ERROR: Current execution environment is VCO=aoi. Software tree is for environment VCO=ixl

I updated Calibre into order to try to address a warning, and I ended up making a mess. The new error was:

ERROR: Current execution environment is VCO=aoi. Software tree is for environment VCO=ixl

Deep down in the bowels of Calibre I found an environmental variable that I could set to change behavior. We'll see how it works:

export USE_CALIBRE_VCO=ixl

No errors of doom so far, but that doesn't mean that it will work.

virtuoso gives "bindkey uses Alt modifier and will be ignored"

I found that I had to update .cdsenv for my "alt-" macros. I was getting the error of "bindkey uses Alt modifier and will be ignored". I had to add "ui enableMenuShortcuts boolean nil" to my .cdsenv file. My current .cdsenv file follows:

license VLSL_UseNextLicense string "always"

layout          instLibName       string  "cmos14soi"
layout          ySnapSpacing      float   0.001
layout          xSnapSpacing      float   0.001

layoutXL        mfactorNames      string  "m M"
layoutXL lxFingeringNames  string  "fingers finger numFingers numFinger nf"
layoutXL  lxGetSignifDigits int 10

ui      enableMenuShortcuts     boolean nil

VirtualBox Guest additions, echo_success: command not found, consoletype not found, etc.

The VirtualBox guest additions for Debian are advertised as straightforward; however, they are not. The virtualbox.org pages don't really give much information. To make matters worse, the VBoxLinuxAdditions.run file requires script support that is native to RedHat, which gives errors such as: echo_success: command not found.

Here's the how-to for Debian, line by line:

apt-get install build-essential module-assistant
m-a prepare

Now you need to install two files from RedHat from my links below:
/etc/init.d/functions
/sbin/consoletype

Now when you run ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run after you mount the CDROM, all works well.

Pocketpico Drivers

Awhile ago I designed an ammeter that I used for research. The PocketPico became a product of pocketpico.com. The device used a very good logarithmic regulator instead of a resistor ladder to create an ammeter that did not have auto-ranging issues due to relays.

The drivers are here: drivers.zip
The manual is here: pocketpico.manual.pdf

IC6.1.5 to ICADV12.1

Funniest quirk when I upgrade to ICADV12.1:

*WARNING* clsInit failed: Can't determine host name. Locking is not allowed with host name 'localhost'.

I had to change my hostname and things worked. vi /etc/hostname

cleaning up cdslck files in Cadence.

I created a script that finds all of the cdslck files and deletes them. Even if they are in SVN.
cleanlck.sh

#!/bin/bash
# This script files all cdslck files that Cadence creates and
# removes them.  This includes safe handling of cdslck files that
# have been committed to SVN.
FILES=$(find . -type f -name *cdslck*)
for f in $FILES
do
 #echo "Processing $f"
 svn info $f 1>/dev/null 2>&1
 if [ $? -eq 1 ];then
  rm -f $f
 else
  svn rm $f
 fi
done

creating a java jar file under Mac OS

In theory, this is easy. In practice, it is easy if you remember that you need a newline at the BOTTOM of the manifest file. The Manifest.txt just needs a new line, and it all works. It took me a few hours to figure this out. :/

Main-Class: testclass

And you just create the .jar file from your .class files:

jar cfm spicespi.jar Manifest.txt *.class

And then you can run it (or just click it in Mac OS.)

java -jar testclass.jar

cadence spectre error (VACOMP-1008)

Debian and Cadence, it never stops. This was another one of those "huh?" errors that showed up after I added a single model. The model has analog VHDL in it. As usual, spectre failures are just symptomatic of some other issue. The first issue was that mpstat was missing, which I fixed with the systat package:

apt-get install systat

The next issue was something different:

/bin/sh: Illegal option -h

The issue here was the /bin/sh is a link to /bin/dash in debian. I changed the link to /bin/bash. Once that was resolved, I then had the next issue related to features.h:

/usr/include/features.h:323:26: fatal error: bits/predefs.h: No such file or directory

I solved this by:

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386

This was followed by the inability to find ctri.o, which is solved by linking:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/lib64

because LD_LIBRARY_PATH has /usr/lib64 in it.

And suddenly, 14nm is simulating!

Strange Assura error, was not an error at all.

I was having a strange assura error

localhost:~/ic/cadence/ibm7sf> avlck:   ERROR: The command /tools/cadence/assura615oa/share/oa/bin/sysname returned an error status:
                            unknown
avlck: INFO: Note that OpenAccess (OA) requires running the Configure phase.
avlck: See the "OpenAccess Installation and Configuration Guide" before
avlck: you complete the configuration step. This manual is included with
avlck: the Cadence product documentation.

localhost:~/ic/cadence/ibm7sf>  /tools/cadence/assura615oa/share/oa/bin/sysname
linux_rhel40_gcc44x

This doesn't make much sense, and because of how huge Cadence is as a piece of software, it was probably something else. Assura actually runs a file called assura_LVS.run, so I did a chmod +x on it.

localhost:~/ic/cadence/ibm7sf> ./.assura_LVS.run 
/tools/cadence/assura615oa/tools/assura/bin/32bit/assura: error while loading shared libraries: libelf.so.1: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

Ah, it's shared library errors! "ldd /tools/cadence/assura615oa/tools/assura/bin/32bit/assura" will reveal the problems.

lmstat file not found.

I was getting a file not found error from lmstat after a system upgrade. lmstat depends on ld-lsb.so.3, which doesn't exist on my system anymore. I fixed it with a link:

ln -s ld-linux.so.2 ld-lsb.so.3

spectre ERROR (SFE-675)

I had some issues with Spectre after an update. Firstly, I couldn't find libelf.so.1, so I copied it into the mmsim directory library tree. Use "ldd" to figure out what is missing for Spectre. The next issue was a new one for me:

spectre ERROR (SFE-675)

You need to specify the type for "allModels.scs" in the ADS model options. I selected "tt" from the dropdown and it magically started working as magically as it stopped working.

Looking in the allModels.scs, the definition for the modes are given:

***********************************************************************
* "TT" corner : Nominal (default) process and Monte Carlo analyses
* "FFF" functional corner : "Fast" NMOS, "Fast" PMOS
* "SSF" functional corner : "Slow" NMOS, "Slow" PMOS
* "FS" corner : "Fast" NMOS, "Slow" PMOS
* "SF" corner : "Slow" NMOS, "Fast" PMOS
* "FF" corner : "Fast" NMOS, "Fast" PMOS
* "SS" corner : "Slow" NMOS, "Slow" PMOS
***********************************************************************

I was simulating subthreshold, so I've found that TT worked just as well as anything else because the BSIM models this was attached to don't do a good job at surface potential modeling.

virtuoso: command not found.

Cadence switch from ic5141 to ic615hf; however, I'm not on redhat, but debian. That causes some issues. The first issue is

virtuoso: command not found.

apt-get install ksh

The next issue was that I did not have redhat, but you can force things with the environmental variable of

OA_UNSUPPORTED_PLAT linux_rhel40_gcc44x

drush stopped in 10.9

My drush broke. Also, macports seems to have broken their package. The fastest way to install drush on Mac OS 10.9 is via the command line:

sudo php -d detect_unicode=0 /usr/lib/php/install-pear-nozlib.phar
sudo pear channel-discover pear.drush.org
sudo pear install drush/drush

The documentation is at http://pear.drush.org/.

cds_root: command not found.

I changed to a new computer and I had to reinstall my Cadence 5141. I came across something that I didn't expect when I ran icfb:

cds_root: command not found.

This was unexpected. In the dfII/bin/bin64 directory, I also found that there was a cds_root file and that worked fine. After some trial and error, I realized that ic5141 is probably 32-bit.

I have Debian as AMD64, so I had to add the i386 packages for 32-bit support.

dpkg --add-architecture i386

apt-get update

and then you add the libraries.

apt-get install ia32-libs

screen resolution in virtual box

I've found that it's a bit interesting getting the correct resolution for my Mac when I am running X Window on Debian through Virtualbox. I have just had to play with resolutions until it works. You can see available resolutions with:

xrandr

You then use the -s flag to pick something. Because I have a virtual machine, I picked something arbitrary.

Firefox on a bare Debian install

I wanted Firefox because I had a VPN plugin that I needed for a project. The "barebones" Debian installation that I did need some extra tweaking to work. There's an Ubuntu build for Firefox.

echo -e "\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
apt-get update
apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build

The issue next was that I was missing some libraries. You will need to get those libraries which were for audio and glib something. Just search for them in the packages and install them and it will all work.