openFPGALoader VS prjxray

Another way to flash the devices in Linux is to use https://github.com/trabucayre/openFPGALoader which supports a variety of cables and devices. It also supports the Xilinx Virtual Cable protocol, which allows you to use Xilinx tools like ChipScope with almost any cable.

Even though I saw multiple proposed solutions around the web, I could not get the Gowin cable to be detected under Ubuntu Linux as well, so neither the programmer nor GAO could work. I tried opensource openFPGALoader as an alternative to the programmer (but not GAO of course..), but got some issues as well (not with cable, but with certain bitstreams causing the programming to hang). So the easiest solution for me to stick with Windows version.

i could/should eventually open a ticket on the openFPGAloader indeed

Most Linux users seem to prefer openFPGALoader, but if you need GAO and the other suggestions don't work you might have to use a Windows VM, thankfully Gowin IDE supports (supported?) Windows XP/7 if you want a lightweight guest.

You might be able to use a tool like openFPGALoader to load a bitstream onto your board from macOS.

Try openFPGALoader. It works fine in Windows 10 and Linux for me. https://github.com/trabucayre/openFPGALoader

There's the open source openFPGALoader with explicit support for macOS if i remember correctly, I'm not sure if it supports all the features but it should be a good starting point.

u/PCB4lyfe all you need are just the drivers for the USB blaster. To load the bitstream you can use openFPGALoader https://github.com/trabucayre/openFPGALoader

OP, if that doesn't work, and you feel comfortable installing openFPGALoader (https://github.com/trabucayre/openFPGALoader), I can send you the GPIO demo bitstream to put on your board.

There are many applications to FPGA security. You could use Project X-Ray to reverse engineer and edit a bitstream. You could learn how to use encrypted bitstreams to prevent someone from reverse engineering and editing your own bitstream. You could perform a side channel attack on an FPGA.

A bit of a nitpick - LiteX still needs Vivado installed for now for 7 series FPGAs. There's a project that's very far along in reverse engineering the Xilinx bitstream (https://github.com/f4pga/prjxray), but it's still missing many features (PCIe, SERDES, etc.).

this information is not difficult to extract. maybe make a donation to https://github.com/f4pga/prjxray or appeal to their vanity. they can probably write such a script in an hour or two.

Here is a project to reverse engineer the Xilinx series 7 FPGAs to be able to target them with open source tools:

https://github.com/SymbiFlow/prjxray