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SPM FATAL ERROR - can't open port IBU for dongle type SI0

Table of contents

1 Problem 2 Solution 2.1 If you do not have a dongle 2.2 If you have a serial dongle 2.3 Basic dongle troubleshooting 2.4 Troubleshooting on Linux

Problem

When you try to generate a request or install keys, you get "cannot open port IBU on dongle SI0" or "can't access dongle at IBU".

Solution

If none of these troubleshooting tips work, do not panic, all is not lost. Contact mailto:support@softimage.com and we'll figure it out.

If you do not have a dongle

If you do not have a dongle, then you need to edit your spm-config.ini file and change the DONGLE_TYPE to SLP.

1. In the License Manager, click Edit Config File.
2. Scroll down until you see the line that starts with DONGLE_TYPE.
3. Change DONGLE_TYPE to SLP
4. Click Save.

If you have a serial dongle

If you have a serial Sentinel dongle, the problem is that by default the license server is configured for a USB iButton dongle.

1. In the License Manager, click Edit Config File.
2. Scroll down until you see the line that starts with "DONGLE_PORT".
3. Change DONGLE_PORT to COM1 or COM2.
4. Click Save.
5. Then try again to generate a request.

Basic dongle troubleshooting

NOTE: At each troubleshooting step, try to generate a request code.

For example, reinstall the dongle driver, and then try to generate a request code. If that does not work, plug the dongle into a different USB port, and try to generate a request code. If that doesn't work, disable power management, and then try again to generate a request code.

• Check whether the dongle shows up in the Device Manager.

  1. Open the Device Manager (click Start, right-click My Computer, and click Manage).
  2. In left hand pane of the Computer Management console, click Device Manager.

  3. Expand SPM Devices.

     If you see a yellow circle with an exclamation point, then the driver for the dongle is not installed properly. Try updating the dongle driver.

     If you see 1-Wire Devices instead of SPM Devices, you have the wrong device driver installed. Update the dongle driver.

     If you do not see SPM Devices, then unplug the dongle and then plug it back in. The New Hardware Wizard should open, and you can install the dongle driver.

     To install/update the device driver:

     1. Right-click the dongle and then click Update Driver.
     2. Click No, not this time.
     3. Click Install from a list or specific location (Advanced).
     4. Click Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
     5. Click USB iButton holder for SPM.
     6. Click Next.
     7. Click Finish.




• If the dongle does not show up in Device Manager, unplug the dongle and then plug it back in.

  If Windows does not recognize the device, try all other available USB ports.

Disable power management USB Root Hubs Click Start, right-click My Computer and click Manage. Click Device Manager in the left pane of the Computer Management console. In the Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers and locate the USB Root Hub that the dongle is using.: Right-click a USB Root Hub, click Properties, and click the Power tab. If you see USB ibutton holder for SPM listed under Attached Devices, then the dongle is using that USB Root Hub. When you find the USB hub with the USB iButton holder for SPM, click Power Management tab and clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box. Now unplug the dongle, restart the computer, and then plug the dongle back in.

• Check the Task Manager for any stray SPM processes.

  1. Close the License Manager.
  2. Open the Windows Task Manager.
  3. On the Processes tab, look for any processes whose name starts with "spm".
  4. If you find any (eg spm_keyib.exe) kill the process.
  5. Then start License Manager and try to generate a request. If you can generate a request, then your problem is resolved.




• If none of the dongle troubleshooting tips helped, then the last thing to do is to try the dongle on a different computer. This will tell us whether the problem is specific to the computer, of if the dongle itself is defective. You will need to install the License Server on the other computer.

Troubleshooting on Linux

On Linux, there are no special drivers for the dongle, we use the USB support provided by the OS.

To check that the dongle was recognized, run dmsg in a shell. dmsg echos the last few lines of the system access file. If you see something related to USB it means that the device was recognized. After that the SPM software should do its job.

The USB iButton dongle requires that you have Dallas 1-wire support either in your kernel or as a module. The module's name is wire. You can check if the module is loaded by running lsmod. If it's not then run modprobe wire. If it's compiled into the kernel it won't show up in lsmod.

If you get the "can't open port IBU for dongle type SI0" error it may be that a kernel module has loaded and taken control of the dongle. The kernel module which accesses the dongle is ds2490. It must not be compiled into the kernel, and the module not loaded. Run "rmmod ds2490" to unload the module. You may also wish to delete the module's .ko file so it cannot automatically be loaded on boot. It will likely be in a subdirectory of /lib/modules. "find /lib/modules -name ds2490.ko -exec rm -v \{\} \;" will find and delete the module.

Sometimes dongle problems on Linux are due to the fact that the user does not have true root privileges.

USB power management on Windows sometimes causes problems with dongles, so you may want to try turning off any USB device power management or autosuspend on Linux.