At Side Effects Software we strive to bring you the best product at every release cycle. However while we can control Houdini and its stability we cannot always control other components of the environment such as the operating system. Ubuntu 9.1 was recently released to the public and after extensive testing we cannot support karmic koala due to various library incompatibility issues. We are working hard to resolve these problems and welcome input from our customers in this process.

Thanks for the update, Chris. At the risk of a make-work question(heaven forbid! ), what sorts of libraries are you having trouble with? I'm not an Ubuntu user but I've definitely seen cases where it's the canary in the coal mine for some other distros. We're running SUSE 11.1 here(no problems) but I was thinking of going 11.2 perhaps over the holidays, so I can keep an eye peeled for trouble spots.

Cheers,

J.C.

Thanks for the news! I'm also a Ubuntu user and am curious about what in particular is not working with Ubuntu 9.10 and Houdini. Before reading this I was planning on upgrading to Karmic at home, hopefully there are workarounds of some sort. Cheers!

The primary libraries that seem to be at fault are glib, gtk, and libz. Of course these libraries are core system libraries and cannot be simply replaced with older versions as several other components, such as Gnome, have also been upgraded. Aside from the libraries however there were also some gpu driver problems that were presented with NVIDIA drivers 185+. Various ‘fixes’ were attempted but none of them were stable enough to be used in a development environment, let alone production.

any news about ubuntu 9.10?

What if you use Kubuntu 9.10 kde 4.3.3 ?

ps. Does suse 11.2 work?

any hope with ubuntu 9.10 or we need to go back to 9.04 ??

You could try debugging somewhat from my instructions here:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=17069 [sidefx.com]

Wren: I've been running SUSE 11.2 since the day after release, it works a charm. No issues at all so far, and KDE4 implementation is awesome(as opposed to SUSE 11.1/KDE4, which was unusable).

Cheers,

J.C.

JColdrick
Wren: I've been running SUSE 11.2 since the day after release, it works a charm. No issues at all so far, and KDE4 implementation is awesome(as opposed to SUSE 11.1/KDE4, which was unusable).

Cheers,

J.C.

houdini suppport only openSUSE Linux 10.2! can you tell me which version of houdini do you use?

I'm running the latest and greatest Houdini, and we upgrade frequently. SESI is very generous when it comes to Linux distro support. Technically, yes, they have an official list of supported distros(which is still *very* large by any standards), but they want Houdini to work in most of the more popular ones. They try their best to iron out issues(such as the ones in this thread with Unbuntu) because they realize that inevitably they'll need to deal with it anyway, better earlier than later.

Of course, sometimes ‘stuff happens’ and they'll reluctantly need to put some issues on the back burner for a time, then they'll have to fall back to the official list. However, I've been running ‘unsupported’ distros almost since Houdini was ported to Linux. I would use the experiences of others, from threads like this, to help warn of problems.

Cheers,

J.C.

I had only one problem when running houdini on 9.1 which was solved by removing “hsvg” folder! however 9.04 is a more stable version of ubuntu anyway ….

samsalek
I had only one problem when running houdini on 9.1 which was solved by removing “hsvg” folder!

If you've removed the hsvg folder, then how do you get icons? You must be still using an icon cache generated when using an older version of ubuntu.

edward

samsalek
I had only one problem when running houdini on 9.1 which was solved by removing “hsvg” folder!

If you've removed the hsvg folder, then how do you get icons? You must be still using an icon cache generated when using an older version of ubuntu.

that wasn't the case.it was a fresh copy of Ubuntu 9.10. Try deleting just the libs in your Houdini directory/hsvg; this should do the trick.

Hi i just swtiched to ubuntu 9.10, wish i saw this before i did it. So far its great, much faster than vista 64bit for me anyway. I also tried the workaround, deleting the lib files. I get the icons back but they flash in and out as i move my mouse over them. For example the toolbar where you create primitives, when you move your mouse over it it goes from showing the icons to just a solid grey piece. This happpens with most of the UI elements and windows. Not to mention there is lag in the interface. Also after i deleted the lib files and started up houdini i get a message saying “application was updated but your sqlite version is to old, cant run program”.

heres the houdini version i downloaded Ubuntu Linux 9.04* Linux x86_64 gcc4.3 (tar.gz) 214.2 MB. Is this the correct one for ubuntu 9.10 64bit

Here is my hardware specs. Im wondering if it could be my gpu drivers also. I downloaded the latest gpu driver, its a .run file. Could anyone be so kind as to tell me how to install it?
@Jcoldrick You said its working great under opensuse 11.2? I just switched to linux yesterday so i have no issues switching, would you reccomend it?

AMD phenom 9850 BE 2.5ghz
4gig ddr2 pc1066
amd radeon 3870 512mb ( driver version 8.6 i think, i just used the last ubuntu tested ones)
creative sxfi extrememusic sound card

Well, I'm afraid linux distros are sort of like platforms in general, tend to attract fervent hatred or passionate attachment. I think SUSE 11.2 is wonderful, yeah, it's absolutely worth a shot if you're not married to any particular distro yet. It's got a great KDE integration, plus they're wired firefox 3.5 quite tidily into the desktop(you can safely avoid 3 or 4 different browsers unlike most linux installs). Additionally, it ships with a workstation kernel now, tuned for the desktop. The standard kernel is still there too, of course.

Cheers,

J.C.

I downloaded the 9.11 Catalyst drivers from ATI's website and so far, they're quite an improvement on earlier drivers. There is a minor GLSL compiler issue, but it's rare and unlikely to affect Houdini.

To install them, you need to do this as root:
ati-driver-installer-9-11-x86.x86_64.run –buildpkg Ubuntu/karmic
dpkg -i *.deb
then reboot, after ensuring all the packages installed correctly (if not, try them one by one).

I have Ubuntu 9.10 with a 2600XT running without any issues under 9.11.

Thanks for the reply Jcoldrick

Im brand new to linux, so i dont have any attachments. I left windows because it was being a memory hog, and for no reason started giving me browseui.dll bad image errors. Which started having annoying side effects on my computer. So it seemed like a good time to jump ship lol.

If i cant get houdini to work on ubuntu 9.10, i think i might give opensuse 11.2 a try. I will let you know how it goes

@twod Thanks man i will give that a shot and let you know

Hi all,

I feel like I just showed up late to a party. Ok, I just upgraded from Ubuntu 8 to Ubuntu 9.10. I then tried to install houdini10.0.465 for Ubuntu 9.04. Install went fine, but it won't run the binary file.
I've been pointed to this thread since I started having problems. Can we assume this is the same issue you have all been having? Is it hopeless, or can I try one of these quick fixes you were talking about last month. Has there been any developments since then?
Please let me know. Also, if necessary, what's the easiest way to downgrade to Ubuntu 9.04? They make it very easy to upgrade, but it's hard to figure out how to go the other way.

many thanks
Jonah in Venice