Xilinx Vivado WebPACK Installation Instructions

 

Note: - The instructions and images are specifically for Xilinx Vivado WebPACK 2015.4 but should be valid for other editions of Vivado design suite.

 

The URL for the Vivado downloads page: http://www.xilinx.com/support/download.html

The download page should look something like this.

 

 

From a long list of all the available downloads, select “Vivado HLx Web Install Client” or “Vivado Design Suite - HLx Editions - Single File Download - 2015.4 Full Product Installation”.  Make sure to select the appropriate OS you are using.

Note: -

1.     This installer guide is specific to Single File Download, Web Installation is similar, but instead of downloading the *.tar.gz file, you will be downloading an executable (*.exe on for Windows) / binary (.bin for Linux) file.

2.     The installer files are very large (about 10 GB) hence downloading them will take time (sometimes more than an hour).

 

Sign in to download the file, create a User ID if needed. Depending on your internet speed, the download can take an hour or more to complete. Here we assume that we have downloaded the single .tar file for Windows.

Extract the .tar archive using 7-Zip or WinRAR, here we use WinRAR. Select the Xilinx_Vivado_SDK_Win_2015.4_1118_2.tar.gz archive, right-click and under WinRAR select “Extract to “Xilinx_Vivado…”” folder. After extracting, you should find the following folders and files in the extracted folder.

Right click on the “xsetup.exe” file in the folder to which the archive was extracted and select “Run as administrator”.

          Note: -Installation requires about 10 GB of disk space and takes time (again, sometimes more than an hour). 

Provide administrator password, if needed. Click on “Next” to start installation.

          Accept the license agreement and click “Next” to continue.

Select the products to install and click “Next”. If you want to use the free edition select “Vivado HL WebPACK” under editions, the other editions require a paid license or install the software as a 30-day trial edition.

Select installation options and click “Next”. You can go with the default selections.

Select the location of the installation folder, you can either use the default “Destination Folder” or select another one and click “Next”. You can keep the other options that are selected by default.

If you get a prompt stating the specified directory does not exist, in this case “C:\Xilinx does not exist, do you want to create it?”, click “Yes” to create the directory and continue. Click “Install” to continue with the installation process.

During installation, you will be asked if you want to install additional software and programs, kindly follow the instructions on the screen to install them.

Note: - Many of these tools and drivers are required by the PC for the FPGA board to work without errors. Failing to install the additional drivers / software may lead to erroneous FPGA board - PC connection.

 

cable_drivers

After installing the cable drivers, license manager automatically pops up. Select “Get Free SDK, Vivado WebPACK, …..” and click “Connect Now”.

 

license popup

 

You will be redirected to the licensing webpage on your browser. You will be asked to login and enter registration information.

 

After filling out the registration information, you will be taken to the licensing page. Scroll down to Certificate Based Licenses and select Vivado Design Suite: HL WebPack and click Generate Node-Locked License.

 

 

A pop up will appear with the list of products selected for license generation, click next, another similar review window will appear, click next.

 

 

 

 

You should next see a window that says that license has be successfully generated.

 

 

Now close the above window and go to the manage licenses tab. Select the generated license file and click on the little arrow on the left bottom of the window to download the license. OR The license file would have been mailed to the email address provided, download the license file and save it to your root folder of the installation directory (for example “C:\Xilinx”).

 

Click cancel on the license manager.

 

 

 

Go to Load license tab and click copy license

 

 

A browser window will open up, navigate to the directory you placed your license in and select the license file and click open.

 

 

That’s it. Your software is activated. Now click OK on the activation message and close the license manager.

 

 

You should get a window indicating that the installation was successful. Click OK.

You are all set for VHDL programing using Xilinx FPGAs.

 

 


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