What's the current state of tools on linux?

[JPortici]

I wanted to start doing some stuff in my linux box at home (Debian 13 / KDE / Wayland) and... what do i use?
I'd be using a cheap lattice or gowin, so i tried lattice first.

First i tried to install propel. Launching it gives an eclipse error, it requires openjdk-11. Seriously, 11? I had to install it manually in debian trixie from the sid packages, but it didn't configure properly, and it wasn't recognized.

Then i tried radiant. It installed, but it didn't launch due to "GLX" error. I gather it's because i don't have X Sessions available! but it should worg through XWayland...? I don't know. They still support only old distros.

What about gowin tools? am i doomed to the same fate?

Should i use proton/wine instead? open source tools? what else?

[AndyC_772]

Remember, 99.99% of FPGA design is timing, and only the manufacturers' own original tools contain the timing model of the device.

Without that timing information there's no possible way to prove that any design will work reliably and meet setup & hold requirements across temperature and from device to device.

[JPortici]

Remember, 99.99% of FPGA design is timing, and only the manufacturers' own original tools contain the timing model of the device.

Without that timing information there's no possible way to prove that any design will work reliably and meet setup & hold requirements across temperature and from device to device.

I'm aware. Which is why, unfortunately, open source tools are going to be the very last option.
What about official tools?

[asmi]

That's the wrong question to ask if you're serious about FPGA design. If you were, you'd ask about devices, maybe devboards (though that's not a very good question either because you have to pick a devboard for the project, not the other way around), and then you do whatever it takes to get stuff done. OS is just a tool, as long as it can run the tools you need, that's all you ever need, and doesn't matter what that OS is. If you place your feelings/preferences/religion above "getting stuff done", you're not really serious about whatever it is you say you want to do. For example, I have both Windows and Linux because some tools work better in one OS or another - AMD/Xilinx tools work better in Linux, while Altium Designer only works in Windows. And don't tell me that one OS is more convenient than another - that's completely beside the point, as in professional setting OS is only used as a launcher for a professional software you need to do stuff, and all mainstream OSes are equally capable of doing that.

[rstofer]

In my view, open source just doesn't play with FPGAs.  Sure, the simulator will work but you still know nothing about timing.  And you can't talk about timing without routing and that requires detailed knowledge of mapping.
 
Much of my early work was on Spartan 6s and Vivado doesn't support them.  I just keep the original toolchain on the original PC with the original OS (Win 7) with the original user software/source code sitting in the corner.  It's an All-In-One so I just need to find a mouse and keyboard.  I have plenty...

[SiliconWizard]

I run ISE 14.7 on Linux for Spartan 6's without any issue.

[ejeffrey]

Both Vivado and Quartus natively support Linux.  They run just was well if not better than on windows.  Which means they are slow and clunky and crash a lot, but such is life.  AMD did recently tried to drop Linux support from their free tier, but i guess they backed off.

[betocool]

I managed to install Gowin's IDE on a Zorin (Ubuntu based) system after a tiny bit of help with Claude because it didn't start. I had to re-name some libraries provided with the tool so that it uses the local ones. Also, the programmer took me a bit to start and I found that the programmer started from the IDE worked better than the programmer as a standalone tool. I bought a dev kit from Brisbane Silicon for 20 AUD to give it a try.

I have to reinstall everything, which doesn't take long fortunately, because I got a new PC last weekend.

As all others have said, Altera and Xilinx tools work well, I think I had Altera's 21 version and Xilinx's 24. No dramas.

I tried briefly the open source tools but that didn't work too well for me.

Cheers,

Alberto

[bson]

I have installed and use Lattice Diamond, Intel Quartus and AMD Vivado.  Though admittedly rarely Vivado since they don't have any parts I'm interested in.  They work just fine on Fedora, although my Vivado is 2025.1 so old (but works for my old Digilent Artix-7 100k board, I just gave it a spin to make sure; no licensing problem).  Diamond comes with ModelSim and Synplify.  Quartus supports the MAX10 parts, with up to 50k LUTs in QFP.  One day perhaps the OSS toolchain(s) will be ready for prime time, similar to gcc and KiCad, but sadly not as of now, or at least a few months ago when I last checked...  I do try them once in a while, but if I can't even get their own demos and documentation examples to work, or the tools to even install or build, that's just a quick rm -rf for me.

[nctnico]

AFAIK every FPGA vendor supports Linux. In my experience the Gowin tools are the easiest to get going (compared to Xilinx ISE and Microchip Libero).