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AK225's avatar
AK225
Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
2 years ago

Error: Can't launch Questa Intel FPGA Simulation software.

Hi,

I'm unable to launch a simulation for a project and I keep getting the following error:

I'm using Quartus Prime Lite Edition 21.1 with a generated free license from Intel "Questa*-Intel® FPGA Starter Edition SW-QUESTA".

Steps taken so far to diagnose/fix:

1. Checked the license is the correct version and the NIC ID matches.

2. Checked the environment variable "LM_LICENSE_FILE" points to the correct file, and made sure the correct file is setup in the Quartus license setup options.

3. Ran "lmutil lmdiag", output shows "This is the correct node for this node-locked license"

4. Re-installed Quartus to make sure I only have the default starter edition installed.

5. Requested new license for the same product and replaced old one.

6. Made sure in EDA Tools, "Questa Intel FPGA" shows as the correct path "C:/intelFPGA_lite/21.1/questa_fse/win64" in my case.

I'm at a loss of how to move forward to resolve this issue. I require this tool to complete a university assignment and my lecturer and the university technicians could not resolve the issue.

Any support would be greatly appreciated.

Installation & Licensing

6 Replies

  • SyafieqS's avatar
    SyafieqS
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    2 years ago

    Hi Andrew,


    Did you able to resolve this or still need some help?

    Anyway, have you tried on diff machine?

    Is it possible to use latest std edition? (i think 22.1)


    • AK225's avatar
      AK225
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      2 years ago

      Hi,

      This issue is still unresolved, assistance would be appreciated.

      Unfortunately this is the only machine i'm able to test this on, however other students have been able to get theirs working when following the same steps taken.

      I've been instructed to use 21.1 as thats the version a lot of the lab sheets are based around, but if the differences are minimal it could be worth a try.

      I'm able to provide a copy of the instructions followed for installation so you can see what steps were taken and where things might have gone wrong.

      Many thanks,

      Andrew.

  • AK225's avatar
    AK225
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    2 years ago

    The following is the Error log from Quartus:

    Info: Start Nativelink Simulation process
    Info: NativeLink has detected Verilog design -- Verilog simulation models will be used
    ========= EDA Simulation Settings =====================
    Sim Mode : RTL
    Family : max10
    Quartus root : c:/intelfpga_lite/21.1/quartus/bin64/
    Quartus sim root : c:/intelfpga_lite/21.1/quartus/eda/sim_lib
    Simulation Tool : questa intel fpga
    Simulation Language : verilog
    Simulation Mode : GUI
    Sim Output File :
    Sim SDF file :
    Sim dir : simulation\modelsim
    =======================================================
    Info: Starting NativeLink simulation with Questa Intel FPGA software
    Sourced NativeLink script c:/intelfpga_lite/21.1/quartus/common/tcl/internal/nativelink/modelsim.tcl
    Error: Can't launch Questa Intel FPGA Simulation software -- make sure the software is properly installed and the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or MGLS_LICENSE_FILE points to the correct license file.
    Error: NativeLink simulation flow was NOT successful
    ================The following additional information is provided to help identify the cause of error while running nativelink scripts=================
    Nativelink TCL script failed with errorCode: issued_nl_message
    Nativelink TCL script failed with errorInfo: Can't launch Questa Intel FPGA Simulation software -- make sure the software is properly installed and the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or MGLS_LICENSE_FILE points to the correct license file.
    while executing
    "error "$emsg" "" "issued_nl_message""
    invoked from within
    "if [ catch {exec $vsim_cmd -version} version_str] {
    set emsg "Can't launch $tool Simulation software -- make sure the software is properly installed..."
    (procedure "launch_sim" line 88)
    invoked from within
    "launch_sim launch_args_hash"
    ("eval" body line 1)
    invoked from within
    "eval launch_sim launch_args_hash"
    invoked from within
    "if [ info exists ::errorCode ] {
    set savedCode $::errorCode
    set savedInfo $::errorInfo
    error $result $..."
    invoked from within
    "if [catch {eval launch_sim launch_args_hash} result ] {
    set status 1
    if [ info exists ::errorCode ] {
    set save..."
    (procedure "run_sim" line 74)
    invoked from within
    "run_sim run_sim_args_hash"
    invoked from within
    "if [ info exists ::errorCode ] {
    set savedCode $::errorCode
    set savedInfo $::errorInfo
    error "$result" $savedInfo ..."
    (procedure "run_eda_simulation_tool" line 334)
    invoked from within
    "run_eda_simulation_tool eda_opts_hash"
  • SyafieqS's avatar
    SyafieqS
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    2 years ago

    The step seem pretty correct.

    Did you have any background app running when launching Quartus?

    Also, sometime antivirus can be affecting the process.

    Try to disable it temporary.


    • AK225's avatar
      AK225
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      2 years ago

      Hi,

      Apologies for the delay in response.

      The software is now working, I had given up on it until recently when I tried it again without changing anything since the original post and it works now, it wasn't anything to do with the antivirus etc.

      Perhaps there was a large delay for the license to activate?

      Regards,

      Andrew.