Electronics

Raspberry Pi JTAG Programming – 2025 Edition

It seems that every time I document how to do Xilinx JTAG programming from a Raspberry Pi, they change something to break it. So, it is time to update the instructions again.

History

The main problem is when using xc3sprog. The original method used wiringpi in the Buster version of Pi OS to talk to the GPIO. Then the Bullseye version came around and wiringpi was removed in favour of sysfsgpio. I believe in-part due to the way the Pi 5 GPIO works, this was no longer viable, so with Bookworm, there is another method libgpio. In addition, wiringpi is back and also should work!

I should probably note here that if you are confused about the Pi OS naming, it is based on Debian. Debian names each release after Toy Story characters.

How to use libgpio

The original xc3sprog repository appears to be no longer developed or taking contributions. I was going to fork it and add support for libgpio, but someone beat me to it. You can find their repository here.

As a refresher, this is the pinout of the Pi GPIO, this is the same for most generations of Raspberry Pi, apart from the first original one:

You should wire it up as follows:

Pin Number	GPIO Number	Function
7	4	TMS
9	–	GND
11	17	TCK
13	27	TDO
15	22	TDI
17	–	3.3v

Now, to install the software, open a shell or SSH into the Pi and do the following:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential libusb-dev libftdi-dev libgpiod-dev git cmake
git clone https://github.com/arkadiuszmakarenko/xc3sprog.git
mkdir xc3sprog/build
cd xc3sprog/build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

This should get you the software installed. From here you can check if the JTAG chain works by using:

sudo xc3sprog -c gpiod_creator -j

This should give you a list of JTAG devices connected. JTAG works in a chain from ID 0, so multiple chips can be programmed from a single connector.

From here you can program your chips using:

sudo xc3sprog -c gpiod_creator -v -p {chain position starting from 0} {filename}.jed

That is it! You should get a successful flash!

LinuxJedi

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View Comments

Tim says:

2025-08-31 at 21:35

Thanks for keeping this as updated as possible. But I still run into errors with this guide :(

Hope you can suggest a solution. I'm not really knowledgable about all these linux packages & dependencies.

Thanks!
- Tim says:
  
  2025-08-31 at 21:36
  
  Oh I do need to list the error of course:
  
  W: Sources disagree on hashes for supposedly identical version '3.25.1-1' of 'cm ake-data:arm64'.
  E: Can't find a source to download version '3.25.1-1' of 'cmake:arm64'
  W: Sources disagree on hashes for supposedly identical version '0.17029-2' of 'l iberror-perl:arm64'.
  E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_b ookworm_main_binary-armhf_Packages (2)
  - LinuxJedi says:
    
    2025-08-31 at 22:12
    
    This looks to be an issue with Raspbian's repositories. There isn't much I can do about that. Please try `sudo apt-get update` and try again. If that doesn't work, it might be a waiting game of a couple of hours until the mirrors are working again.
    
    I'll update the instructions to add that step anyway.
Robin says:

2025-11-01 at 12:37

Thanks, very helpful!
Michael Rittweger says:

2025-11-20 at 18:58

I try to check the toolchain as
sudo xc3sprog -c sysfsgpio_creator
and, according to your page, as
sudo xc3sprog -c gpiod_creator -j
But in both variants I only get
Can't find description for a cable named xxxxx
and then a list of 37 known cables starting from
ftdi ftdi 1500000 0x0403:0x6010:
up to
tumpa ftdi 1500000 0x0403:0x8a98:TIAO USB Multi-Protocol Adapter:1
I try to connect to a JTAG device from a RasPi Zero 2W.
- Michael Rittweger says:
  
  2025-11-20 at 19:07
  
  Never mind... I rebooted, repeated the installation, rebootet again and now I get:
  JTAG loc.: 0 IDCODE: 0x59608093 Desc: XC95144XL Rev: E IR length: 8
  :-)))