Getting started with the Tang Nano 9K FPGA board on Ubuntu 22.04 Linux

[@andreasstrem3657]

Thank you so much. You have saved me and many others from head scratching and hairloss...

[@electronics.tinker]

I am glad the video was helpful. I have since acquired a Tang Nano 20K. Getting started with it is very similar.

[@GlennHamblin]

Thanks, I appreciate the introduction to this little board. I really want to learn FPGAs, I just have yet to find a good project to apply it to. 😊

[@electronics.tinker]

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think learning some Verilog (or VHDL) is good, and these cheap FPGAs are a great vehicle for that. But I also agree that modern microcontrollers are so capable that many projects do not require an FPGA. One area where FPGAs shine is implementing peripherals that operate autonomously alongside a microcontroller. For example driving addressable LEDs requires fairly tight and consistent timing. It's nice to have that decoupled from software in case the microcontroller has something serious to do along with controlling the LED. Cheers.

[@blenderbuch]

Thanks! Just the simple first example I looked for.

[@camister69]

Thank You! It works! Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

[@stevetodd7383]

For not much more money you can get the rather more capable Tang Primer 20K. You get roughly double the resources, 128MB of DDR3 RAM and an optional base board that can host HDMI and USB among other peripherals.

[@electronics.tinker]

Yes, it's good that you point this out. There also appears to be a Tang Nano 20k. The sipeed wiki lists a number of Tang FPGA boards.

[@josebatista6259]

Great video sir!

[@spillagonner]

Don't you also have to turn around three times and sacrifice a goat on the fpga board?

[@electronics.tinker]

I see you have experience with these things! There are indeed some things that don't work with the Gowin EDA (at least on Linux), and things that require incantations!

[@spillagonner]

Hey Greg! Using your videos to try getting into FPGA. Downloaded Gowin FPGA Designer v1.9.9.03 Education build to my Ubuntu 22.04 ThinkPad. On start-up, terminal reports: Qt: Session management error: None of the authentication protocols specified are supported. Any clues? Should I be worried?

[@electronics.tinker]

I get the same thing: Qt: Session management error: Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed It has not caused me problems. I think Gowin tested their Linux-based tools on a version of Ubuntu even older than 22.04. As you use newer versions of Ubuntu, problems get worse. Gowin's strategy for supporting Linux is not very good. Frankly, the Gowin tools work a lot better on Windows (at least Windows 10-- I don't have a computer capable of running Windows 11). I have started running the Gowin tools mostly on Windows as the path of least resistance, and I run Ubuntu 22.04 under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) on the same machine. This allows me to continue to use Ubuntu for software builds. I prefer Linux to Windows, but Gowin does not make it easy! Cheers.

[@ΝικΝοκ]

Very nice and clear video! I have tang primer 20k and i have issues with analyser oscilloscope. Does it work for you?

[@electronics.tinker]

The analyzer oscilloscope works for me only on Windows, where I have found it to be useful on both the Tang Nano 9K and the Tang Nano 20K. Tools version 1.9.9.03 education is better than the older version. But I have never gotten the oscilloscope to work on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04.05). The loader/programmer is also problematic on Linux but works ok on Windows. In the end, better to use Windows for Gowin if you can.

[@ΝικΝοκ]

@@electronics.tinker it is sad that it doesnt work on linux... as for the programmer i found out that openFPGALloader works fine with ubuntu (it is mentioned on their website as am alternative). I hope they make an alternayive to gao too. Their fpgas are nice and affordable, it would be great to work on linux too

[@91722854]

hi, does it work on fedora as well?

[@electronics.tinker]

I was not successful with fedora due to library mismatches. With enough fooling around and use LD_LIBRARY_PATH, I have heard that some people make it work. To be honest, the path of least resistance with Gowin's tools is to run Windows.

[@rajjolal23]

how do i downnload this on wwindows? i have already downloaded it and installed it but it asks for aliscence, i have applied but havent heard back from them in a month.

[@electronics.tinker]

I have been using the educational version that does not require (or ask for) a license. Maybe you downloaded the commercial version. Gowin recently updated the software to a non-beta version. The file I downloaded for Windows have name Gowin_V1.9.9.03_Education_x64_win.zip. It contains a conventional Windows installer.

[@DavidTLutz]

I have had no luck posting a comment to this video and do not understand why.

[@electronics.tinker]

Hi, I see your comment about "no luck posting" but do not see any sign of a previous comment. It does not look like it was somehow held for review by me. I have had a similar experience where I try to comment on some other persons channel and never see the comment. My comment that failed to appear contained a web link. Could KZbin silently reject those? I don't know. I was not able to figure it out. Sorry you are having trouble. I appreciate it when people take the time to comment.

[@uis246]

Not apicula(

[@electronics.tinker]

I have not tried apicula. Maybe I will someday. I have found the Gowin educational tools edition to be imperfect but easy enough to get started with.

[@lorenzocapobianco3043]

3:10 [SOLVED] I had the same dependencies problems on Fedora. More in detail, the error message was "undefined symbol: FT_Done_MM_Var". After searching online, it seems the problem is related to the library "libfreetype.so.X" (where X is a number) stored in "IDE/lib" folder. Renaming or deleting it should solve the problem. In my case, I just renamed it into "libfreetype.so.6.old" and the IDE started working without any problem. Hope this can be useful for someone else too.

[@electronics.tinker]

That's good information, thanks. I decided that the path of least resistance is to run Gowin on Windows, though.

[@WILLMARFERNANDOROMEROMARIN]

it work for me too in Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, thanks very much

[@lukaspfitscher8737]

I have these thissh script: my verilog file and my io map file. I dont think you need all this GUI stuff fil_v="main.v" fil_io="io_map.cst" yosys -q -D LEDS_NR=6 -p "read_verilog $fil_v; synth_gowin -json net1.json" yowasp-nextpnr-gowin -q --json net1.json --write net2.json --device GW1NR-LV9QN88PC6/I5 --family GW1N-9C --cst $fil_io gowin_pack -d GW1N-9C -o main.fs net2.json openFPGALoader -b tangnano9k main.fs

[@electronics.tinker]

You are using an open source tool chain which has its advantages. But. using Gowin hard IP blocks might be harder without the Gowin tool chain. I am not sure. Thanks for the comment.