Activation/Re-activation is borked

[ricky_f]

As I wrote in another thread here, the activation process for FO2021 is broken. If SoftMaker think they need such a measure then they should make it easy and RELIABLE. I have described some of the problems I had in the other thread which SoftMaker so far has chosen to ignore.

Anyway, on my Linux install the (re-re-re)activation went finally through and I can actually work with planmaker 2021. Great!

Not so fast. I have a zoo of USB sticks and HDs. Most of them are fine but there is one USB SSD which when it's mounted will again make planmaker to misfire re the activation (ie planmaker thinks it's not activated anymore).

So I remove the drive... all is fine and planmaker works. I re-attach the drive... and planmaker wants to activate. I remove the drive... all is fine and planmaker works. I re-attach the drive... planmaker wants to activate (you probably get the idea).

This behaviour is reproducible even after rebooting.

The drive in question is no different as far as I can tell from all the other USB sticks/drives I tested. No special partitions, no exotic file systems, not especially large (a 256GB SSD; both a 128GB and a 1TB USB SSD do work).

Conclusion: the activation system is fundamentally broken.

[SuperTech]

After inserting that USB drive, please check if the license file of FreeOffice 2021 is accessible at location /etc/SoftMaker/offree2021.lic.

[ricky_f]

Yes, it is. That file is world readable before I insert the drive and it is still world readable after inserting the drive. I have also checked its md5 checksum before and after, it doesn't change.

When the drive is inserted, planmaker just does its waiting game (for a minute or so, then there's a "curl_easy_perform() failed: Timeout was reached" message on the console) and tries to re-activate. If I stop planmaker, remove the drive and restart, it works again. This is completely reliable and it's only doing this if this drive is inserted.

[SuperTech]

I wanted to check if this exact file path is accessible or not after inserting the USB drive.

[martin-k]

So let it reactivate. Our activation can handle more than one drive.

[ricky_f]

This is beginning to get ridiculous.

My starting point is a PC with an activated FO2021. /etc/SoftMaker/offree2021.lic has 1688 bytes. This version runs with all SSDs and USB sticks I throw at it but it does not run with that single 256GB SSD drive. Instead it wants to re-activate.

So I follow @martin-k's advice and let it re-activate and wow, I have again a PC with an activated FO2021. Great but /etc/SoftMaker/offree2021.lic now has 1816 bytes (ie it's more than 100 bytes longer).

AND IF I NOW REMOVE THE USB SSD DRIVE FO2021 WANTS TO REACTIVATE AGAIN!

This is Kafkaesque.

I stick with my original diagnosis: your (re-)activation code is severely broken and should be put out of its misery.

[martin-k]

Please contact us by e-mail to forum(at)softmaker.com and let us know your product key. I cannot find a customer registration under the e-mail that you used to register here in the forum.

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