Cyclone III Starter Board - DDR_CNTR, license problem

In Quartus: Tools|License Setup...

Click "..." to browse for a license file. Browse to (assuming default installation path for the starter kit):

C:\Altera\72\kits\cycloneIII_3c25_start\demos\cycloneIII_3c25_start_control_panel

Select "license.dat"

Close the license setup screen and now the project will compile.

Hi MagicBox,

Thanks for your reply! But it still doesn't work:

I have selected now the following license file:

c:\altera\kits\cycloneiii_starter_kit-v7.1.0\examples\ciii_control_panel\license.dat

When I compile it, I get the following error message:

 
Error: Specified license does not contain information required to run the Quartus II software

And when I close and restart Quartus, it seems that the license file is not valid at all (for my copy of Quartus), because I get asked again for a valid license (see the first attached picture).

I am confused a little bit because I thought I had a full version (see my first post)... You can see in the second attached picture which licensed functions I have with my normal network-license.

With the new license.dat it shows the following in the license setup:

 
License Type: No License
Subscription Expiration: Not found
Host ID Type: Not found
Host ID Value: Not found

As I have a network license (for up to 5 PCs), I don't want to begin a 30-day Evaluation Period...

What can I do if I want to use Quartus II with my Full License and also use the DDR-Controller which comes with the Cyclone III Starter Board?

Kind regards,

stefan__

What quartus version are you using? For me the license file works under 8 and 9. I do notice that you have a slightly older starter kit as indicated by its version 7.1. Mine is 7.2.

I'm affraid I can't help you furter - I can't find any other license files in the starter kit directories.

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What quartus version are you using?

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I am using Quartus version 8.0. But I could also get the 9.0 version.

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For me the license file works under 8 and 9. I do notice that you have a slightly older starter kit as indicated by its version 7.1. Mine is 7.2.

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Maybe you have a different License file. Can we compare our license files?

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I'm afraid I can't help you further - I can't find any other license files in the starter kit directories.

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Are you using the 30 day trial edition of Quartus?

Is there a possibility to have two different license files?

The problem is:

• When I use my Quartus network license (Full Version), I can't use the DDR_CNTR function of the starter kit.

• When I enter the license file of the starter kit (in license setup), Quartus doesn't run at all (see my previous post)...

Maybe the technical support from Altera knows more about this difficult problem. Is this support free oder does it cost soomething? [ https://mysupport.altera.com/ ]

Where else could I get help?

Anyhow, thank you, MagicBox! Your answers gave me a clue where to look for the problem.

I had the license file work for both quartus 8 and 9. But I am using the free Web edition as I'm a hobbyist rather than a professionalist.

Support is free to use, and having licenses and the starterkit yourself you are eligible to use it too :)

I'm thinking you have to use this license-file list file (LCM or something), a file in which you add a reference to all your individual license files and then add this list file to the license setup in Quartus. I've never tried that though, it's just a wild guess that may actually work for you.

Now I have the solution! Never thought I'd manage to solve the problem on my own...

So here is how to use two different License Files:

In Windows Vista, you have to create a "environment variable" called lm_license_file. The value of this variable must contain the path to your two license files or servers, separated by a semicolon. For example:

 
1234@server; C:\path\license.dat

In the attached image you can see where to make that setting in Windows Vista (unfortunately I only got the German Version of Vista).

Then it should work...

Das ist ganz toll ja!

My german is rather rusty, I'm Dutch ;) Good you got it to work.

Hi

The correct code example is too

C:\altera\80\kits\...\license1.dat;C:\altera\80\quartus\license2.dat

:p

Dear all, I use Quartus 9.1sp2 and cycloneiii_starter_kit-v8.0 , I set the " lm_license_file", and restart the computer, but it doesn't work, still has the erros, what should I do?

Error: Can't find valid feature line for core DDR_CNTR (535C_0002) in current license

Error (10003): Can't open encrypted VHDL or Verilog HDL file "C:/test/DDR_CNTR.v" -- current license file does not contain a valid license for encrypted file