FlexLM & the IONetworkingFamily.kext

[ritalin]

Some people have been having trouble running programs protected using FlexLM licensing. This is because on some hackintosh systems the IONetworkingFamily.kext doesn't set a primary device. FLEXlm expects to see a primary device and would use this to set a "HostID". The "HostID" is unique ID number that identifies your computer. This number is used to generate a FLEXlm license key.

The method described here should return the "HostID" using the "lmutil lmhostid" binary executable.

For those afraid of the terminal here is a clickable application that will perform the same function. It's basically the same "lmutil lmhostid" binary executable wrapped in a nice script.

If your hackintosh doesn't return a "HostID", then software relying on FLEXlm (eg CS3) will not work.

The "lmutil lmhostid" utility should print the exact "HostID" that FLEXlm expects to use on any given machine.
For Mac OS X, the "HostID" is formed from the Media Access Control(MAC) address of the built-in Network Interface with the colons removed.

Here is the output from "lmutil lmhostid" when the IONetworkingFamily.kext is FUBAR:

Andy-iHack:~ andy$ /Users/andy/Desktop/lmutil lmhostid
lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd. and/or Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXlm host ID of this machine is ""
lmhostid: Cannot find ethernet device. (-29,581)

Patching IONetworkingFamily.kext on my 10.4.9 system got everything working. Check my iDisk Public folder.

Here is my terminal output from "lmutil lmhostid" with the patched IONetworkingFamily.kext, all is good:

Andy-iHack:~ andy$ /Users/andy/Desktop/lmutil lmhostid
lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd. and/or Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXlm host ID of this machine is "00138fec04a2"

[aquamac]

Andy,

Thanks for sharing this with us, whilst I don't have CS3 (but would like it), I am sure I will get it one day, CS runs a little slow on a Hackie, then this will be really useful!