Mon., Feb. 6th

Over the weekend, I instrumented the server and the Wi-Fi script so that the sensor nodes can automatically discover the server's IP address via UDP broadcast queries on startup.  This is helpful for testing the script at home, because it's difficult to assign static IPs with my present network configuration.  Also, adding this flexibility will hopefully reduce our need to re-burn the Wi-Fi script in the future.  After that new capability was working, I tweeted an announcement about it on @APCRDRDL, and then proceeded to debug some recent server changes (which was my goal originally).

It might be interesting later to add a capability to the script to have it be able to receive and execute arbitrary commands sent to it over the same mechanism (broadcast datagrams).  This could be handy to provide an emergency way to regain control of the script in case it loses its connection to the server.  However, this is not a high priority - table it for now, maybe think about it in more depth later.

Some priorities for today:

• [/] Finish repairing Quartus license server installation.
• [ ] Continue implementing GPS command pass-through capability in CTU and server-side intelligent GPS driver.
• [ ] Meeting with Ray and David (maybe) this PM to talk about journal article.

Regarding Quartus, Juan showed me yesterday where to download old copies of the Quartus install files:  ftp://ftp.altera.com/outgoing/release.  It would probably be a good idea for me to go ahead and download the ones I need before I completely uninstall the existing installation.

I wonder if I can just reinstall LMTOOLS from the old version of it, and fix the problem that way?

Let me be a little careful here about versions.  The actual current Quartus version on COSMICI is:

• Quartus II Version 9.1 Build 222 10/21/2009 SJ Full Version
• Service Pack Installed:  None

So it might conceivably mess something up to install the service packs.  However, as long as I'm reinstalling stuff anyway, I might as well go ahead and do it.  Who knows, it might speed up our compiles and fix some other glitches we were experiencing.

While we're at it, let's also check the version numbers on the various IDEs for Nios firmware development.  First, the legacy Nios IDE:

• Nios II Integrated Development Environment, Version 9.1, Build 222

Next, the Nios Build Tools for Eclipse IDE:

• Eclipse Platform, Version 3.4.1, Build id: M20080911-1700

Another point:  Quartus actually works fine on COSMICI without the license server, using the static license files.  Therefore, is the goal of repairing the license server installation worth the risk of possibly messing up my Quartus installation?  What if I can't get back the exact version of Quartus that I need in order to compile my designs?

I got an email back from FlexNet, let's see what they said...  No help.  Do they expect me to buy support separately from them?

Let's see, trying to figure it out, taking some notes...  My present license file setting in Quartus is:

C:\flexlm\license.dat; C:\Users\Public\Documents\AlteraDE3boardCD\Terasic IP License\license_de3_regulator.dat

Present license.dat header is:

SERVER COSMICi 000761C947C6 1800

VENDOR alterad C:\altera\91\quartus\bin\alterad.exe

VENDOR mgcld C:\altera\91\quartus\bin\mgcld.exe

USE_SERVER

OK, I seem to have it working at the moment.  Here's what I did:

• Copied lmgrd.exe, lmtools.exe, lmutil.exe, alterad.exe (Altera vendor daemon), and mgcld.exe (Mentor Graphics vendor daemon, used for ModelSim) from C:\altera\91\quartus\bin to C:\flexlm for easier reference.
• Also copied license_de3_regulator.dat into C:\flexlm.
• In there, manually started lmgrd.exe using the command:
  lmgrd.exe -c "license.dat; license_de3_regulator.dat"
• Manually killed some extra processes as instructed by the log window that popped up.
• Typed "lmutil lmreread" to ask the license server to reread the license file.

OK, now I've created a script "startserver.bat" that starts the server.  That seems to work.

David & I were able to connect to it successfully from Quartun 9.1 running in the Quartus account on the XP VirtualBox under the VirtualBox account in the center Mac!  We unplugged the Ethernet cable and connected the AirPort to the  COSMOS router.  Apparently the connection got routed through to the VirtualBox.  Input license filename "1800@192.168.0.2" and clicked "Wait for Floating Licenses."  Got 'em!

LMTOOLS is still hosed for some reason (corrupted registry entries or something?), so we'll just have to give up on using it for the time being.  Fine; that app always sucked rotten donkey balls anyway.

OK, now trying again to install Mentor PADS and lmadmin.  (This time, I obeyed its instruction to halt the existing license servers before installing.)

Still having trouble getting it to work.  Let's try reinstalling without the service option.

OK, I finally (I think) have everything working.  Some things I did:

• Make a new C:\flexnet folder for the new version of all the license-related stuff for use with PADS.
• Copied key utility and daemon executables into there from the Mentor folders, for easy reference.
• Edited the license.txt file from Mentor as appropriate to make C:\flexnet\license.dat.
• Made a new C:\flexnet\startserver.bat file to start up the new license server.
• Edited the old C:\flexlm\license.dat to remove the reference to mgcld.exe (Mentor's vendor daemon), since we can't have two copies of that running.

Now, one simply runs both startserver.bat files (in C:\flexlm and C:\flexnet) to start up the respective license servers (for Quartus and PADS respectively).  The don't conflict because they use different ports (the Altera lmgrd uses 1800 and Mentor's uses 27000).

There was one error message during PADS installation, but other than that everything is seeming to go OK, so far.

Still waiting for the install to finish.

Oops, spoke too soon, there were several more errors during installation.  And the PADS Layout executable doesn't work.  I think I might have screwed things up by trying to run the new LMTOOLS in the middle, which caused LMGRD (new one) to reread its license file.  Might have screwed up Mentor executables that were running during the install.  Uninstall and reinstall PADS.

Maybe next time, I'll try running the installer as Administrator in case there is some kind of funky Vista issue going on.  Some of the error messages I saw seemed suggestive of that.