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Installing ModelSim on Ubuntu

ModelSim Installation on Ubuntu

Installation requirements

The free version of Modelsim is a 32-bit binary and therefore requires certain 32-bit libraries in order to work correctly. For Ubunutu, install the following packages

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 lib32ncurses6 libxft2 libxft2:i386 libxext6 libxext6:i386 

Installation

Download the ModelSim - Intel FPGA edition installer (both packages) from the Intel homepage.

Make the installer executable

chmod +x ModelSimSetup-20.1.1.720-linux.run

Run the installer and install ModelSim:

./ModelSimSetup-20.1.1.720-linux.run

We assume ModelSim to be installed to /opt. If this is the case, the binaries are in /opt/modelsim_ase/bin/. In order to work with these tools, you need to add this folder to the path variable. Therefore, add the following line to your terminal configuration file, e.g., .bashrc or .zshrc.

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/modelsim_ase/bin
@GlenNicholls
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GlenNicholls commented Jun 24, 2022

I ran into issues with modelsim's non-vendor versions (i.e. PE, DE, SE 202*.*) on Ubuntu 20.04. After installing modelsim, the following fixed all errors (and lack of errors):

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    libc6 libc6:i386 
    libncurses5 libncurses5:i386 \
    libstdc++6 libstdc++6:i386 \
    libxext6 libxext6:i386 \
    libxft2 libxft2:i386

@melchisedech333
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Thank you very much, I installed it and it worked perfectly.

May Jesus bless you so much.

@s-a-sakib
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model sim run command: ./intelFPGA/20.1/modelsim_ase/bin/vsim

@msina80
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msina80 commented May 22, 2023

It worked for me on the latest version,20.1(same as the link above).It might not work for an older version(such as 18.1).If it didn't work for you,try the latest version.

@Mouadnouiga
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thank you so much : )

@Majid-Ali25
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Thank you so much

@Phyat22
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Phyat22 commented Feb 6, 2024

I have Ubuntu 23.10 and I tried to install this current version of Modelsim 20.1

I had the error of
/tools/intelFPGA/20.1/modelsim_ase/bin/../linux/vish: error while loading shared libraries: libXft.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The libncurses5 is not available any more!!! Instead:
sudo apt-get install libncurses6

Then I installed
sudo apt-get install libxft2 libxft2:i386

and when I ran vsim it worked very well!

Hope this was helpful

@Phyat22
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Phyat22 commented Feb 6, 2024

Also another problem that I encountered
libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file. libXext.so.6 not found

sudo apt install libxext6
sudo apt install libxext6:i386

@HaIIucination
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Thanks You :)

@pawandai
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pawandai commented Jun 3, 2024

how did you create desktop entry for this?

@Otavio-hoffmeister
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How do I open??

@ksaad3747
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How do I open??
Use this: ./intelFPGA/20.1/modelsim_ase/bin/vsim

@acaimingus
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After installing there might be problems on HiDPI displays as it looks like ModelSim does not scale fractionally, at all. I use 150% scaling on Xorg on Ubuntu 24.04LTS.

I figured out a work-around for now using Weston, a compositor that allows you to create a new desktop window with another scale:

  1. Install Weston:
    sudo apt install weston
  2. Launch a new Weston window at an integer scale (200% in this case):
    weston --xwayland --scale=2
  3. In the top left you can press a terminal icon to open a terminal inside the new window. From that terminal, open ModelSim.

This workaround is however not very good, but it's the only one I could get to work on Ubuntu 24.04LTS. Xpra and run_scaled are just completely broken for me and other scaling methods seemed to just do nothing. So if anyone else finds a better solution, please let me know. The current workaround works, but it's cumbersome, so a better method would be much appreciated.

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