License tied to OS/hardware?

[Nelbert]

Haven't found an answer anywhere for this.

I know Linux has no trial edition, but when the key activates, does it ties to the hardware or the base OS in some manner?

I''ve got a new server due to arrive soon, and want to try a couple of different distro's. Aside from being a little cautious because I can't do a hardware test without buying a license, if I activate my license under distro A, then a day or two later install distro B, then a day or two after that install distro C, will the same license just activate, or will it be tied against something in distro A?

[gplasky]

I believe there is a process to unregister it from the original install and associate it with a new one. I don't use the Linux version so someone else will have to chime in.

Gerry

[Qusix]

I think it should work. When I first installed Linux last year, I tried 3 distributions before everything worked like I wanted. I went from Ubuntu to Fedora to Centos in a span of 2 days. I'm back running ubuntu 10.10 now.

[Nelbert]

That sounds promising, especially if I don't need to bother support everytime I change the distro. I was originally thinking Ubuntu or Debian, but I'm looking for something smaller and easier to maintain custom patches against.

Ubuntu kernel rebuilds are no longer as straight forward as they should be and I need to patch a couple of v4l files so the kernel picks up my dual dvb-t tuner.

What I'm less sure about is the dvb-s/s2 tuner. While the driver is in the 2.6.28 kernel onwards, it's an s2api driver (part of Igors s2-liplianin
work) so needs DVB API 5 support and not API 3.2 or multipro. I've seen comments on the forum that s2api drivers don't work, but don't know if they're still relevant.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Nelbert

I know Linux has no trial edition, but when the key activates, does it ties to the hardware or the base OS in some manner?

It is tied to the MAC address of one of your NICs. I know this because people who run in scenarios with dynamically generated MAC addresses (VM guest, using bridging) have had issues in the past. As have people who have not had /sbin in the path of the sagetv user (so that the ifconfig binary was not found).

So, as long you have only one NIC with a static MAC address (the normal situation), then you'll be fine.

Drew

[JetreL]

I ran it on Red Hat Fedora Core, Didn't have many issues. Your best bet is go with whatever flavor you like best. With Ubuntu, I've never liked running commands as sudo so I typically stay more towards RH and it's like.

[Nelbert]

Originally Posted by drewg

It is tied to the MAC address of one of your NICs. I know this because people who run in scenarios with dynamically generated MAC addresses (VM guest, using bridging) have had issues in the past. As have people who have not had /sbin in the path of the sagetv user (so that the ifconfig binary was not found).

So, as long you have only one NIC with a static MAC address (the normal situation), then you'll be fine.

Drew

Thanks Drew, just what I was wanting to know.

It's going on a HP Microserver so single fixed 1Gb ethernet and worries about changing macs. If there was a trial I'd have stuck it in a vm like I did with the Windows version to confirm h/w compatibility, but no such luck. The current SS4200 will stay running whs until the HP server is ready.

Jetrel, still not decided on the linux version, have been looking at the mini-distros. Started out with Slackware 0.98 many years ago and been through most main distros over the years. At the moment we mainly use Debian and Ubuntu LTS at work. Last time I used Redhat was when we consolidated all the Redhat servers into a Solaris Blade System. 40 servers into 2 blades The main driver on choice is being straight forward to patch the kernel to support the DVB-T tuner. I'm currently messing with Arch linux in a vm. It's like going back a few years, but refreshing not to have lots of un-necessary stuff installed by default.

The plan is to do the same as I did with the OpenSolaris NAS I used to run. OS on a bootable CF or maybe USB probably about 2G. The server has a USB port inside, so if the server will boot from it, it'll save installing the SATA->CF adapter and leave the SATA port free for something else, optical drive for ripping maybe. Memory upgrade and put swap and tmp on a ram disk,$ OS on the flash and mdadm the 4 drives for storage.

[MrD]

The license I have purchased several years ago is not tied to the hardware. You can regenerate the license. I have swapped motherboards several times with the same license.

I do not know if this is still true, I purchased the license when linux support was first available.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by MrD

The license I have purchased several years ago is not tied to the hardware. You can regenerate the license. I have swapped motherboards several times with the same license.

I do not know if this is still true, I purchased the license when linux support was first available.

I think the number of regenerations is limited. i vaguely remember 4 being the limit.. I'm on my second motherboard myself, having replaced an ancient P4 with an amd 780g board a few years ago.

Drew

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by drewg

I think the number of regenerations is limited. i vaguely remember 4 being the limit.. I'm on my second motherboard myself, having replaced an ancient P4 with an amd 780g board a few years ago.

This is my recollection as well. Nelbert, if you've already upgraded your motherboard (and/or NIC) three times or more, you might want to email support before the next hardware upgrade. I believe they can tell you if you are close to the limit and possibly reset the counter.

--John

[kbyrd]

It's tied to the MAC address of your NIC, if you're using an onboard NIC and change motherboards, this will change. I've done this 1 or 2 times now and I just email support ahead of time telling them I'd like to be able to re-register and why. After I get the response, I go ahead.

One thing that has always bugged me is the failure mode. I spent a day with cryptic error messages before I figured out that was really Sage's way of saying: "your license isn't valid".

[Nelbert]

Cool, tied to mac works for me. While the os will change the mac will stay the same.

Sounds like the Linux version needs a bit of loving. No trial and cryptic error messages could be addressed. Just a shame linux isn't the primary platform and card capabilities are limited by MS bda development, but extenders vs myth/vdr pc is a bit of a no brainer for family use.