iMPACT Access Permission Problem

[moving2]

Hi All,

I'm using iMPACT 9.1i (as part of ISE/EDK 9.1i- latest version that fully supports the Xilinx ML310 board I'm using) on Linux. I am encountering what seems to be a minor problem, which is that iMPACT seems to be automatically starting with a project directory set in the root directory. Because it does not have permission, I get the following dialog: "The Project Directory / is either not writable or does not exist. iMPACT has chaged the ProjectDirectory to the corrent working directory /home/v". When I dismiss this dialog, iMPACT quits.

Any idea how to change the initial startup directory preference, or otherwise fix this problem?

 

[aruipksni]

Hi All,

I'm using iMPACT 9.1i (as part of ISE/EDK 9.1i- latest version that fully supports the Xilinx ML310 board I'm using) on Linux. I am encountering what seems to be a minor problem, which is that iMPACT seems to be automatically starting with a project directory set in the root directory. Because it does not have permission, I get the following dialog: "The Project Directory / is either not writable or does not exist. iMPACT has chaged the ProjectDirectory to the corrent working directory /home/v". When I dismiss this dialog, iMPACT quits.

Any idea how to change the initial startup directory preference, or otherwise fix this problem?

Try to run it as super user from terminal gksu impact of sudo impact.

 

[moving2]

Try to run it as super user from terminal gksu impact of sudo impact.

aruipksni- thanks for the response. I've run it from superuser, but the problem is that it works for superuser, but it does not change my situation when I use it as my regular user. That is, I cannot seem to change the default directory for my regular user via superuser or regular user. Any ideas?

 

[mrflibble]

That sounds weird... Do you launch impact from ISE? Or do you use command line?

If the answer is "from ise" ... before you launch impact, try this: open up tcl console, and execute "pwd" command. What result do you get?

 

[moving2]

That sounds weird... Do you launch impact from ISE? Or do you use command line?

command line. Any ideas there?

 

[mrflibble]

Yeah, use the correct environment variables? Which ones, you ask. Well, I dunno I reply. Well, that's not very useful you then retort. Well, how the hell should I know, it's your command line, I then further reply.

If you run impact etc from command line you have of course sourced the xilinx setting32.sh (or similar file), right? License file set up properly, etc. And just to be sure I would also start up impact with CWD=<your_project_dir>. Oh and before I make assumptions, windoze or linux?

 

[moving2]

mrflibble- thanks for the response!

If you run impact etc from command line you have of course sourced the xilinx setting32.sh (or similar file), right?

Yup

License file set up properly, etc.

Yup

And just to be sure I would also start up impact with CWD=<your_project_dir>.

Ah-hah! I'm assuming this will set the project directory it starts up in? If so, this looks like it might fix my problem- will try it and let you know.

Oh and before I make assumptions, windoze or linux?

Linux (stated in first post).

 

[moving2]

And just to be sure I would also start up impact with CWD=<your_project_dir>.

mrflibble- ok finally got around to trying this and realized I don't know how to start impact from the command line with the CWD option and I don't see it in the "usage" description. Can you give me an example of how it would be used?

 

[mrflibble]

CWD = current working directory. By which I mean you do:

cd <your_project_dir>
<impact command goes here>

This to prevent impact not being able to find whatever it seems to be looking for.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe you are missing some env var?

How about just before you start impact, try this instead to check your environment:

env | grep XILINX

What does that show?

 

[moving2]

CWD = current working directory. By which I mean you do:

cd <your_project_dir>
<impact command goes here>

This to prevent impact not being able to find whatever it seems to be looking for.

Oh OK if I'm understanding this correctly you're just saying I should start impact from my project directory. I am already doing this, but it is somehow looking in "/" (root directory) anyway and then quitting.

Maybe you are missing some env var?

How about just before you start impact, try this instead to check your environment:

env | grep XILINX

What does that show?

XILINX_EDK=/opt/EDK91i_32
XILINX=/opt/Xilinx91i_32

 

[mrflibble]

That's weird. I think what may be going on is that you have some curious settings lingering in your ~/.Xilinx/ directory. Just for the fun of it try:

mv -v ~/.Xilinx/ ~/.Xilinx_GO_AWAY/
cd <your_project_dir>
impact
mv -v  ~/.Xilinx_GO_AWAY/ ~/.Xilinx/

If impact now suddenly worked as intended, then see above.

 

[moving2]

That's weird. I think what may be going on is that you have some curious settings lingering in your ~/.Xilinx/ directory. Just for the fun of it try:

mv -v ~/.Xilinx/ ~/.Xilinx_GO_AWAY/
cd <your_project_dir>
impact
mv -v  ~/.Xilinx_GO_AWAY/ ~/.Xilinx/

If impact now suddenly worked as intended, then see above.

Thanks! Now we're getting somewhere! Oddly, when I renamed the directory as you suggested (.Xilinx_GO_AWAY), it did not change the problem. However, when I renamed it .OLD, it worked!

Just a few more kinks to figure out...will keep you posted if you're not fed up with me yet.

 

[mrflibble]

WTF? So if it is called .Xilinx<whatever> it still picks up the directory? Amusing.

I vaguely recall either using .Xilinx_orig or .Xilinx_tmp or some such and it having the desired effect. The desired effect being ignoring old crappy settings. But maybe that behavior changed between the super old 9.1 version (hint, hint) and more recent versions.

And please post your findings, because it might also help the next hapless victim that has the same problem.

 

[moving2]

WTF? So if it is called .Xilinx<whatever> it still picks up the directory? Amusing.

Yes. The first time. Ok so this is odd...

1. I tried renaming it .Xilinx_GO_AWAY and it did not work (crashed* before I could create or choose a project)
2. I tried renaming it .OLD and impact launched and allowed me to create / choose a project without crashing beforehand
3. Rebooted and tried this again, and now it won't work no matter what the directory is named- same problem crashing* before letting me choose/create a project because it says I don't have permissions for / directory
4. When I sudo su and launch impact as root, it works fine.
*crashed = described in first post in this thread

Any ideas?

- - - Updated - - -

BTW it looks like another Xilinx install (14.6) used the ~/.Xilinx directory, but 9.1i does not. Any clue what 9.1i might use?

As for having to use 9.1i vs. a newer version (I have 14.6), see my first post:

I'm using iMPACT 9.1i (as part of ISE/EDK 9.1i- latest version that fully supports the Xilinx ML310 board I'm using)

 

[mrflibble]

Weird. I do recall that the directory name also changed some time ago. maybe it was .xil or .Xil or something in the past?

You could check by sorting .* files by change date...

ls -ltrd ~/.*

Maybe you see something xilinx-esque there. You'd do the ls command after you run impact.

DOH! Just realized. You sudo su, so you just might grab your settings from /root/.Xilwhatever in that scenario. So check both your regular user dir and your root dir for xilinx settings.