Dongle Setup & Troubleshooting

Synopsys dongle-based licenses are generally "counted." Counted licenses require a license server. Therefore, prior to using your dongle-based licenses you must install, configure and start SCL 10.x.

After installing SCL for Windows, make sure the dongle ID is recognized by Windows. For the dongle ID to be seen by Flexnet (FLEXlm), a FLEXid software driver must be installed. (Synopsys supports Aladdin, Dallas, or Rainbow dongles with a FLEXid of 7-, 8-, or 9-.)

If the dongle is not recognized,  the cause may be that no dongle driver is installed, or the existing driver is obsolete. Follow the steps below to resolve this problem.

1. Start “lmtools” (provided with SCL 10.x).  lmtools is located in the scl_root\msvc70\bin directory.

2. Click Help > About. The lmtools version number must be 10.8.x.

3. Click the System Setting tab and make sure the correct FLEXid shows in the "FLEXID" field matches the FLEXid imprinted on the dongle.

4. If the correct FLEXid shows, then go to Step 5.
   If no FLEXid shows, or an incorrect FLEXid shows, follow these steps:
   1. For a USB dongle, make sure it attached directly to the system and not to a USB hub device. For a parallel-port dongle, make sure it is attached directly to the parallel port, not to another dongle.

   2. Remove and reinsert the dongle.

   3. Uninstall any old drivers via the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel applet. These may have names like Globetrotter FLEXid Driver, Macrovision FLEXid Driver, or Sentinel System Drivers.

   4. Restart the system.

   5. Install the Acresso dongle drivers. Click here to obtain the latest drivers.

   6. Dependinng on your dongles, install one or all of the FLEXid 6_7, FLEXid 8, or FLEXid 9 drivers.

   7. Reboot and repeat steps 1 and 2.

5. Once the FLEXid is recognized, start the SCL license server with lmtools. For details on how to do this, see
   http://www.synopsys.com/support/keys/keys.html#start_win.

6. Once SCL is started, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Environment Variables and set the licensing variable SNPSLMD_LICENSE_FILE or LM_LICENSE_FILE to point to the license server. For example, set SNPSLMD_LICENSE_FILE to 27000@my_server.