Unable to find questa_fe license file

Hello,

I installed Quartus Prime 25.3.1 build 100 Pro Edition on Ubuntu 24.04 and the IDE seems to work fine. However, I cannot manage to get questa_fe working. 

From my understanding, questa_fe is a separate software and I'm initially trying to run it outside Quartus itself (even from Quartus I didn't have any luck). 

I generated and saved a fixed license file (LR-289450_License.dat). The content of the license file is reported below (some * cover part of it): 

# Intel Corporation Software and/or Intellectual Property License File
# Issued 22 February 2026
# Upgrade to these products will no longer be available after the Maintenance Expiration  
# date unless licenses are renewed.  
# Fixed Node License
# Primary Machine Name-**********
# Primary Machine ID-NIC ID 78AF08436***
# Companion ID-N/A
# Companion ID 2-N/A
# Product License Summary:
# 3 Questa*- FPGA Starter Edition (License: SW-QUESTA), 1 Seat(s)
# - Maintenance Expiration of 2027.02
# - License Expires 22-Feb-2027
################################################################################ 
# FEATURE START 
# This is license file for Questasim*-Intel FPGA Starter Edition 
# Number of seat licenses is 1 
# License Expires 22-Feb-2027 
DAEMON mgcld path_to_mgcld
INCREMENT intelqsimstarter mgcld 2027.01 22-feb-2027 uncounted \
    0F8C7346AFA49755133E VENDOR_STRING=C22E52B3 HOSTID=78af084360ed \
    ISSUER=Altera SN=1103017963 SIGN2="0F71 44B7 BF62 8F5A 155B 9D78 DFD6 \
    C6C4 D56B 5AA5 E4FB 296C DA68 4A65 0412 152D 1E9E 9B76 B2F8 B30A 0698 \
    B49C 7FED 4CF2 A120 **** **** **** **** ****"
# FEATURE END 
################################################################################
# End of Intel Corporation Software and/or Intellectual Property License File. Issued 02/22/2026

I did 3 different tests adding one by one only one of the following lines to my /etc/environment and rebooted:

LM_LICENSE_FILE="/home/****/altera_pro/25.3.1/licenses/questa/LR-289450_License.dat"
SALT_LICENSE_SERVER="/home/****/altera_pro/25.3.1/licenses/questa/LR-289450_License.dat"
MGLS_LICENSE_FILE=/home/****/altera_pro/25.3.1/licenses/questa/LR-289450_License.dat

In each case, the environment variable seems to be correctly set to the path of my license. For example, in the first case: 

echo $LM_LICENSE_FILE
/home/****/altera_pro/25.3.1/licenses/questa/LR-289450_License.dat

However, when I run:

./lmutil lmstat

I get:

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2023 Flexera. All Rights Reserved.
Flexible License Manager status on Mon 2/23/2026 21:05
Error getting status: No SERVER lines in license file. (-13,66)

and when I try (/altera_pro/25.3.1/questa_fe/linux_x86_64) :

./vsim

I get:

Unable to checkout a license. Make sure your license file environment variable (SALT_LICENSE_SERVER)
is set correctly and then run 'lmutil lmdiag' to diagnose the problem.
Unable to checkout a license.  Vsim is closing.
** Error: Invalid license environment. Application closing.

Any idea about the right way to activate questa_fe using the free license? It seems unreasonably complicated for a license activation. 

Thanks

End note: While trying to experiment with this issue, I managed (for some unknown reason) to have ./lmutil lmstat returning a positive result saying the the license was ok. However, even in that case, I couldn't manage to run ./vsim (same error message reported above).