Licence usage on network ran versions

[Zak Orpin]

Hope all is well. 

 While testing using a licence proxy for our ptgui workstation I've noticied that if I license one node running version (12.7) and then open another ptgui that's a different version (12.24) it uses a second seat. If both versions are the same it only uses the one seat. Is this expected?

I read on the FAQ that it should be possible to have differing versions installed side by side and both should share the licence info. The workstations have a local /etc/PTGui folder where the licence key/proxy config are saved.

We run out software from a central network location which I suspect might be the cause of the issues. 

Many Thanks

Zak

[PTGui Support]

Hi Zak,

In general it should work, but I think there were indeed some changes
inbetween v12.7 and v12.24 in the hardware detection on Linux, which
would cause it to consider the hardware to be changed and require
reactivation.

There's not much I can do about that retroactively; the best I can do is
fix any problems in an upcoming v13.x version but that would not help
you here.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

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[Zak Orpin]

Hello Joost,

It's good to know about the 12.7 / 12.24 hardware check. I think for the time being we can work around it with some user training.

Is there a way to see what version of the software has checked out a seat incase it happens again? I can only see seat information from the licence login page.

Also is there a way to  deactivate a seat from the command line rather than the software. It could come in handy if we need to try to de-activate a seat by trial and error.

I have found one more issue but I'm not sure if it's worth another conversation as it related to the reg.dat file created on /etc/PTGui when a licence is checked out.

This file is owned by the user who opened activated the software and is 644 so other users aren't able to deactivate the seat.

I've noticed the file also gets removed when the seat is deactivated so I can't just chown the file 777.

Many thanks

Zak

[PTGui Support]

Hi Zak,

On 5/12/26 16:54, 'Zak Orpin' via PTGui Support wrote:
> Hello Joost,
>
> It's good to know about the 12.7 / 12.24 hardware check. I think for the
> time being we can work around it with some user training.
> Is there a way to see what version of the software has checked out a
> seat incase it happens again? I can only see seat information from the
> licence login page.
> Also is there a way to deactivate a seat from the command line rather
> than the software. It could come in handy if we need to try to de-
> activate a seat by trial and error.

No I'm sorry, the account page doesn't show the PTGui version that was
activated.

Deactivation must be done either from the GUI, or remotely from the
account page. The latter will have a turnaround time of up to 24 hours
though.

In case you were not aware, there is a floating license option
available. See 2.3:
https://ptgui.com/faq#2_3

Lastly, is there any reason why you are mixing 12.7 and 12.24? I'm not
aware of any regressions in 12.24, while several bugs have been fixed
over the 12.x releases. You might consider moving all users to 12.27 (or
perhaps 13).

> I have found one more issue but I'm not sure if it's worth another
> conversation as it related to the reg.dat file created on /etc/PTGui
> when a licence is checked out.
> This file is owned by the user who opened activated the software and is
> 644 so other users aren't able to deactivate the seat.
> I've noticed the file also gets removed when the seat is deactivated so
> I can't just chown the file 777.

When activating PTGui, it will ask whether the license should be
activated for all users on the computer. If answered Yes, the license is
stored in /etc/PTGui. If No, the license will be stored in the user's
.PTGui directory. If another user activates PTGui (the same version), it
should re-use the existing seat.

In other words, to work around this issue, choose No when asked whether
to install the license for all users.

There's also the option of provisioning all computers as described in 2.13:
https://ptgui.com/faq#2_13
I'm not sure though if this was fully supported already in PTGui 12.7.

Joost

[Zak Orpin]

Hello!

We looked at moving to a floating licence setup but ultimately we decided to keep the licences as they are at the moment, but I might see if I can't restart the conversation.

As for the mixed versions, typically we should only be using one but every so often someone uses a different version but I'll redouble my efforts to keep everyone on the same page.

I will test out the "not all users" option and see if that solves the issue! Worst case it should be avoidable by making sure users are all on the same version.

I'm currently testing the provisioning file to deploy licence keys and proxy config to workstations which is very helpful! 

Also I believe using the individual seat keys instead of the overall licence key should solve the multiple versions accidentally hogging multiple seats!

Many Thanks

Zak!

[Zak Orpin]

Sorry I've found one more oddity.

On version 12.24 when I run ptgui a file is touched in /tmp called nh142_ptgtempid. We recently moved to a new OS that uses puts a sticky bit on /tmp. The file is not removed when ptgui closes. The sticky bit prevents users other then the one who created it from editing it. If another user tries to launch ptgui they get a message saying they are unable to edit the file and it won't launch. 

I do have ways of working around this but since the /tmp directory on these systems is a tmpfs it is rebuild on boot and requires the setup to be replicated each time on the multi user workstations.

I've only seen this in version 12.24. I haven't yet tried any newer version of the software to see if this still occurs. 

Is this something that happens in later versions as well? If so are there any mechanisms built into ptgui to aid in the removal of the files when closed?

Thanks

Zak

[PTGui Support]

Hi Zak,

The file is used as a socket for communicating between PTGui instances
running on the same computer.

I see what you mean though, I was able to trigger an error in PTGui 13.7
by chmodding this file. This will be fixed in a next update.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

> https://ptgui.com/faq#2_3 <https://ptgui.com/faq#2_3>

> https://ptgui.com/faq#2_13 <https://ptgui.com/faq#2_13>

> I'm not sure though if this was fully supported already in PTGui
> 12.7.
>
> Joost
>

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