Thanks for the reply.
I have tried various configuration and guides, including the one you mention, using both a cross compiler and using the parallella itself. Unfortunately whenever I take a kernel and make my own uImage, the Ethernet on the Parallella does not function, not allowing me to get a handle on what is wrong as the HDMI does not work on our Parallella. That is the reason I have turned to the Yocto alternative. I am pleased to say I compiled the project and my Parallella booted up fine with the device tree, kernel, and bitstream, then added my own custom bitstream, device tree, and added configuration modules to the kernel inside Yocto, and things are working great! I think I will be sticking with this route due to the flexibility it provides.
As for the headless .xpr project, I have loaded it into Vivado, in the version they state (2014.2) and it ran into problems with synthesis failing. Have you run into this? Did the HDMI version initially have the same issue before modifying it?