ModelSim AE in Linux

[Altera_Forum]

Hi all, 

 I have been wondering if someone has successfully used ModelSim AE in unsupported Linux distros. Specifically I have Quartus II 8.0 (Sp1) installed on CentOS5.2. It works well including download with USB-Blaster (which needed some additional tweaking). SOPC Builder amd NIOS II works too. However I am totally clueless about ModelSim AE (which I installed along with rest of the other packages). I would be grateful if someone can point me to some resource on using ModelSim AE on CentOS 5.2.   Any help will be greatly appreciated.   Sincerely. Kumar Vijay Mishra.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi All, 

 Never mind, I could launch ModelSim AE (v6.1g) in Linux. The problem was in some incorrect license specifications (totally mea culpa!). The procedure is pretty much the same as described in the wiki for QuartusForLinux.   Kumar Vijay Mishra.

[Altera_Forum]

I could launch ModelSim AE by typing vsim on the command prompt  

(regardless of the path of my working directory; this was made possible when I included path to vsim in .bashrc).   However, the desktop launcher of ModelSim AE still has some problems. I specified the complete path to vsim (/opt/altera8.0/modelsim_ae/linuxaloem) in the launcher command, but clicking on the launcher icon doesn't open anything. I also tried putting just 'vsim' instead of the complete path as launcher command. But that didn't help either.   The reply that I received from Altera technical Support is as follows:   i'm sorry to inform you that the software team has identified that the root cause of this issue is linux os. the issue is currently under further investigation by software team which aim for a possible workaround to address this issue.   some additional information found in the investigation show that the modelsim-altera launcher created has no issue in latest linux os which will be support by quartus ii in near future. perhaps this will be a better solution which may be considered.   Anyone else has some other idea to fix this?   Regards,   Kumar Vijay Mishra.

[Altera_Forum]

... no unfortunately not, but I am following this discussion too. I will do the same for ubuntu then, once having more time.

[Altera_Forum]

I got the following reply from Altera Technical Support and their solution worked (although I must say it is actually a workaround as it opens the terminal window in addition to ModelSim)! 

 the software team has found out that the nautilus used in gnome has to be version 2.8.1 or greater in rhel 4 in order to launch the modelsim-altera using desktop launcher with "run in terminal" function turned on.   the steps to create the desktop launcher are show in the following.   1. right click mouse button and select the create launcher   2. fill in the name , comment and command. for command field, you can fill in the full path vsim command for example for my machine, i enter '/build/altera/modelsim_ae/linuxaloem/vsim' or just type 'vsim' if you have add in the modelsim-altera install path to path environment setting.   3. please select the check box "run in terminal".   4. select ok button   the launcher will create in your desktop with your specify name. test in by double click the file. it should be able to launch modelsim-altera if the setting to it license files or server ( check this by echo $lm_license_file) and the path are correct.  If anyone has an idea as to how opening the terminal window can be avoided, please share it (although I am content with the above solution now :) ).   Regards, Kumar Vijay Mishra.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  ... no unfortunately not, but I am following this discussion too. I will do the same for ubuntu then, once having more time.  --- Quote End ---   @fpgaengineerfrankfurt: I hope the method remains same for Ubuntu as well. The trick worked for CentOS. In any case, the underlying principle (that I was missing) is this: specify complete path to the ModelSim executable in the launcher (or just the vsim command if the path has been included in the environment variables); and finally enable 'run in terminal' or 'application in terminal' option.    Regards, Kumar Vijay Mishra.