Running Vitis 'hello world' example on F1 instance results in 'xrt_xocl::error' what(): No devices found

Question

I've been working my way through a Vitis FPGA 'hello_world' tutorial here:
* https://github.com/aws/aws-fpga/blob/master/Vitis/README.md

I've gotten up to step 3, and attempted to run the program with:
```
./hello_world ./vadd.awsxclbin
```

...but this resulted in the following error:
```
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'xrt_xocl::error'
  what():  No devices found
Aborted
```

Any ideas why I'm getting this? I'm using an `f1.2xlarge` instance running in `ap-southeast-2b` availability zone.

One observation I had was that sometimes when I run `ls -lh /dev/xfpga`, I can see the device there. But on other occasions, this results in the following error:
```
ls: cannot access /dev/xfpga: No such file or directory
```

I wonder if my issue relates to that?

I did have a read of a suggested prior post:
* https://repost.aws/questions/QUPevEIRVGSP6MiHeQ_1Db0A/runtime-error-on-f-1-instance-xrt-error-no-devices-found

I think one suggestion there was to try running as the root-user, gave that a try, didn't help for me, same error.

Deep_P · Answer

Hello,

Could you try running: 
```
sudo systemctl restart mpd
sudo journalctl -u mpd
```

The latter should show if mpd started correctly and your devices should work after that.

Let us know if this doesn't work.

-Deep

Gurce · Answer

@Deep_P:  Ok, I'll do so, and I'll elaborate on all my exact steps in detail, in-case it sheds any further light:

* I start up my EC2 instance (an f1.2xlarge in ap-southeast-2b)
* I ssh in
* I check `systemctl status mpd` and see it isn't running yet
* `cd $AWS_FPGA_REPO_DIR`
* `source vitis_runtime_setup.sh` (this appears to run mpd service)
* I do a `systemctl status mpd` again, and I see:
```
● mpd.service - Xilinx Management Proxy Daemon (MPD)
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-01-05 22:50:50 UTC; 27s ago
 Main PID: 4117 (mpd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/mpd.service
           └─4117 /opt/xilinx/xrt/bin/mpd

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] read 80 bytes out of 80 bytes from f...: 1

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] mpd daemon: request 10 received(reqS...32)

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: AwsDev: 0000:00:1d.0(index: 0)
Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] write 524360 bytes out of 524360 byt...d 5

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] msg arrived on mailbox fd 5
Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] retrieved msg size from mailbox: 40 bytes Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] read 72 bytes out of 72 bytes from f...: 1

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: AwsDev: 0000:00:1d.0(index: 0)
Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] mpd daemon: request 11 received(reqS...24)

Jan 05 22:51:00 ip-10-161-10-222.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal mpd[4117]: [0:0:1d.0] write 2112 bytes out of 2112 bytes to fd 5

Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
```

* `cd $VITIS_DIR/examples/xilinx_2021.1/hello_world`
* `./hello_world ./vadd.awsxclbin`

Oh, interesting, when I try it now this morning, it has worked fine, giving me this output!

```Found Platform
Platform Name: Xilinx
INFO: Reading ./vadd.awsxclbin
Loading: './vadd.awsxclbin'
Trying to program device[0]: xilinx_aws-vu9p-f1_shell-v04261818_201920_2
Device[0]: program successful!
TEST PASSED
```

I'm not quite sure why it decided to work this morning, perhaps someone has looked into the issue on the AZ and remedied something? If so, that's great, all fine on my end now :)

Running Vitis 'hello world' example on F1 instance results in 'xrt_xocl::error' what(): No devices found

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