This page contains common questions and answers about Altera® software installation for the Altera Complete Design Suite (ACDS) version 10.0.
You can refer to Altera Software v10.0 Installation Guide (PDF) for instructions on how to download and install the ACDS version 10.0. You can also refer to the Altera Software Installation and Licensing (PDF) manual for more information about installing and licensing Altera software.
Q: How can I download and install the ACDS version 10.0SP1?
A: You can download and install the ACDS version 10.0SP1 from the Altera Download Center (www.altera.com/download) with the following options:
Altera Installer
The Altera Installer is an on-demand installation manager that allows you to download and install Altera software using the GUI or command line method. An internet connection is required during the download and installation process. The Altera Installer supports both Windows and Linux operating systems.
Individual Software Files
The individual software file contains an Altera software self-extracting installation executable file, such as the 10.0sp1_quartus_windows.exe or the 10.0sp1_quartus_linux.sh file (a Quartus II software installer file). When the individual software file is run, it will self-extract to a temporary location. The Altera Installer will then install the individual software. An internet connection is not required during installation as opposed to installation using just the Altera Installer. The individual software files are available for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
Altera recommends downloading and installing the ACDS version 10.0SP1 using the Altera Installer. If you have trouble downloading the Altera software using the Altera Installer, you can download the individual software files for installation. If you are facing difficulties downloading the individual software files, you can use the following FTP links for the Quartus II software version 10.0SP1:
Please contact Altera Technical support via mySupport to request for FTP links for other Altera software.
You can refer to the Altera Software v10.0 Installation Guide (PDF) for instructions on how to download and install the ACDS version 10.0SP1 using the options described above. You can also refer to the Altera Software Installation and Licensing (PDF) manual for more information on installing and licensing Altera software.
Q: Why doesn't the GUI appear when I launch the Altera Installer?
A: If you install software using the individual software file, the installation file-extraction process time may vary depending on file size. During the installation file extraction, the Quartus II software (includes IP Library) window (Figure 1) disappears as the extraction process runs in the background. When the extraction is complete, the Altera Installer GUI launches automatically. Wait for this GUI to appear to start the installation process.
Figure 1. Individual Software File Extraction
If you install software using the installer from the DVD drive (autorun), you may experience a delay when the autorun launches the Altera Installer GUI.
If the Altera Installer GUI does not launch in any of the above scenarios, you can manually start the download process by running the setup executable in the following locations:
Individual Software File
<extracted installer directory>\10.0sp1_<product_name>_windows\setup.exe(Windows)<extracted installer directory>\10.0sp1_<product_name>_linux\setup(Linux)
DVD Installation
<DVD_drive>\setup.exe(Windows)<DVD_drive>\setup(Linux)
Q: Why does the Next button remain unavailable after I have specified a path in the Installer Source Directory box?
Figure 2. Next Button Remains Unavailable on the Installer Setup Page
A: This (Figure 2) can happen when the Installer Setup page does not refresh after the path is specified. To refresh the page, you can click outside the Altera Installer, and then click back inside the Altera Installer. Refreshing the Installer Setup page makes the Next button available.
Q: Can I use spaces, special characters, or non-English characters in path names?
A: No. If you are using the individual software file, you must use only alphanumeric characters and do not use empty spaces, special characters, or non-English characters, such as !$%^&*<>, in the Installer Source Directory box. This specification also applies to the Destination Directory that you specify in the Altera Installer.
Q: Why does the Altera Installer hang at the Installer Setup page after specifying the proxy settings?
A: If the proxy setting is invalid, the Altera Installer is unable to verify your Internet connection, which stalls the installation process.
Note: The Altera Installer supports only basic authentication-based proxies at this time. NTLM-based proxy servers (please check with your system administrator) are not supported and may cause the Altera Installer to hang. If your proxy requires NTLM authentication, you can consider running an NTLM authorization proxy server (http://ntlmaps.sourceforge.net/) and set up the Altera Installer using this proxy instead.
Q: Can I run an anti-virus software when I download and install the ACDS version 10.0SP1?
A: Some anti-virus scanner can prevent the Altera Installer from downloading and installing Altera software files to your machine. Thus, Altera recommends that you disable any anti-virus or malware scanner before the download and installation starts.
Refer to http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/solutions/rd07222010_954.html for more information.
Q: Can I resume the Altera Installer manually after an interruption?
A: The Altera Installer automatically resumes the download or installation process for a maximum of five attempts. If the Altera Installer times out after the last attempt, you must invoke the Alter Installer manually to restart the process. The download or installation process will resume from where it stopped.
Q: Can I install ACDS version 10.0SP1 via command-line?
A: Yes. You can install Altera software for Windows or Linux at the command line with a custom installation script using command-line arguments. To install Altera software from the command line, you can run the Altera Installer command-line executable iteratively, using command-line arguments for different functions. You can locate the Altera Installer command-line executable at the following locations:
%TEMP%\altera\<ACDS v10.0 installer extraction directory>\bin\altera_installer_cmd.exe (Windows)Note: %TEMP% refers to the temporary folder specified in the TEMP environment variable. To find out the temporary folder, you can run the command "echo %TEMP%" at the command prompt
<ACDS v10.0 installer extraction directory>\bin\altera_installer_cmd (Linux)Refer to http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/solutions/rd07212010_875.html for more information.
Q: Can I install specific device families at the command line?
A: No. The Altera Installer does not support customized device installation at the command line.
Q: Can I download Altera software without installing the software?
A: Yes. You can use the --download_only option at the command line to download the required Altera software without performing an installation. For example, you can use the following command to download the Quartus II software only:
altera_installer_cmd --install=quartus --temp=<temp_directory> \
--download_only --proxyhost=<proxy_name> \
--username=<username> --password=<password> ↵
Q: Can I launch the Altera Installer GUI when using the --download_only command-line option?
A: No. This is a known issue for the --download_only command-line option. You can only use the command-line method for all subsequent installation procedures.
Q: Why does the individual software file download fail with the Internet Explorer 6 or the Internet Explorer 7 browser?
A: You may see problems when downloading the individual software files of sizes above 1.8 GB from www.altera.com when not using the download manager. This is due to a known issue with the Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7, and large file downloads.
Some of the potential problems that you may see include CRC errors, corrupted download files or incomplete download files.
Refer to http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/solutions/rd06062008_56.html for work around to this issue.
Q: Why do I get the error “Not enough disk space to install selected items into ‘<Installation Directory>’”?
A: This error can occur when the specified installation directory does not have enough disk space to install the selected Altera software and components.
Q: How do I uninstall individual Altera software?
A: You can uninstall individual Altera software, such as the Quartus II, ModelSim®-Altera, Nios II EDS or digital signal processing (DSP) Builder software by pointing to:
Windows Start Menu > Programs > Altera > {Software Name} > Uninstall {Software Name}
Note: The ACDS 10.0 or the individual Altera software does not appear in the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
Q: Why doesn't the Uninstall <software name> 10.0sp1 menu option in the Windows Start menu perform a complete uninstallation?
A: The Uninstall <software name> 10.0sp1 menu option uninstalls the Altera software without deleting the Modify Altera Complete Design Suite 10.0sp1 shortcut and some files in the installation directory. However, you can safely delete the Modify Altera Complete Design Suite 10.0sp1 software and all files in the installation directory manually.
Q: Can I add components after installing Altera software?
A: Yes. You can add components by pointing to Programs on the Windows Start menu, and then clicking Modify Altera Complete Design Suite 10.0sp1. Alternatively, you can type the following command at a command prompt:
cd <Installation file directory>\installer ↵
altera_installer_cmd --update --guiYou can refer to the Altera Software Installation and Licensing (PDF) manual for more information, including a list of Altera Installer command-line arguments.
Q: Why do I receive compatibility warnings when I install Altera software on Windows 7 or Windows Vista?
A: You may receive compatibility warnings when you install Altera software on Windows 7 or Windows Vista with user account control (UAC) enabled. You can ignore these warnings and select This program is installed correctly on the Program Compatibility Assistant. To avoid this message, turn off UAC before installing the software.
Q: Can I specify a Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path as the destination directory?
A: No. The Altera Installer does not support UNC paths. Alternatively, you can map the UNC path to a drive letter and specify it as the destination directory instead.
Q: How do I extract and run the downloaded 10.0sp1_<product_name>_linux.sh file?
A: The .sh file is a command-line based archived file. To extract the 10.0sp1_<product_name>_linux.sh file, follow these steps:
bash 10.0sp1_quartus_linux.sh ↵Creating directory 10.0sp1_dsp_builder_linux
Verifying archive integrity...All good.
Uncompressing DSP Builder........................The Altera Installer GUI then launches and guides you through the download and installation process.
10.0sp1_dsp_builder_linux/altera_installer/bin/altera_installer_cmd --gui ↵
Q: Why do I get the error “./10.0sp1_<product_name>_linux.sh: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: File too large”?
A: This error occurs if you are using a Linux 32-bit machine and the SH shell cannot execute a large .sh file size. For example,
./10.0sp1_quartus_linux.sh ↵The workaround for this problem is to use the BASH shell. For example,
bash 10.0sp1_quartus_linux.sh ↵
Q: Why do the fonts in the Altera Installer appear distorted?
A: This is a known issue. If the fonts in the Altera Installer GUI appear distorted, you can modify the Trolltech.conf file which can be found at “$HOME/.config/Trolltech.conf” by adding the following lines.
[Qt]
font="Sans-serif,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0”
Alternatively, you can run the Altera Installer at the command line. Type the following commands at a command prompt:
bash altera_installer.external.sh --noexec ↵
cd bin ↵
./altera_installer_cmd --help ↵You can use altera_installer_cmd command-line options to install the Altera Complete Design Suite 10.0. For example,
To install all the Altera software, type the following command at a command prompt:
./altera_installer_cmd --all --target=<target_directory> \
--proxyhost=<proxy_name> --username=<username> --password=<password> ↵ To download individual software without installing the software, type the following command at a command prompt:
./altera_installer_cmd --install=quartus –install=modelsim_ae \
--temp=<temp_directory> --download_only --proxyhost=<proxy_name> \
--username=<username> --password=<password> ↵This problem is scheduled to be fixed in a future release of the ACDS.
Q: How do I uninstall the ACDS 10.0SP1 for Linux?
A: To uninstall a previous version of Altera software for Linux, delete the Altera software directory (default name is altera <version number>). Before you begin, make sure you have changed the write permission for the installation directory by executing the chmod command. For example,
chmod +w nios2eds
Q: Can I add components after installing Altera Software?
A: Yes. You can add components by typing the following command at a command prompt:
cd bin ↵
./altera_installer_cmd –update --gui ↵
Q: Why are the buttons in the Altera Installer hidden behind the taskbar?
Figure 3. ControlButtons Hidden Behind the Taskbar
A: The Altera Installer may not display properly on certain display resolutions. The Altera Installer is best used on a display resolution above 1024x768.
Q: Why did the Altera Installer not install any components after downloading them?
A: This can happen when you use the Altera Installer at the command line with invalid options. For example, the following command is invalid and may cause an error in the installation.
./altera_installer_cmd . . . . --remove_temp=c:\altera\10.0You can view a list of command-line arguments by typing the following command at a command prompt:
./altera_installer_cmd --help
Q: How can I specify the destination directory if I cannot browse to a specific directory?
A: This is a known issue for some operating systems, such as SUSE 10 64-bit. If this happens, you can manually type the destination directory path into the Destination Directory box.
Q: Why do I get the error “You are attempting to install over a previous installation of Quartus II software (includes IP Library), Nios II Embedded Design Suite. You must either uninstall the previous installation or choose a new installation directory before continuing with this installation”?
Figure 4. Destination Directory Error
A: This error (Figure 4) occurs if the destination directory contains a previous installation of the software. If this happens, you must uninstall the previous version of the software before installing a new version. Alternatively, you can specify another destination directory instead.
Note: This issue is different from modifying the ACDS 10.0SP1. Refer to “Can I add components after I have installed the Altera software?” for more information.