Cannot fetch license in Synopsys HSPICE J-2014

[limerainne]

Recent version (N-2017.12) was okay, but I cannot run J-2014.09 version in Docker/Singularity.

• In Ubuntu 16.04 base image w/ Singularity
  • HOSTID is empty and invalid memory reference error is raised.

Using: /usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/amd64/hspice  -I
 lic:  
 lic: FLEXlm: v10.9.8 
 lic: USER:   *****               HOSTNAME: ***** 
 lic: HOSTID:                      PID:      19072 
 **error** invalid memory reference

 **error** invalid memory reference

1
 ******  
 

 ****** job statistics summary tnom=   0.000 temp=   0.000 ******
/usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/bin/hspice: line 409: 19072 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) /usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/amd64/hspice -I

• In Debian 8 base image w/ Docker
  • HOSTID is not empty but invalid memory reference error is still raised as before.

Using: /usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/amd64/hspice  -I
 lic:  
 lic: FLEXlm: v10.9.8 
 lic: USER:   root                 HOSTNAME: ***** 
 lic: HOSTID: **9**5*e*9**e         PID:      20 
 **error** invalid memory reference

 **error** invalid memory reference

1
 ******  
 

 ****** job statistics summary tnom=   0.000 temp=   0.000 ******
/usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/bin/hspice: line 409:    20 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) /usr/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/amd64/hspice -I

From Google search result, invalid memory reference error is normally a license issue.

Hmm.......

[limerainne]

For the reference, here is an example message if license checkout had succeed:

• In Ubuntu 16.04, w/o any virtualization

Using: /opt/cad/synopsys/hspice/J-2014.09-SP2-3/hspice/amd64/hspice  -I
 lic:  
 lic: FLEXlm: v10.9.8 
 lic: USER:   *****               HOSTNAME: *******
 lic: HOSTID:                      PID:      16969 
 lic: Using FLEXlm license file: 
 lic: ****@****.****.*** 
 lic: Checkout 1 hspice 
 lic: License/Maintenance for hspice will expire on 31-may-2019/2017.12 
 lic: **(in_use)/**(total) FLOATING license(s) on SERVER ****@****.****.***
 lic:   
 Hspice license have checked out
HSPICE >

[limerainne]

Too much times had passed... but the cause was simple...

There was no /etc/protocols file in base images (Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 8)...

For acquiring that file, we have to install netbase package. (from the result of dpkg-query -S "/etc/protocols")

...Did Synopsys SolvNet already have that answer? Don't know... 😢

Steps to find the cause of segfault

• Run Hspice container with those options to enable strace tool (1, 2)
  --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE --security-opt="seccomp=unconfined"

• Install strace tool inside container

• For avoiding flooding messages of repeated getrlimit, close call, use below ulimit command
  ulimit -n 32

TODO Reason for above ulimit command? Is there no global file handle limitation inside container??

• Run Hspice with strace and -f (follow forked child processes) option, put all outputs (Hspice message and syscall trace from strace) to single text file
  strace -f hspice -I 1>>hspice.log 2>>hspice.log

• Open log file with text editor and find invalid memory reference message

...
[pid   417] open("/lib/libnss_db.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid   417] open("/usr/lib/libnss_db.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid   417] munmap(0x7ffff7ff3000, 15662) = 0
[pid   417] open("/etc/protocols", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
[pid   417] --- SIGSEGV {si_signo=SIGSEGV, si_code=SEGV_MAPERR, si_addr=0x10} ---
[pid   417] write(2, " **error** invalid memory refere"..., 37 **error** invalid memory reference

) = 37
[pid   417] write(1, " **error** invalid memory refere"..., 37 **error** invalid memory reference

) = 37
...

• Then... gotcha...

[pid 417] open("/etc/protocols", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

[limerainne]

It seems --no-install-recommended option provoked above tragic situation...

e.g. netbase not present in 0.9.19

But letting apt-get install every recommended package hugely expands the size of images in the end...