Basic License Troubleshooting

There are several troubleshooting tips in this FAQ for specific error messages. If you have a very general license problem, here are some tips that might lead to actually generating one of those error messages, or solve the issue in a simple way. It will also be much easier for us to help you troubleshoot the license problem if you go through these steps first and let us know the result.

Automated License Setup

The easiest way to manage the license configuration is to use Virtual NanoLab (VNL), which has a built-in tool both for setting up the license environment and for changing it. This tool will either pop up when you start VNL and no license can be found, or you can start it from the Help menu. For more information, see the detailed guide here. If you to inspect the license setup in more detail, look in the file licenses.licconf, located in the directory .quantumwise, inside your home directory. This directory also holds any nodelocked or demo license you have, in the licenses subdirectory.

Manual License Setup

In some cases, for instance on a cluster, it is not possible or convenient to use VNL to configure the license. In this case, the easiest option is to use environment variables, as discussed here. To see how the license environment is currently set up, you can run the following commands in a terminal on Linux, or on Windows in Cygwin or similar:

echo $QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH
echo $QUANTUM_AUTOMATIC_SERVER_DISCOVERY

or on Windows (in a regular Windows “cmd” terminal):

echo %QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH%
echo %QUANTUM_AUTOMATIC_SERVER_DISCOVERY%

If you think that the license variables are set correctly, you can check what licenses are available on the system by using (on Windows or Linux):

lmxendutil -licstat

This will report where QuantumATK looks for licenses and what it found, and is particularly useful for checking floating licenses (when you are using a license server).

Some Further Particular Tips

If you have a standalone license file, check that this file is readable by the current user, by using the following command:

cat $QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH     (Linux/Cygwin)
type %QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH%   (Windows cmd)

If this doesn’t produce the expected output (which is, that it prints out the contents of the license file), try

ls -l $QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH    (Linux/Cygwin)
dir %QUANTUM_LICENSE_PATH%     (Windows cmd)

This will show if the license file actually exists in the specified location. If it does, but you can’t see it’s contents - check the permissions of the file, maybe only root/Administrator can read it?

A lot of useful information about the license setup can be found in the Installation Guide and the LM-X End-User Guide.