Modelsim fatal license error

Hi,

Do you have license for Modelsim — Intel FPGA Edition ?

If no, use ModelSim-Altera Starter Edition.

If yes check your license validity & environment variable.

Let me know if you need any further assistance.

Regards

Anand

I don’t think so. I installed the Quartus Prime Lite v18. I assumed I wouldn’t need any licenses because it’s a free version. I just ran the instalation by clicking the QuartusLiteSetup-18.1.0.625-windows.exe.

How do I use ModelSim-Altera Starter Edition? This option doesn’t appear in Assignments > Settings > EDA tool settings > simulation.

When you install Quartus, you have the option of installing the Starter edition or the regular edition. If you accidentally installed the regular edition, you would get this license issue. If you have the modelsim_ase directory as mentioned, then you installed the correct version and should check the environment variables.

Hello, I had exactly the same error when trying to simulate the asynchronous counter in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRXWk2llxVk (minute 11:57)
Seeing several comments about it, it occurred to me to go to this path C:intelFPGA_lite17.0
There, I found 2 files: modelsim_ase and modelsim_ae
What I did was delete the "modelsim_ae", then I closed the vwf simulation, I recompiled my schematic, I opened the VWF University Program, I put the entries with their values ​​and I managed to simulate it well (the time diagram appeared).
Let's see if that works for you...

I thought I would have a go with Altera ModelSim. I already have Quartus II 14.1 Web Edition installed and running fine, compiling my designs. However, when I try to run ModelSim, it complains with ‘Fatal License Error’ saying it is unable to checkout a license. I have carefully made sure that I ran the Altera Starter Edition including selecting that option during the installation process and it says that no license is required. I tried installing it on a different computer but I get exactly the same message when I try to run it. The first computer was 64 bit Windows 7, the other one was 32 bit Windows 7.

Do I need some sort of license file to keep it happy, even though Altera says it doesn’t need it?

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I think you have to enable the talkback for that to work. Let me check where the setting is at.

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It’s on: Tools->Options under General->Internet Connectivity and click on the TalkBack Options button.

Under Enable check the «Enable sending TalkBack data to Altera» it only sends metadata not your projects.

Edit: that menu is in Quartus II btw.

« Last Edit: January 05, 2015, 12:44:45 am by miguelvp »

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It’s on: Tools->Options under General->Internet Connectivity and click on the TalkBack Options button.

Under Enable check the «Enable sending TalkBack data to Altera» it only sends metadata not your projects.

Edit: that menu is in Quartus II btw.

Many thanks, I am indebted to you. I don’t think I would ever have found that. I did do a lot of web searching for the answer before asking here.

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Not a problem, Quartus II 14.1 Web Edition is free so they do require you enable the talkback for some of the functionality including also SignalTap.

In that dialog box you can find details on what where the data that is sent is stored in case you want to know more about what it’s being sent. I did look at it a while back and it didn’t look too intrusive.

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Not a problem, Quartus II 14.1 Web Edition is free so they do require you enable the talkback for some of the functionality including also SignalTap.

In that dialog box you can find details on what where the data that is sent is stored in case you want to know more about what it’s being sent. I did look at it a while back and it didn’t look too intrusive.

Thanks. I don’t have a problem with sending back data to them, I doubt if they will be that interested in what I’m  up to!

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It’s on: Tools->Options under General->Internet Connectivity and click on the TalkBack Options button.

Under Enable check the «Enable sending TalkBack data to Altera» it only sends metadata not your projects.

Edit: that menu is in Quartus II btw.

Oh dear, I tried that but still get the message saying I need a license. I made sure I could log in to the Altera website with my account so not sure what I haven’t done. I tried restarting Quartus and even tried rebooting the PC but still no. Any clue as to what else I need to do?

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Are you downloading the stand alone ModelSim or the one that came with Quartus II 14.1 Web Edition?

I mean is it in C:altera14.0modelsim_asewin32aloem ?

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Are you downloading the stand alone ModelSim or the one that came with Quartus II 14.1 Web Edition?

I mean is it in C:altera14.0modelsim_asewin32aloem ?

Yes, it’s in that directory

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Strange,

I would ask support at:
http://www.altera.com/mySupport

I tried on two systems with Win7 professional 64 bit and they both work out of the box, but I never installed modelsim separately

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There is a known bug with the licensing for ModelSim at the moment:

http://dl.altera.com/?edition=web

You need to apply a patch to allow it to work properly.

Yes, I contacted Altera support and they told me of the patch — that sure does explain things! I can’t try this till later but it sounds like this should fix it.

Thank you miguelvp and mkissin for your help.

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That was it, all working now. Thanks again guys.

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It seems that the ModelSim 14.1-0.01m patch is no longer available for download, and instead there’s a new installer package with the same version number.

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It seems that the ModelSim 14.1-0.01m patch is no longer available for download, and instead there’s a new installer package with the same version number.

That’s not very clever!

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That was it, all working now. Thanks again guys.

Hi: I’m also having the exact same problem, can you please post the link to the patch? Did you have an online technical support helping you with it? since I cannot find the link to contact support staff, only documentations…

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That was it, all working now. Thanks again guys.

Hi: I’m also having the exact same problem, can you please post the link to the patch? Did you have an online technical support helping you with it? since I cannot find the link to contact support staff, only documentations…

I believe it is fixed in the latest software, have you tried downloading that? Yes, I did file a technical support question. Have you created an account on the Altera website? I see they have a beta of a new version of their website so it may have all changed since I logged in last.

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That was it, all working now. Thanks again guys.

Hi: I’m also having the exact same problem, can you please post the link to the patch? Did you have an online technical support helping you with it? since I cannot find the link to contact support staff, only documentations…

I believe it is fixed in the latest software, have you tried downloading that? Yes, I did file a technical support question. Have you created an account on the Altera website? I see they have a beta of a new version of their website so it may have all changed since I logged in last.

I downloaded the latest version along with the patch ( QuartusSetup-14.1.1.190) patched it, still getting the exact same error

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Earlier in this thread someone suggested that you need to turn on talkback, did you do that?

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Earlier in this thread someone suggested that you need to turn on talkback, did you do that?

Yes I did!

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Earlier in this thread someone suggested that you need to turn on talkback, did you do that?

Yes I did!

I’m thinking about ask support for help, but was struggling to find the link to contact a real support staff… Is the patch posted right now the one that solved your problem?

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Earlier in this thread someone suggested that you need to turn on talkback, did you do that?

Yes I did!

I’m thinking about ask support for help, but was struggling to find the link to contact a real support staff… Is the patch posted right now the one that solved your problem?

The patch that was posted at the time I originally reported the problem here was the one that fixed it.

Go here https://www.altera.com/myaltera/mal-signin.jsp and, if you don’t have one, create an account. Then you’ll be able to click on MySupport and issue a support request.

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Earlier in this thread someone suggested that you need to turn on talkback, did you do that?

Yes I did!

I’m thinking about ask support for help, but was struggling to find the link to contact a real support staff… Is the patch posted right now the one that solved your problem?

The patch that was posted at the time I originally reported the problem here was the one that fixed it.

Go here https://www.altera.com/myaltera/mal-signin.jsp and, if you don’t have one, create an account. Then you’ll be able to click on MySupport and issue a support request.

Thanks a lot man 

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I have written some VHDL code which compiles fine in Quartus Prime Lite edition. I’d now like to setup a test bench in order to simulate the code. I’m following a tutorial by Intel (link to youtube video) which says that after analysis and synthesis I go to tools -> run simulation tool -> RTL simulation. This launches modelsim. I have the student version installed with the license key placed in the root install directory. When I right click on my entity to try and select «create wave» this button is greyed out which it is not in the tutorial. I’ve shown this below:

If i double click on the entity I get this error down in the transcript window:

** Error: ModelSim PE Student Edition license key file not found at C:Modeltech_pe_edu_10.4awin32pe_edu..student_license.dat.
# ** FATAL ERROR: ModelSim PE Student Edition licensing failure due to one or more problems with the license key such as:

# ** FATAL ERROR: ModelSim PE Student Edition licensing failure due to one or more problems with the license key such as:
# - it is not found
# - it has expired
# - it is not for this user
# - it is not for this computer
# - it is not for this version of ModelSim PE Student Edition.
# 
# Please go to http://www.model.com and download an updated copy of the ModelSim PE Student Edition.
# Error loading design 

However I have placed the license file where the error says it is looking for the file — in C:Modeltech_pe_edu_10.4awin32pe_edu however I still get the error.

update: Another site suggested adding an environment variable to the location. I added «LM_LICENSE_FILE» to environment variables and still get the same issue.