Answers Database

Install, setup, and licensing of Sun4-based XACT on machine with Solaris-based Cadence tools


Record #797

Product Family:  Software

Product Line:  Merged Core

Problem Title:
Install, setup, and licensing of Sun4-based XACT on machine with
Solaris-based Cadence tools



Problem Description:
Install, setup, and licensing of Sun4-based XACT on machine with Solaris-based
Cadence tools

Although the 5.2.x XACT software does not officially support Solaris 2.x,
informal testing done after the 9502 Cadence release has indicated that
all of the SunOS XACT executables will run on the Solaris platform when
the SunOS compatibility module has been installed with Solaris 2.5.
However,  because this combination of Sun4-based XACT and Solaris-
based Cadence tools is nonstandard, a number of software delivery and
installation/setup issues need to be addressed.


Solution 1:

ISSUES during install of Solaris Cadence and Sun4 Xilinx
interface and Core Tools onto a Solaris workstation from the
Cadence 9502 CD.

ISSUES:

ISSUE #1.
Users should verify that the Xilinx-related features have been included
in their license.dat file in install_dir/share/license:


FEATURE 	APR-SUN4  XXACTD 1.000 22-JAN-97   300	CABE78F8 "XSJ"
FEATURE 	PPR-SUN4  XXACTD 1.000 22-JAN-97   300	AAAE35F8 "XSJ"
FEATURE 	XDE-SUN4  XXACTD 1.000 22-JAN-97   300	3C2086E8 "XSJ"
FEATURE       XBLOX-SUN4  XXACTD 1.000 22-JAN-97   300	D69042AC "XSJ"
FEATURE        EDIF-SUN4  XXACTD 1.000 22-JAN-97   300	D08D3108 "XSJ"

If these are missing, they need to contact Cadence if they are installing
the 9504 release; if they are installing the 9604 release, they need
to contact Xilinx for the XACT license features.


ISSUE #2.
XACT tools do not get installed when customer selects 51021 for Solaris.

A 51021 package is supposed to include the Concept and Verilog interfaces
as well as the Xilinx Core Tools.  The standard location for the Xilinx
tools to be installed within a Cadence directory structure is

	      cds_root/tools/pic/xilcore,

where "cds_root" is the Cadence installation directory, "tools" is a link to
"tools.sun4" for Sun4 executables, or "tools.sun4v" for Solaris executables.

The inclusion of the 51021 package in the 9504 Cadence Softload install menu
was a bug.  There was also a problem with incomplete/incorrect information in
the install data file delivered to customers.  The install should only have
displayed 51020 (which does not include XACT), as an option for a Solaris
system, and not 51021.	Cadence does not ship
the Xilinx XACT software as part of their Solaris platform CD because Xilinx
5.x does not officially support Solaris.

Cadence must supply the customer with a special control file to install
the Xilinx tools from his Cadence CD ROM.

(Note that in the 5.1 and 5.2 Sun releases of XACT software, all of the Xilinx p
rograms
work on Solaris except for XChecker. )


ISSUE #3.  "Command not found" Error when invoking APR (a Xilinx Sun4 executable
)

This was because the path to the APR executable, cds_root/tools/pic/xil_core
was not included in the path variable.	It turned out that the control file
installed the Xilinx tools into a Sun4 directory tree,
	   cds_root/tools.sun4,

while his path was only pointing to the Solaris tree under
cds_root/tools.sun4v by way of a link called cds_root/tools.

The install puts the Sun4 Xilinx executables in the standard place for Sun4
executables under cds_root/tools.sun4.

The user must add the Sun4 Xilinx executables directory to his path:

      path =  (cds_root/tools.sun4/pic/xilcore/bin/sparc $path);


ISSUE #4.  APR cannot find partlist.xct

This error is always the result of either the partlist.xct being missing, or
the XACT variable being defined improperly.  The Xilinx tools APR and PPR
search for the partlist.xct under $XACT/data.	By default, Cadence sets the
XACT variable for the user automatically based on the cds_root directory.
For a standard Cadence installation the location is assumed to be
cds_root/tools/pic/xilcore.  Since the customer's "tools" link
was pointing to tools.sun4v/, and the tools had actually been installed in
tools.sun4/, it did not find the Sun4 Xilinx installation in tools.sun4.

SOLUTION:  Set XACT to point to cds_dir/tools.sun4 in the customer`s .cshrc
file.



ISSUE #5.  lmgrd v2.40e called by APR gave an error, "Can't find server
<hostname> in network database".

Normally this is seen when a Solaris system is running DNS (Domain Name
Server) rather NIS (Yellow Pages).  This problem happens because the XACT
programs are statically linked in an environment which uses NIS.  They
are not able to find network information in an environment which uses DNS.

The workaround is to add an entry in the /etc/hosts file for the license
server.  You must do this on the machine on which you are trying to
process the design:

       DETAILED SOLUTION:
       Work around this by inserting the IP address of the license server
       explicitly into the local  /etc/hosts file:

	 1.  At the prompt, type "ypcat hosts | grep <license server>
	 2.  Edit the /etc/hosts file
	 3.  Insert the IP address and the license server name before the "+"
	     at the end of the file.

       The entry would look something like:

       123.456.78.987	server	 # Possibly with some comment text

However, this turned out to be a misleading message.  Changing the part type
to a 3000A and running PPR on the XTF file instead of APR gave us a more
informative message:

     PPR Error 1079--license checkout failed--illegal server name

The problem was that PPR was looking at $XACT/license/license.dat, and this
file was just a template license file from the standard installation which was
not properly configured for his license server, or anything else.  Since
the customer was using a merged license located under cds_root/share/license,
the workaround was to create a link at

   cds_root/tools/pic/xilcore/license/license.dat to
   cds_root/share/license/license.dat.

..............................................................................

Creating a soft link to license.dat:

    Create a soft link in the $XACT/license directory which points to
    the license data file using commands like these:

		# Unix commands
		cd  $XACT/license
		ln -s  /the/full/path/to/the/license/file  license.dat


    You should also disable the autostartup feature by creating the
    xlmasu.deny file in the $XACT/license directory.

    This method will work as long as the file system which the
    license.dat link points to is mounted on all systems on which Xilinx
    software will be executed.	If the file system that contains the
    real license file is not mounted,  when you try to run the
    Xilinx program, you will probably get an AUTHORIZATION_FAILURE error
    message, with explanatory text to the effect that the license file
    could not be found.  This will appear to the novice as a bogus
    message since the file does seem to be there.  However, remember
    that $XACT/license/license.dat is a link.  The error message is
    referring to the file pointed to by the link.  If you are in doubt,
    try viewing the license file with the "cat $XACT/license/license.dat"
    command.

..............................................................................


The alternative would be to set XLM_ENABLE_LM_LICENSE_FILE to 1 and
set LM_LICENSE_FILE to point to the merged Cadence/Xilinx license file.

	      setenv	   XLM_ENABLE_LM_LICENSE_FILE	   1

Also as described in the README file in the Cadence license directory,
you need to touch a file called "xlmasu.deny" in order to link the
license.dat files.  Here's the excerpt:


***************************************************************
1.  Create a soft link in the $XACT/license directory which points to
    the merged license file using the following commands:

		# Unix commands
		cd  $XACT/license
		ln -s  /the/full/path/to/the/license/file  license.dat

    You should also disable the Xilinx license manageer autostartup
    feature by creating a file called xlmasu.deny in the $XACT/license
    directory.

    This method will work as long as the file system that the
    license.dat link points to is mounted on all systems where Xilinx
    software will be executed.	If the file system that contains the
    real license file is not mounted, then when you try to run the
    Xilinx program, you will probably get an AUTHORIZATION_FAILURE error
    message, with explanatory text to the effect that the license file
    could not be found.  This will appear to the novice as a bogus
    message since the file does seem to be there.  However, remember
    that $XACT/license/license.dat is a link.  The error message is
    referring to the file pointed to by the link.  If you are in doubt,
    try viewing the license file with the "cat
    $XACT/license/license.dat" command.

*********************************************************





End of Record #797