Altera free web FPGA software license question

dial up

ethernet

not

need

license

valid

have a

the

Just a data point: I have an ethernet card, but use a wireless card to access DSL. Quartus works fine with that card's number. Wade H

Hiya,

The problem is that when the network card isn't plugged in, and is set to get an IP address over DHCP, it doesn't give out a valid ethernet address.

You can disable the DHCP media sensing using the registry. Microsoft's support website has an article about this at the following URL:

This boils down to:

Use Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to view the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Add the following registry value:

Value Name: DisableDHCPMediaSense

Data Type: REG_DWORD

Value Data Range: 0, 1 (False, True) Default: 0 (False)

Description: This parameter controls DHCP Media Sense behavior. If you set this value data to 1, DHCP, and even non-DHCP, clients ignore Media Sense events from the interface. By default, Media Sense events trigger the DHCP client to take an action, such as attempting to obtain a lease (when a connect event occurs), or invalidating the interface and routes (when a disconnect event occurs).

So if you create the key and set its value to 1, everything should work properly.

Best regards,

Ben

I don't think this is relevant Ben, the license file is generated against the

The MAC address should be unique for every piece of ehternet connectable kit.

You can get your MAC address by opening a (windows) command window and typing ipconfig -all, it's listed as Physical Address.

Nial.

Hi Nial,

This is partly true. If an IP address hasn't been set through DHCP, the interface gets an 169.x.y.z IP address. However, at the same time, the MAC address for the interface can for some reason not reliably be obtained anymore - at least not by FlexLM.

Best regards,

Ben

The basic problem is that the user is trying to use a license created for a different NICID than what the computer running Quartus has. Quartus does not require the card to be plugged into the network to check the license. A new license should be issued for correct NICID. The easiest way to get a license is to connect your computer running Quartus to the network, go to Tools->License-Setup and do a Web License Update.

Hope this helps, Subroto Datta Altera Corp.

Thanks to those who replied. I today obtained under linux a new license file using the correct ethernet card mac number, and the license file works correctly under XP.

vax, 9000

If you look at an altera license file it's generated against the MAC address (or dongle ID), the IP address has nothing to do with it.

Nial.

It's the MAC ID that is used. To get it under Linux all you have to do is

ifconfig eth0

The HWaddr is the number you need. It doesn't matter if the card is up or not.

at least in theory. most cards support changing it because well... its just in a serial eeprom that can be read/written from the host. which is so because nobody wants to have two serial eeproms per card.

Traditionally it was stored in ROM, and at initialization the software driver would read the ROM and write into the appropriate register on the ethernet controller.

It might be that they are now in EEPROM, but I believe they are still read/written by software, in part to support systems that require special MAC addresses (DECNet, for one).

I don't know if license software uses the ROM/EEPROM address, or the one assigned to the ethernet hardware.

-- glen

Many drivers allow a user-specified address to override the programmed in one. I would imagine any licensing software uses the adddress that the driver gives (i.e. possibly modified), as otherwise it would need to know about all the different types of card hardware.