Modelsim PE/Win in VirtualBox?

[Petter Gustad]

I'm a long time Linux user but I'm currently stuck with a Modelsim PE
USB dongle. Unfortunately the Modelsim LE (Linux Edition) is Verilog
only and the SE edition is quite expensive. I've used lots of other
EDA tools in the past, and they don't seem to discriminate Linux in
this way. So I've tried to run Windows XP as a guest OS in VirtualBox.

The USB dongle is detected in Windows, but most of the time Windows
will crash or I will not get a license when I either try to run the
license check or start vsim.

Have anybody else succeeded to run Modelsim PE in a Windows XP guest in
VirtualBox?

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Brian Drummond]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:02:42 +0200, Petter Gustad <newsmailcomp6@gustad.com>
wrote:

I'm a long time Linux user but I'm currently stuck with a Modelsim PE
USB dongle. Unfortunately the Modelsim LE (Linux Edition) is Verilog
only and the SE edition is quite expensive. I've used lots of other
EDA tools in the past, and they don't seem to discriminate Linux in
this way. So I've tried to run Windows XP as a guest OS in VirtualBox.

The USB dongle is detected in Windows, but most of the time Windows
will crash or I will not get a license when I either try to run the
license check or start vsim.

Have anybody else succeeded to run Modelsim PE in a Windows XP guest in
VirtualBox?

I presume you are using the Sun Virtualbox not the open source one, since you
are virtualising a USB device. I found it pretty unstable (but hey, it gave me a
genuine Win2000 BSOD in its little window while Linux ran happily on
regardless!)

I recommend taking a look at kvm
http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page
which I adopted because (as of recent-ish builds, I think I'm using build 83)
virtualises both PCI and USB; and thus lets me use some Windows-only dev tools
that talk directly to a PCIe-hosted FPGA card (AND need a pesky little Aladdin
HASP dongle).

It was easy to install, (much easier than Xen with an NVidia graphics card!)
though not very easy to use; adding/removing USB/PCI devices takes obscure
commands in a slightly odd sort of shell.

I can't speak for running Modelsim on it, but it seems (on my limited
experience) to be considerably more stable than VirtualBox, and perfectly good
at what I needed; virtualising Windows.

- Brian

 

[HT-Lab]

"Petter Gustad" <newsmailcomp6@gustad.com> wrote in message
news:87bpomvaj1.fsf@pangea.home.gustad.com...

I'm a long time Linux user but I'm currently stuck with a Modelsim PE
USB dongle. Unfortunately the Modelsim LE (Linux Edition) is Verilog
only and the SE edition is quite expensive.

I would suggest you complain to Mentor (I did). It is quite annoying that VHDL
users are considered second class users to Verilog and we are not only talking
about PE/VHDL on Linux here.

I've used lots of other
EDA tools in the past, and they don't seem to discriminate Linux in
this way. So I've tried to run Windows XP as a guest OS in VirtualBox.

The USB dongle is detected in Windows, but most of the time Windows
will crash or I will not get a license when I either try to run the
license check or start vsim.

When is fails run "lmutil lmhostid -flexid" and see if your 9-xxxxxxx dongle id
is being returned, if not then Virtualbox might be the issue. I am not that
familiar with Virtualbox but there are Linux USB dongle drivers available on the
Hasp website so perhaps you can install the drivers under Linux and somehow
share that port under Virtualbox? Other suggestion is to try Vmware.

Hans
www.ht-lab.com

Have anybody else succeeded to run Modelsim PE in a Windows XP guest in
VirtualBox?

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Petter Gustad]

Brian Drummond <brian_drummond@btconnect.com> writes:

I presume you are using the Sun Virtualbox not the open source one, since you

Correct. More speficically version 2.2.4.

I recommend taking a look at kvm

Thank you. I'll look into KVM.


Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Petter Gustad]

"HT-Lab" <hans64@ht-lab.com> writes:

I would suggest you complain to Mentor (I did).

Good point.

When is fails run "lmutil lmhostid -flexid" and see if your
9-xxxxxxx dongle id

Sometimes I see the dongle ID. Other times I just see the ethernet id
(when using the license check GUI), and most of the time it will just
crash and reboot the virtual machine.

BTW I always see the dongle in the device manager under Windows.

is being returned, if not then Virtualbox might be the issue. I am
not that familiar with Virtualbox but there are Linux USB dongle
drivers available on the Hasp website so perhaps you can install the
drivers under Linux and somehow share that port under Virtualbox?

It should be transparent so there should be no driver.

Other suggestion is to try Vmware.

Have anybody tried Modelsim PE under Vmware or KVM and know that it
works?

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Petter Gustad]

"evilkidder@googlemail.com" <evilkidder@googlemail.com> writes:

Thank you. I'll look into KVM.

Works for me - the trick it seems is to ensure that you are running
with hardware virtualization enabled. Otherwise the USB dongle driver
crashes the system. I've only tried this on a core2 duo and core i7 -
not sure about AMD processors.

Thanks. Looks like KVM is the first thing to try out...

Petter


--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Petter Gustad]

"evilkidder@googlemail.com" <evilkidder@googlemail.com> writes:

Sorry, didn't express myself too well there. It was VirtualBox I was
speaking about.

OK I see.

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[evilkidder@googlemail.com]

On Jun 18, 10:45 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...@gustad.com> wrote:

Brian Drummond <brian_drumm...@btconnect.com> writes:
I presume you are using the Sun Virtualbox not the open source one, since you

Correct. More speficically version 2.2.4.

I recommend taking a look at kvm

Thank you. I'll look into KVM.

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

Works for me - the trick it seems is to ensure that you are running
with hardware virtualization enabled. Otherwise the USB dongle driver
crashes the system. I've only tried this on a core2 duo and core i7 -
not sure about AMD processors.

 

[evilkidder@googlemail.com]

On Jun 18, 11:32 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...@gustad.com> wrote:

"evilkid...@googlemail.com" <evilkid...@googlemail.com> writes:
Thank you. I'll look into KVM.
Works for me - the trick it seems is to ensure that you are running
with hardware virtualization enabled.  Otherwise the USB dongle driver
crashes the system.  I've only tried this on a core2 duo and core i7 -
not sure about AMD processors.

Thanks. Looks like KVM is the first thing to try out...

Sorry, didn't express myself too well there. It was VirtualBox I was
speaking about.

I did get it working it working in KVM as well but that also took a
bit of fiddling (needed the latest dongle drivers I think).

Andy.

 

[Brian Drummond]

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:16:59 -0700 (PDT), "evilkidder@googlemail.com"
<evilkidder@googlemail.com> wrote:

On Jun 18, 10:45 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...@gustad.com> wrote:
Brian Drummond <brian_drumm...@btconnect.com> writes:
I presume you are using the Sun Virtualbox not the open source one, since you

Correct. More speficically version 2.2.4.

I recommend taking a look at kvm

Thank you. I'll look into KVM.

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?


Works for me - the trick it seems is to ensure that you are running
with hardware virtualization enabled. Otherwise the USB dongle driver
crashes the system. I've only tried this on a core2 duo and core i7 -
not sure about AMD processors.

My experience was on an AMD processor (Socket AM2 ar AM2+) with (if I understand

it) hardware virtualisation but not the latest IOMMU.

- Brian