AWS F2 FPGA instance tutorial is broken; anyone know how to get their example to work?

Question

I have some Verilog that I want to run on an Amazon F2 FPGA instance. I got an m4.2xlarge instance in us-east-1 and installed this AMI: FPGA Developer AMI (Ubuntu) - 1.17.0 -prod-rhng4b6alkhdq

I then tried to follow the instructions of their first tutorial: https://github.com/aws/aws-fpga/blob/f2/hdk/README.md

```
cd aws-fpga                                                                     
source hdk_setup.sh                                                             
                                                                            
cd hdk/cl/examples/cl_sde                                                       
export CL_DIR=$(pwd)                                                            
cd build/scripts                                                                
```

To this point it works. Then it says to run this script:

```
./aws_build_dcp_from_cl.py -c cl_sde
```

This says 'permission denied': you have to chmod u+x. The script ends in .py, but is actually a shell script that delegates to a python script, however it does not pass its arguments, so you have to edit the script to pass "$@". However, it still does not work. (I tried to edit a tcl script I found to print things, but I think this message did not change; in any case, it did not work before a hacked on the tcl)

INFO: [Common 17-206] Exiting Vivado at Sat Aug 16 04:26:44 2025...             
ERROR: Did not find the post-route DCP file from /home/ubuntu/aws-fpga/hdk/cl/examples/cl_sde/build/checkpoints/

I can figure out how to hack a shell script, but the bigger point is that clearly no one at Amazon has done this tutorial even one time. How exactly am I to proceed here?

I did post a GitHub issue here: https://github.com/aws/aws-fpga/issues/738

re:Post Agent · Answer

Based on your experience with the AWS F2 FPGA Developer AMI, it appears you're encountering issues with the build script permissions and functionality. This is a known issue that others have faced when working with the F2 FPGA development environment.

Here are some steps to help resolve your issues:

1. First, you correctly identified that the script needs executable permissions:
```
chmod u+x aws_build_dcp_from_cl.py
```

2. For the issue with the script not passing arguments, your approach to edit the script to include "$@" is correct.

3. Regarding the DCP file error, this could be related to several factors:
- The build process might be failing before completion
- There might be compatibility issues with the Vivado version
- The environment setup might not be complete

The FPGA Developer AMI comes with pre-installed Vivado tools that are specifically configured for AWS FPGA development. Make sure you're using the version that's included with the AMI rather than installing a different version.

Some users have reported success by:
- Ensuring they've sourced all the necessary setup scripts
- Checking system logs for more detailed error information
- Verifying that the instance has sufficient resources for the build process

If you continue to experience issues, you might want to try launching a fresh instance with the latest FPGA Developer AMI, as AWS periodically updates these with fixes for known issues.

The AWS FPGA team is generally responsive to issues reported on GitHub, so your issue report should help them address this problem in future releases.  
**Sources**  
[XVC server on AWS F2 instance fails with "Loopback test FAILED" after XVC PCIe driver installation | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUnF5yFGzNR-OtI3NTpexW8g/xvc-server-on-aws-f2-instance-fails-with-loopback-test-failed-after-xvc-pcie-driver-installation)  
[Vivado license issue on FPGA Developer AMI | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUmRryRnaFTr2t7j-BTmsbpQ/vivado-license-issue-on-fpga-developer-ami)  
[FPGA F2 development issue | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUYhX9B2aQR6m8dqt9TTzobw/fpga-f2-development-issue)

Steven T · Answer

Hello DSW,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our team has already begun engaging with you on your original GitHub issue regarding the aws-fpga repository. To ensure we can best assist you and keep all related discussion in one place, we'll continue supporting you there.

AWS F2 FPGA instance tutorial is broken; anyone know how to get their example to work?

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