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TS24's avatar
TS24
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5 months ago

Questa FSE (Quartus Prime 25.1.1) License Problem

Dear Community,

I'm still struggling to set up the license file for Questa FSE correctly. I used method 1 in the document: 5.3. Acquiring Free, No-Cost Licenses, and received two files: quartus2_lic.dat and questa_lic.dat. According to the document I have set the system environment variable SALT_LICENSE_FILE to C:\Users\thoma\quartus2_lic.dat (I tried also questa_lic.dat), but Questa refuses to checkout the license (see screenshot), with error SALT_LICENSE_SERVER instead of SALT_LICENSE_FILE.

Both license files are bound to my WLAN MAC address, which is my active connection. I do have installed Quartus Prime 16.1 Lite Edition for an old NIOS 2 design, though. Questa License Error

All license files contain the correct information exactly one time, quartus2_lic.dat contains the license for Agilex3 and Agilex5, while questa_lic.dat contains the questa license) with the same hostid (my MAC address of the WLAN adapter). I also tried "lmutil lmdiag -c quartus2_lic.dat" and "lmutil lmdiag -c questa_lic.dat", both files contain the correct node-locked license.

Any ideas how to solve the issue?

I'm very thankful for any solution to my problem. If you need more information, please let me know.

I attached also my environment, by the way, I'm running Windows 11 Pro.

Thank you in advance

Thomas

Simulation

6 Replies

    • TS24's avatar
      TS24
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 months ago

      Unfortunately that did not help, I received the same error message as before. It looks like Questa needs a license server not the file.

  • TS24's avatar
    TS24
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    5 months ago

    Questa still insists on SALT_LICENSE_SERVER. I can do whatever I want, create the system environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or SALT_LICENSE_FILE with questa_lic.dat as license file. As this was a standard installation of Quartus Pro 25.1.1., I wonder if other users do have the same issues. As said, the license files are valid (lmutil lmdiag), Quartus runs with license, but Questa simply refuses to work.

    Does anyone have a similar experience?

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    5 months ago

    Hi,

    QuestaSim either uses LM_LICENSE_FILE or SALT_LICENSE_SERVER. Don't get confused by the key name, SERVER can also be a license file. A special point that I didn't yet found clearly documented is that if you have other Mentor/Siemens tools installed on your PC, LM_LICENSE_FILE won't work although it's still recognized by lmdiag, need to use SALT_LICENSE_SERVER for questa license.

    SALT_LICENSE_SERVER can have multiple entries separated by ;

    The questa license entry is mandatory to run QuestaSim.

    Regards

    Frank

    • TS24's avatar
      TS24
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 months ago

      Hi Frank,

      thanks a lot for your reply!

      I tried to set the SALT_LICENSE_SERVER again, as I did so many times before. This time though, I could start Questa without any error. I still do have ModelSim 10.5 installed. I even could enable all enviroment variables related to Quartus Prime 16.1 and Questa still works (even after restart!).

      I also checked Windows Update, there was no update. But I got updates to Microsoft's Defender and HP Wolf Security this morning.

      So I'm left confused, what my initial problem may have caused.

      But I'm happy now.

      Thank you for your assistance!


      Best Regards,

      Thomas

  • paveetirrasrie_Altera's avatar
    paveetirrasrie_Altera
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    4 months ago

    I’m glad that your question has been addressed, I now transition this thread to community support.

    If you have a new question, feel free to open a new thread to get the support from Altera experts.

    Otherwise, the community users will continue to help you on this thread.

    Thank you.