This installation tutorial is intended for anyone who wants to use the FPGA of the Red Pitaya board. You need one of the following on your computer or virtual machine: Ubuntu OS, Linux Mint OS, or Windows with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). After that, follow the instructions to install Vivado 2020.1.

Note

Why not use an up-to-date Vivado Version?

The reason is quite simple actually, Red Pitaya software was written for Vivado version 2020.1.

Install Vivado 2020.1

Download Vivado Design Suite 2020.1 - HLx Editions -Linux Self-Extracting Web Installer (Ubuntu or Linux Mint), or Windows Self Extracting Web Installer (WSL). If you don’t have an Xilinx account, you will have to create one. It’s free.

Windows

Install Vivado as you would any other program, but remember/write down the path to the installation folder; you will need it later. Do not forget to install the libraries at the end of this webpage (through the WSL). Refer to Linux installation process from Installation Wizard onwards.

Linux

Now you have to run the downloaded file for installation. Open a terminal, go to the downloaded file directory (cd Downloads/), and insert the following commands. The first command is to make the file executable, and the second is to run the file.

chmod +x ./Xilinx_Unified_2020.1_0602_1208_Lin64.bin
sudo ./Xilinx_Unified_2020.1_0602_1208_Lin64.bin

Vivado 2020.1 is not supported on Ubuntu version 20.04 or above (but it works just fine)—when installing it you will encounter the following warning:

The installer window will also glitch and disappear after you click OK – forcing you to press Ctrl+C in the terminal to force quit the installation process (this will happen with both the unified and Linux web-installer).

To avoid this warning, we will “fake” our OS version for the duration of the installation process (this needs to be done for both the unified and Linux web-installer). Locate the os-release file in the /etc directory. Open the file as the super user with a text editor (nano, for example):

sudo nano os-release

Make a note of the VERSION line (for Ubuntu 20.04, it should be VERSION=”20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa)”). Then, in the VERSION line, change it to VERSION=”18.04.4 LTS (Bionic Beaver)” and save the file (DO NOT** forget to change it back once the installation is complete). The edited file should look like this:

Re-run the installation file:

sudo ./Xilinx_Unified_2020.1_0602_1208_Lin64.bin

Now the installation process should go through.

It will open this installation wizard. Click Next.

Insert your Xilinx ID and password. Check Download and install Now. Click Next.

Check all the boxes. Click Next.

Check Vivado HL WebPACK. Click Next.

Check all the boxes in the next image. Uncheck Ultrascale and Ultrascale+ as you don’t need them. Click Next.

The default installation directory is /opt/Xilinx, so install there. Click Next.

Check the information and click Install. Now wait for the download and installation.

It will open the licence manager, and you will have to get the free WebPACK licence file. Click Connect Now or Save Link As. This will take you to the Xilinx licence manager website, where you must follow the instructions to generate the ISE WebPACK license. The licence file will be sent to your registered e-mail address. After that, click on Load License and click Copy License to copy your .lic file to register Vivado.

Install additional libraries after installing Vivado by running the following command in Terminal.

sudo apt-get install libxft2 libxft2:i386

When the installation finishes do NOT forget to change your VERSION in the os-release file back to what is was before – failure to do so might cause problems with other programs.