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Cyclone III Starter Board - DDR_CNTR, license problem

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hello, 

 

I have a Cyclone III Starter Board and I wanted to use the sample project called “qb3_control_panel”, which is on the CD that comes with the board and gets installed with cycloneiii_starter_kit-v7.1.0

 

Unfortunately, there comes an license error message when I try to compile the project: 

 

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  

 

I have Quartus II Version 8.0 Build 215 05/29/2009 SJ Full Version with Windows Vista Business. 

 

I already searched on altera.com and Google but I found nothing. 

What could I do to use the DDR Controller? 

 

Kind regards, 

stefan__
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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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.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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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__
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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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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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
653 Views

 

--- Quote Start ---  

What quartus version are you using? 

--- Quote End ---  

 

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

 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

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. 

--- Quote End ---  

 

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

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

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

--- Quote End ---  

 

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.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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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.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
653 Views

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...
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
653 Views

Das ist ganz toll ja! 

 

My german is rather rusty, I'm Dutch ;) Good you got it to work.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
653 Views

Hi 

 

The correct code example is too 

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

 

:p
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
653 Views

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
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