Due to a problem in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software v20.4.1, you may see Active Serial (AS) configuration failure for Intel Agilex® 7 devices.
If you read sdm_config_status after a configuration failure as instructed in AN 936: Executing SDM Commands via JTAG Interface, you will see the following error message:
% sdm_config_status
MSEL[2:0] : 011 (AS (Normal POR))
Configuration pin signals:
nSTATUS : 1
nCONFIG : 1
CONF_DONE : 0
INIT_DONE : 0
CvP_DONE : 0
SEU_ERROR : 0
HPS_WARMRESET : 0
HPS_COLDRESET : 0
MSEL[2:0] Table:
3'b000 AvST x32
3'b101 AvST x16
3'b110 AvST x8
3'b001 AS (Fast POR)
3'b011 AS (Normal POR)
3'b111 JTAG only
State : 0xf004001c
Error location : 0x00025e00
Configuration fail!
Major code: 0xF004
Internal error, refer minor error code for detail.
Minor code: 0x001C
Portion of bitstream detected invalid.
This problem has been fixed in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software v21.1 and onwards.