hello.

My name is Intel F. Hanako and I provide technical support for Intel® FPGA products at Macnica.

 

When you write to the device with Quartus ® Prime, debug with Signal Tap, or debug with the Nios ® II Software Build Tools, you communicate with a download cable such as the Intel FPGA USB Download Cable II (also known as USB-Blaster II). You know.
At that time, a program called JTAG Server is running in the background.

As for who the JTAG Server is, I'll tell you later...

 

If this JTAG Server is not functioning properly,

・ USB-Blaster II and USB-Blaster are not displayed in Programmer's Hardware Setup (Of course, drivers are already installed)

・ Even if the SOF file is downloaded with the Signal Tap Logic Analyzer, the status is red and "Program the device continues"

etc. will occur.


Reasons for this are as follows.

 

・ The status is blocked by a firewall or anti-virus tool.

⇒ [Countermeasure]: Temporarily disable the firewall or antivirus tool before starting the JTAG Server.

(Then enable your firewall or antivirus tool.)

 

- JTAG Server is not installed. Or the service is stopped.

  ⇒ [Countermeasure]: Install JTAG Server. Start the service if it is stopped.

 

- The version of the JTAG Server being used is not the latest.

⇒ [Countermeasure]: Uninstall the old version of JTAG Server, install the latest version of JTAG Server, and start the service.

 

This section introduces how to start/stop/install/uninstall JTAG Server.
Execute these operations with administrator privileges.

 

You can start and stop the JTAG Server from the GUI (Windows service), but here we will show you how to perform all operations using commands.

 

before that,

Check the version of JTAG Server

To check the version of the JTAG Server program that is running (in use), you can check it with jtagserver -v from the command prompt.

Here are the steps:

 

(1) Start the [Service Management Tool] of the OS.

For Windows 10, use the search Box next to the start menu and enter [Services] as the search keyword.

Select Services from the search results to launch the Services Management Tool.

 

(2) From the list of services, right-click [Altera JTAG Server] > select Properties to display the Altera JTAG Server properties.

 

(3) Check [Executable file path] on the [General] tab.

This path is the currently running JTAG Server.

Which version of Quartus Prime you are referring to, equals (=) "JTAG Server version".

 

From here, if you want to check more precisely,

 

④ Start Command Prompt.

 

(5) Enter the path confirmed in (3) above, then enter a space and -v in that order, and press the Enter key.

Displays the JTAG Server version.

How to start JTAG Server

① Start Command Prompt.

 

(2) Move to the bin64 folder under the Quartus Prime installation folder using the cd command.

 

(3) Execute the following command to start JTAG Server.

jtagserver --start

④ Execute the following command to check the status of JTAG Server.

jtagserver --status

If you see Server is running, the service is "started".

How to stop JTAG Server

① Start Command Prompt.

 

(2) Move to the bin64 folder under the Quartus Prime installation folder using the cd command.

 

(3) Execute the following command to stop JTAG Server.

jtagserver --stop

④ Execute the following command to check the status of JTAG Server.

jtagserver --status

If Server is stopped is displayed, the service is "stopped".

How to install JTAG Server

① Start Command Prompt.

 

(2) Move to the bin64 folder under the Quartus Prime installation folder using the cd command.

 

(3) Execute the following command to install JTAG Server.

jtagserver --install

If it says Server is already installed, you already have a running JTAG Server.

If you want to install a different JTAG Server than the version shown,

Stop running services and uninstall JTAG Server. Then proceed with the installation.

After installation, reboot the OS.

 

④ After restarting the OS, execute the following command to check the status of JTAG Server.

jtagserver --status

If you see Server is running, the service is "started".

How to uninstall JTAG Server

① Start Command Prompt.

 

(2) Move to the bin64 folder under the Quartus Prime installation folder using the cd command.

 

(3) Execute the following command to stop JTAG Server.

jtagserver --stop

④ Execute the following command to check the status of JTAG Server.

jtagserver --status

If Server is stopped is displayed, the service is "stopped".

⑤ Execute the following command to uninstall JTAG Server. Then reboot the OS.

jtagserver --uninstall

⑥ After restarting the OS, execute the following command to check the status of JTAG Server.

jtagserver --status

If it says JTAG Server not installed, the JTAG Server was "removed".

What is JTAG Server?

JTAG Server is a program that communicates with hardware such as USB-Blaster II and allows multiple programs to use JTAG resources simultaneously.

This means that a download cable such as the USB-Blaster II cannot communicate with the FPGA unless the JTAG Server is running properly.

The JTAG Server is normally installed with the Quartus Prime installation and automatically started as a service, so the user does not need to install it separately or instruct the user to start/stop the service.

You can check whether it is installed and its status in "Windows Services".

If multiple versions of Quartus Prime are installed on a single computer, basically the JTAG Server of the last installed Quartus Prime version will be overwritten.

At that time, if the service is operating normally, the running version of the JTAG Server will be replaced at the same time the Quartus Prime Programmer is started.

However, for some reason, problems such as not being installed or not being updated may occur.

Uninstalling/reinstalling JTAG Server can work around such issues.