Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for Open Source EDA tools

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a feature of Windows that allows you to run a Linux environment on your Windows machine, without the need for a separate virtual machine or dual booting. With native X11 support on WSL2, the latest WSL, in Winodws 10 version 2004+ (Build 19041+) or Windows 11, you can now run GUI apps including all the open-source EDA tools like Sue2, ngspice, Magic, netgen, and iverilog.

In this page we will share instructions for installing WSL2 on Winodws 10/11 and install the EDA tools on a Ubuntu 22.04 distribution.

Table of Content

• Install WSL
• Install Open Source EDA Tools

Install WSL

• For detail steps, follow these instructions at https://learn.microsoft.com
• Prerequisites: Winodws 10 version 2004+ (Build 19041+) or Windows 11
• Open PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator", enter the wsl --install command, then restart your machine.

wsl --install

• This command will enable the features necessary to run WSL and install the Ubuntu distribution (or other available distro) of Linux.
• NOTE: The above commands are for first time install.
  • wsl -- list --online for all available distros.
  • wsl --install -d <DistroName> To change the default Linux distro installed.
• To uninstall WSL, see Uninstall legacy version of WSL or unregister or uninstall a Linux distribution.
• Once installed, create User Name and Password:
  • This account will be your default user for the distribution and automatically sign-in on launch.
  • This account will be considered the Linux administrator, with the ability to run sudo (Super User Do) administrative commands.
  • To change or reset your password, open the Linux distribution and enter the command: passwd.
  • If you forgot the password for your Linux distribution execute wsl -u root in a PowerShell.
    • If If you need to update the forgotten password on a distribution that is not your default, use the command: wsl -d <DistroName> -u root
• See Best practices for setting up a WSL development environment guide for a step-by-step walk-through of how to set up a user name and password for your installed Linux distribution(s), using basic WSL commands, installing and customizing Windows Terminal, set up for Git version control, code editing and debugging using the VS Code remote server, good practices for file storage, setting up a database, mounting an external drive, setting up GPU acceleration, and more.
• Execute sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade to upgrade packages.
• Set up Windows Terminal: Although optional, highly recommended for include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and the ability to create your own themes and customize text, colors, backgrounds, and shortcuts.
  • Install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store.
  • Use the Command Palette
• GUI Apps is natively supported on WSL2 Winodws 10 version 2004+ (Build 19041+) or Windows 11. You can checkout this Tutorial for more info.
  • TROUBLESHOOTING GUI PROBLEM: If you find Linux GUI apps are distored and moving the pane makes it go away, disable the GPU accleration by adding a file (if it doesn't exit) to the location C:\Users\<User>\.wslgconfig and add the following content:

[system-distro-env]
;disable GPU in system-distro
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1

Install Open Source EDA Tools

Once the WSL is setup, we are now ready to install the open source EDA tools. All the tools (except sue2) is available on Ubuntu 22.04 distro that you can install by simply typing sudo apt install <toolName>. We will install Icarus Verilog iverilog and GTKWave gtkwave from the distro itself since it is pretty close to the latest release. For the rest of the tools, we have compiled version for Ubuntu 22.04 on github that we are going to use to get the latest version.

• PREREQUISITES: sudo apt install tcl tk libglu1-mesa packages/libraries required for sue2 and Magic.
• INSTALLING iVerilog:
  • iVerilog creator Steve Icarus's document page
  • sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y : To update your distribution
  • sudo apt install iverilog gtkwave : Install iverilog and viewer gtkwave
  • A quick start guide to get you started with iVerilog
    • Create project directory say mkdir -p ~/iverilog/test and cd to that directory.
    • iverilog -o tb_mydut.vvp mydut.v tb_mydut.v : Compile the verilog codes mydut.v tb_mydut.v and create an output tb_mydut.vvp
    • vvp tb_mydut.vvp : Convert the compiled output to a VCD format for GTKWave.
    • gtkwave dump.vcd : Note: the filename dump.vcd is assumed to be in tb_mydut.v
    • You can find an example code and it's testbench here.
• NGSPICE: See Download and Setup instruction in the gitHub page.
• Sue2+: See the instructions here on download and setup of schematic editor sue2+.
• MAGIC: See Download and Setup instruction in the gitHub page
• NETGEN: See Download and Setup instruction in the gitHub page
• TECHNOLOGY: See Download and Setup instruction in the gitHub page