FLEXnet error -1,xxx "No such file or directory"

THIS INFORMATION ONLY PERTAINS TO SOFTWARE VERSIONS IDL 8.5, ENVI 5.3 AND PRIOR

After you install the license information via the licensing wizard, an error message appears that indicates that the license.dat file cannot be found.

% LICENSE MANAGER: Cannot find license file
The license files (or server network addresses) attempted are
listed below. Use LM_LICENSE_FILE to use a different license file,
or contact your software provider for a license file.
Feature: idl
Filename: C:\Program Files\Exelis\license\license.dat
License path: C:\Program Files\Exelis\license\license.dat
FLEXnet error: -1,359. System Error: 2 "No such file or directory"

This error message usually indicates that the system cannot find the license file. On the following operating systems:

Windows

• Make sure that you have either installed the license.dat file in the default location (EXELIS_DIR\license\license.dat) or that the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable is defined to the path where the license.dat file exists.

Unix/Mac

• IDL might use a license source different from LM_LICENSE_FILE if IDL_LMGRD_LICENSE_FILE is defined in a .flexlmrc file or as an environment variable.  This file, located in the users home directory, can be deleted.  This should then allow IDL to use the correct license source.
• Be sure that you have read permissions for the license.dat file and for the EXELIS_DIR/license directory in which it resides, where EXELIS_DIR is the main installation directory.

You may also encounter a variation of this error message where the body of the error is the same, however the following line appears:

FLEXnet error: -1,73. "No such file or directory"


This appears to be specific to Linux and UNIX systems resulting from incorrect permissions set on the license file itself.  To correct this error, from the license directory, issue the following command:

chmod 444 license.dat


That should provide read access to all system accounts and resolve the error.  Please note that you may have to update the command depending on the license file name if other than license.dat.



review/update 3/11/15: jd db