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Client licensing

See also: Server licensing.

Your Canvus client must have an up-to-date license. The license defines the scope of your deployment. For example, it specifies the maximum size of the screen that Canvus client will run.

You must obtain an activation key from your MultiTaction representative. You can then use this key to generate and activate your Canvus client license. Alternatively, if your host server cannot connect to the internet, you can use the activation key to generate a license request. For details about where activated licenses are saved, see client-license.

License wizard modes

The license wizard appears under three conditions:

  • No license required — When a valid, in-date license is present, the wizard does not open at startup and Canvus starts normally. You can still open it yourself; see Open the license wizard.
  • Grace period — When a license has expired but is still within the 14-day grace period, the wizard opens automatically at startup. You can click Skip to dismiss it and continue using Canvus during the grace period, or activate a new license immediately.
  • Forced — When there is no valid license, or the license has expired beyond the grace period, you must activate a license to continue. The wizard cannot be skipped.

Note

If automatic license validation (dial-home) fails after an extended period offline, Canvus will display a dialog offering offline activation as a fallback. Use this option to generate a license request file and follow the offline activation steps below.

Open the license wizard

The wizard opens by itself when you start Canvus client without a valid license, from the MT Canvus shortcut on Windows, your applications menu on Ubuntu, or the Applications folder on macOS.

To open it at any other time, for example to replace a license that is still valid, close Canvus client first, then run:

  • Windows: double-click activation-wizard.bat in C:\Program Files\MT Canvus\bin.

  • Ubuntu, in a terminal on the Canvus computer's desktop:

    /opt/mt-canvus/bin/mt-canvus-app --activation-wizard

  • macOS, in Terminal:

    "/Applications/MT Canvus.app/Contents/MacOS/mt-canvus-app" --activation-wizard

Canvus client closes when you finish or cancel a wizard opened this way, so start it again afterwards.

Use the same method if the wizard does not open by itself:

  • Launcher: Launcher starts Canvus client with dialogs disabled, so an unlicensed client exits without showing the wizard. Exit Launcher first.
  • Video walls: the wizard does not open by itself if any window in screen.xml is set to stay on top or to bypass the window manager, which is typical on a video wall.

If Canvus client is still running, you get an "already running" error instead of the wizard.

Obtain an activation key

Your MultiTaction representative will provide you with a 16-character activation key for your Canvus client license. After receiving your activation key, you can:

Activate your license

The license wizard is the recommended way to activate Canvus client. Use it unless you cannot -- for example, on a headless computer, or during an unattended or scripted deployment. In those cases, see activate-client-cli below.

If your Canvus client is connected to the internet, you can submit your activation key to automatically request, receive and activate a license for the current computer.

  1. Open the license wizard.
  2. Next to This device, click Meeting Room or Desktop / Laptop. Next stays disabled until you choose. Versions before 26.10.3 do not show this choice.
  3. From the drop-down list, choose Online: Use activation key to register online. Then click Next.
  4. When prompted, enter your Canvus activation key. Then click Next.
  5. Wait while your Canvus license downloads. Then click Finish. Your Canvus installation is now licensed and activated.
  6. If the wizard opened by itself, Canvus now starts automatically. If you opened it with --activation-wizard or activation-wizard.bat, start Canvus client yourself.

Activate your license from the command line

Use this method only if the license wizard is not available to you. Your Canvus client must be connected to the internet to use this method.

The Canvus client binary accepts an --activate option, which requests, receives and activates a license for the current computer in a single step.

Ubuntu

Canvus client is not added to the PATH, so you must call the binary using its full path:

$ /opt/mt-canvus-<version>/bin/mt-canvus-app --activate <key>

Where <version> is your installed Canvus client version, and <key> is your 16-character license activation key. When you enter the key, include hyphens between each four-character group. For example:

$ /opt/mt-canvus-26.09.5/bin/mt-canvus-app --activate ABCD-AC2D-HGF6-HVD2

The package installs to a version-specific folder (/opt/mt-canvus-<version>). Current packages also create /opt/mt-canvus, a symbolic link to the installed version. List the installed versions with ls -d /opt/mt-canvus-* to find the correct path.

Windows

Open a command prompt and run:

"C:\Program Files\MT Canvus\bin\mt-canvus-app.exe" --activate <key>

For example:

"C:\Program Files\MT Canvus\bin\mt-canvus-app.exe" --activate ABCD-AC2D-HGF6-HVD2

Bundle and suite keys

A bundle or suite activation key (such as a Canvus Connect suite key) covers more than one product, so the licensing service cannot tell which seat pool the activation should draw from. Use the --product-type option to name the product:

$ /opt/mt-canvus-26.09.5/bin/mt-canvus-app --activate ABCD-AC2D-HGF6-HVD2 --product-type canvus_meeting_room

The accepted product types are:

  • canvus_meeting_room
  • canvus_desktop_laptop

Your MultiTaction representative will tell you which one applies to your key. Activation keys that cover a single product do not need this option.

The --product-type option applies to --create-license-request in the same way; see the offline sections below.

Generate a license request while offline

If your host server cannot connect to the internet, you can generate a license request file for your Canvus client.

Tip

If the license wizard is not available to you, the Canvus client binary can create the request file directly: /opt/mt-canvus-<version>/bin/mt-canvus-app --create-license-request <key>. Add --product-type <type> for a bundle or suite key. The request file is written to your home folder (Documents on Windows).

  1. Open the license wizard.
  2. Next to This device, click Meeting Room or Desktop / Laptop. Next stays disabled until you choose. Versions before 26.10.3 do not show this choice.
  3. From the drop-down list, choose Offline: Create license request. Then click Next.
  4. When prompted, enter your 16-character license activation key. Then click Next.
  5. Save the generated offline request file. The wizard creates an HTML request file, for example MT-Canvus-offline-request.html, in your home folder (Documents on Windows). You can copy this file to a USB device if the Canvus computer is offline.
  6. On a computer with internet access, open the generated HTML request file and follow the upload-portal link shown in the file. The portal URL is generated for the activation key and included in the request file.
  7. Upload the request file in the portal. The portal returns a license file, for example license-XXXX.html. The license file is an HTML document with the license embedded; you can open it in a browser to see the license details and instructions. Legacy .cslicense license files remain valid and are activated the same way.
  8. Copy the returned license file to your Canvus computer, then install it as described below.

Next, see Activate your license while offline.

Activate your license while offline

The license wizard does not install license files. Copy the file into the license folder yourself:

  1. Close Canvus client.
  2. Copy the license file you received from MultiTaction into the license folder for the account that runs Canvus client. Create the folder if it does not exist. Do not rename the file; it must keep its .html extension (or .cslicense for a legacy license).
    • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MultiTaction\Licenses
    • Ubuntu and macOS: ~/MultiTaction/Licenses
  3. Start Canvus client. It reads the license at startup.

To license every account on the computer, use %PROGRAMDATA%\MultiTaction\Licenses on Windows or /etc/MultiTaction/Licenses on Ubuntu and macOS instead; see client-license.

Tip

If you installed Canvus client in desktop mode, it automatically opens in full screen mode. To toggle out of full screen mode and into windowed mode, press F11. F11 has no effect on a frameless or non-resizable window -- the configuration used by most video-wall installs -- so use it only on a desktop-mode window that has a title bar. Ctrl-Q closes Canvus client and works regardless of window mode.

Next step

With Canvus client installed and licensed, continue to Canvases to create your first canvas.