This issue is likely the newness of the OS you are running and the version of glibc libs it has. The license code in the old versions of freesurfer simply will not work with any license file with the newest glibc libs. There may be a workaround by preloading an older libcrypt.so library. Can also try running within a CentOS6 or earlier docker container.

-- Paul Raines (http://help.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu)

On Fri, 6 Oct 2017 4:53pm, Mike Schmidt wrote:

I am re-running some old scans on current hardware to do comparisons with 5.2.0 output from old hardware, 5.2.0 output from current hardware, and current 6.0.0 output, all of the same input image. I am aware that FreeSurfer 5.2.0 is deprecated and don't intend to use its output, per se.

My problem is that I have copied a .license file (from February 2017) that works successfully with version 6.0.0 (known-good) into FreeSurfer 5.2.0's FREESURFER_HOME and FreeSurfer 5.2.0 finds the file, but says it is invalid. Renaming the .license file to license.txt resulted in it not being found at all. I've even retrieved an old license file (from prior to April 2015) from backup that I used to use (email address no longer exists), thinking I had used it with 5.2.0 in the past, but it is also reported as invalid.

I've read in this forum that 6.0.0 uses a different license file format due to libcrypt changes. But I can't seem to get new or old licenses to work. Is it possible to register for a replacement old-style license? Or is there another way to get 5.2.0 to work?

I have not applied for a new license as I have one that already works with 6.0.0 and have assumed another new one will work the same.

Thank you for any assistance, Mike Schmidt