Setting up PolarFire Icicle Linux in 10mins;

by 'Bayo Omotosho

PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit - Super Quick Setup Instructions

A Quick Note

This guide provides quick setup instructions for the PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit from Microchip, focusing only on Linux development.
Default firmware will be used. This is a crash-course setup — no deep explanations. If you’re curious about the “why”, Google is your friend.

Prerequisites

Hardware

• PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit (ES)
• Micro-USB cable
• USB-to-UART cable
• SD card (16GB or larger)
• Windows Host PC

Software (on host machine)

• PolarFire SoC MSS Configurator and Libero® SoC Design Suite 2022.3 or later
  → Get a free Silver license and install as instructed.

• Ubuntu Linux Image
  → Choose Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (Noble Numbat) or Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)

• Win32 Disk Imager

• Serial Terminal App (e.g., PuTTY)

Step 1: Flash Linux to SD

1. Extract the Ubuntu .img file
2. Insert the SD card into your PC.
3. Use Win32 Disk Imager to flash the downloaded Ubuntu image onto the SD card.
   → Select the image file and SD card drive, then click Write.

Step 2: Flash Hart Software Services + Management Subsystem Firmware to Your Board

(This step MUST done before you can use the canonical Ubuntu Image)

1. Download and extract the Icicle Kit Reference Design Programming File from:
   hart-software-services GitHub Releases
   → Look for: MPFS_ICICLE_KIT_ES_2025_07.zip

2. We only need Libero so that we can use the bundled FlashPro Express to program the board.
   If you left everything default, FlashPro should be located at:
   C:\Microchip\Libero_SoC_2025.1\Libero_SoC\Designer\bin

3. Launch FlashPro Express.

4. Locate and open the .job file inside the extracted MPFS_ICICLE_KIT_ES_2025_07 folder.
   → That’s your firmware programming job.

   

5. ⚠️ Important: The Icicle Kit comes with one fewer jumper cap by default.
   → You must close jumper J9 — FlashPro will not work unless the programming pins are connected.

6. Connect the USB Programming cable from J33 on the board to your PC.

7. Click Program in FlashPro to write the firmware to the board.

Step 3: Power Cycle and Boot

1. Connect your Micro-USB cable from USB-to-UART J11 to your PC

2. Power off and power back on (cycle) your board.

3. Open Device Manager and find the four COM ports that appear.

4. Launch PuTTY (or another terminal app) for each COM port at 115200 baud.

5. Power cycle the board again. (optional )
   → One of the COM ports should show Ubuntu booting.

6. Login when prompted. username/password: ubuntu/ubuntu

The next post will be on baremetal and on-chip debugging setup