The page describes how to install a small set (~4MB) of jtag tools enough for nios2-download and nios2-terminal, without installing the bulk of Quartus for Linux.
1. Download the file from Altera ftp,
wget ftp://ftp.altera.com/outgoing/altera...standalone.tgz
2. Unpack the files to /opt, as root,
sudo tar zxf altera_jtag_standalone.tgz -C /opt
3. Copy the init script and jtag data to /etc
sudo cp -a /opt/altera_jtag_standalone/jtagd_files/etc/* /etc
4. fix a minor filename bug
sudo mv /opt/altera_jtag_standalone/jtag_script /opt/altera_jtag_standalone/jtagd_script
5. start jtagd on boot
sudo chkconfig jtagd on
Or, start it immediately
sudo /etc/init.d/jtagd start
6. add the path to your user profile, .bash_profile or .profile
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/altera_jtag_standalone/lib
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/altera_jtag_standalone
7. create an empty jtag conf
touch ~/.jtag.conf
8. logout and login again to make the path added, check jtag connection,
jtagconfig
9. proceed to nios2-download and nios2-terminal