 board files to appear in my config which is CentOS 7.6 and Vivado 7.4. I did have to change the owner and group and the permission settings of the files though. This is what I have: ls -lt /opt/Xilinx/Vivado/2017.4/data/boards/board_files/
total 0
drwxrwxr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Sep 26 23:24 ultra96v2
drwxr-xr-x. 2 fpgauser fpgauser 41 Jul 31 00:57 li-imx274-mipi
drwxr-xr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Jul 31 00:48 xm105
drwxr-xr-x. 4 fpgauser fpgauser 28 Jul 31 00:48 zc702
drwxr-xr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Jul 31 00:48 zed
drwxr-xr-x. 4 fpgauser fpgauser 28 Jul 31 00:48 ac701
drwxrwxr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Jun 3 22:29 zybo-z7-20
drwxrwxr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Jun 3 22:29 zybo-z7-10
drwxrwxr-x. 3 fpgauser fpgauser 17 Jun 3 22:29 basys3 ls -lt /opt/Xilinx/Vivado/2017.4/data/boards/board_files/ultra96v2/
total 0
drwxrwxr-x. 2 fpgauser fpgauser 84 Sep 26 23:24 1.0 ls -lt /opt/Xilinx/Vivado/2017.4/data/boards/board_files/ultra96v2/1.0/
total 532
-rw-rw-r--. 1 fpgauser fpgauser 474706 Sep 26 23:24 ultra96v2.jpg
-rw-rw-r--. 1 fpgauser fpgauser 1799 Sep 26 23:24 board.xml
-rw-rw-r--. 1 fpgauser fpgauser 22027 Sep 26 23:24 part0_pins.xml
-rw-rw-r--. 1 fpgauser fpgauser 37633 Sep 26 23:24 preset.xml

clem57 · Answer

Use "Add Design Tools or Devices..." to verify the correct location...

bhfletcher · Answer

A couple key comments:

Both Ultra96-V1 and Ultra96-V2 are Avnet boards, not Digilent
BDFs for those boards are provided by Avnet, not Digilent.
Avnet's primary source for BDFs is https://github.com/Avnet/bdf, but some Avnet boards are also duplicated on the XilinxBoardStore at https://github.com/Xilinx/XilinxBoardStore/tree/master/boards/Avnet
Instructions for installing the Avnet Board Definitions in both Windows and Ubuntu are provided on the Avnet GitHub at https://github.com/Avnet/bdf. Scroll down until you see Detailed Instructions for Installing Files Under Ubuntu

Bryan

gecoz · Answer

Tom, You won't find Vivado_init.tcl, you will need to create it under ~/.Xilinx/Vivado/. I did it that way with Vivado 2017.4, so it should work for your version as well. Fabio

bhfletcher · Answer

Did you add an extra layer of directory structure into the path by chance? If I go to the board_files directory, I see the ultra96v1 and ultra96v2 directories there. There should not be an Avnet or other vendor directory.

We also wrote a VirtualBox Install Guide that includes some information and screenshots from installing board definitions near the end. You could check it out for clues as well.

http://avnet.me/vbox-install-guide

Bryan

gecoz · Answer

Tom, The directory you need to put the Vivado_init.tcl is ~/.Xilinx/Vivado (in your case, I believe your home directory is /home/tom , so the file need to be put under /home/tom/.Xilinx/Vivado ). Please, be aware that the .Xilinx is an hidden directory, so you will not see it unless you have set your file explorer (I use Nautilus) to show you hidden files/directories. From terminal you can show hidden files/directories using the ls -a command. I hope this helps. Fabio

Vivado not picking up Diligent board_files

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