User 20190913 Friday 3rd May 2019
PyCell evidently is needed for PCells in the X-Fab technology (installer will not go, without finding PyCell installed).
When I try to install from the Synopsys tarball (unpacked) I am interrogated for a location of install files. When I point to the local ./install folder I get some complaints about there being no Synopsys install tree (I have none and want none).
I was able to install on the Windows side from the .exe version. There it insisted on being given a Synopsys license ID (I entered "0" and it seemed to work). It seems pretty creepy that this "open" tool demands so much Synopsys-specific "stuff".
Could you identify and list here any dependencies or required paths that are needed to successfully install the latest PyCell version in a Linux installation? The docs provided are pretty weak about installation and suggest that you go look up errors in a help-subfile that seems to not exist ("KPS" = known problems and solutions). If you know how to specify the right install files location, that would be a biggie.
Jürgen LayoutEditorFull Saturday 4th May 2019
PyCell is a product of Synopsys that extends OpenAccess with a Synopsys (former Ciranova) parametric cell infrastructure. X-Fab and several other PDKs uses these parametric cells. If the LayoutEditor is told the location of a PyCell installation, the OpenAcess library is switch to the version shipped with PyCell and PyCells can be used with the LayoutEditor.
If there is any problem to run correctly PyCell with the LayoutEditor, we will review and fix that. However installation problems with PyCell is more a task for the Synopsys support.
User 20190913 Sunday 5th May 2019
I doubt Synopsys will support a non-customer with no Synopsys software and hence no software path. And I think you are going to see trouble someday when "open" becomes "pay us". I'd encourage you to find an alternate to closed-source dependencies.
It is a problem for me that the X-Fab kit will not install at all without PyCell. I do not even care about the PCells at all, I just want to read setup macros and rules decks for my own education.
Jürgen LayoutEditorFull Sunday 5th May 2019
You can simply unpack and view the X-Fab packages. The installer shipped with the LayoutEditor does a few check, move it to a good place and adjusts a few option to run the X-Fab PDKs. It is just a LayoutEditor macro and you even can remove the PyCell check from that macro it you want.
User 20190913 Tuesday 7th May 2019
User 20190913 Tuesday 7th May 2019
I tried to trick the installer by creating the /opt/synopsys/bin/cnpy file that the install script lookks for but I still get a failure (without useful clue):
PDK Install for X-FAB packages
This installer is still bata, please report any problems and validate a correct installation manual!
Installation package /opt/layout/macros/layout-macros/Utilities/Technology/X-FAB/installer.layout
extraction of file '/opt/layout/macros/layout-macros/Utilities/Technology/X-FAB/installer.layout' failed
I notice that the script seems to assume /usr/bin/layout in some places while install put the real tree in /opt/layout. I can't make sense of the macro code myself. It seems to un-tar some file whose location and name are built from bits and pieces and maybe some of these don't match the install? I find no place where "dir" and "name" are assigned.
The installer asks me for the location of an "X-Fab package". All I can find is the installer.layout script under
/opt/layout/macros/layout-macros/Utilities/Technology/X-FAB/installer.layout
but this is what's executed, not the data-to-unpack (?) which is what I surmise is not found. Can you tell me where to find the "X-Fab package"? Or what its name.suffix might be so I can search for it? I've tried finding .tgz, anything with *ab*, anything with "X*" and nothing.
Jürgen LayoutEditorFull Tuesday 7th May 2019
The "X-Fab package" is the package you have received from X-Fab containing the PDK. The installation macro you have started will place this package/its content so that is can be used with the LayoutEditor.