Recently decided to go with this distro and thought I'd post the solutions I had to the (inevitable) issues I had in order to get this machine to play nicely with Houdini, other apps and in the network of primarily Redhat 7.3 machines.

Hardware: HP xw6000 workstation with 2 gigs memory, dual 2.8 GHz Xeon cpus, and Nvidia FX3000 graphics card.

Software: SUSE 9.1 Professional [suse.com], our favourite animation program [sidefx.com], Renderman [pixar.com], 3D Equalizer [3dequalizer.com], Sun Grid Engine [gridengine.sunsource.net], and a few other apps.

I'm not going to give a gushing report of just how amazing SUSE 9.1 is - I'll leave that for interested parties to hunt down on the net. it's a wonderful distro, though.

Issue #1

As with most recent Linux kernels, you'll need to set the following envar to run Houdini:

setenv LD_ASSUME_KERNEL 2.4.1

is the cshell way of doing this. This is mostly related to the thread code - Linux has been in the process of switching over from an older threading library to a newer one - however applications need to compile against this new library to be able to run, and not a lot of apps have done this. This envar makes the kernel fall back to the old model.

Issue #2

If you use rlogin/rsh like me(yah yah, I know - use ssh), you'll find SUSE has some annoying default behaviours in there. When you first rlog in, “Have a lot of fun” will be displayed, and every time you change directories, the new dir is annoyingly displayed in the shell. This is a pain, and can play havoc with remote rendering systems like farms and grid engines.

Remove the file /etc/motd…“Have a lot of fun” is the message of the day. Also, put a file in /etc/ called csh.cshrc.local - and put:

unalias cwdcmd

in there. this is the preferred way of making global changes to csh environment stuff as SUSE will keep overwriting other files every time you re-config the system.

Issue #3

If you have trouble getting sesinetd(the SESI license server) talking back to or from other systems with your floating licenses, look in /etc/services and comment out the:

sesi-lm 1714/tcp # sesi-lm
sesi-lm 1714/udp # sesi-lm
houdini-lm 1715/tcp # houdini-lm
houdini-lm 1715/udp # houdini-lm

lines by putting a # in front of them, then stop and restart the license server and hserver on the SUSE box. Note: this has been fixed in a recent Houdini 6.5 and up, but in case you're running an earlier version this should work for you.

Issue #4

Local dso's

We use the RH9 Houdini on the SUSE boxes, and it works fine. However, because the versions of gcc and libc are substantially ahead of many other distros out there, you'll find any custom dso's won't run. You'll need to recompile them for the new libc. We also had to work out a dual-path config for houdini since we're mixing RH7.3 and SUSE 9.1 on the same grid farm, but I won't get into that. If someone needs a suggestion in that area, msg me privately.

That's it! I've probably forgotten some stuff, but that's the gist of it…I'm running Houdini and those other apps on this system now and it works very well.

OK - a little gushing - SUSE 9.1 has a very recent kernel(2.6.4), a very recent(and very good) KDE(3.2.1), *tons* of apps that are all nicely packaged together(such as Apache2, Open Office 1.1.1, multimedia packages), and an amazing system management tool called Yast that is the best out there, period. SUSE has a Live CD evaluation - you can try it out without actually installing anything to your hard drive.

Oops - forgot to mention - here [packman.links2linux.org] is a great place to go to find those difficult-to-find SUSE rpm's.

Hope this is useful to someone!

Cheers,

J.C.

hi JC, i had always been curious about SUSE - posting from the livecd now and i reckon this distro is very good indeed! it's so well polished, seems well integrated - a good selection of packages for each task, the best ones, not just every one available.

i think it might replace mandrake, at least for a test

When the env is set to run 2.4.1

Does this affect just houdini or all system operations?

It's an envar, which means it runs in the shell environment. If I type it into a single shell, only that shell will use it. Another one beside it on the same desktop won't.

Worth noting that with 6.5.something-or-other you don't need to use this anymore for Houdini, however. I still need it because 3DEqualizer will kack without it, but all you Houdini user's can safely ignore this now.

I'm unsure if it really has any practical impact on performance. I noted my compositing with and without it and could notice anything discernable. It's possible that Houdini isn't really using it - it's just recoded the threading to be compatible with either.

By the by - a few weeks later - still loving this distro. We've had no troubles whatsoever(once the initial implementation issues were dealt with), and everyone here made me install it on their workstations.

The remote desktop invitation is scary(=hilarious)…it's some sort of implementation of vnc where I can “invite” someone to use my workstation. I emailed Mario an invite, and soon we were fighting over the mouse control. We're running on giggie, and the opengl port in houdini - everything actually - was just as fast on his desktop as it was on mine. Of no practical use whatsoever, but had us in giggles….

Cheers,

J.C.

I'd sneak control over mario's station and wait for him to start working. Then just randomly rewire his vop networks and click the view mantra button

I am using the free SuSE version and seeing the shareware bits saying ?gget the real thing?h and i will when cash is flowing again. My question is how do you get the windows to behave like they should in regard to having a parameters panel stay above the Houdini interface and not be put to the back, behind the full screen Houdini window?

Also can i make the Houdini interface ?gfullscreen?h no gaps around he sides?

the window issue is apparently a kde bug.

i dont know the details but you can upgrade suse 9.1 personal to almost professional by setting it to download the extra packages…

The only bug in KDE, and I'm not convinced it's a bug since every other program I use in SUSE behaves properly, is the fullscreen thing. It may well be a bug, but only SESI is making that particular call of the apps I use. I've literally never seen it anywhere else. I can understand that they are probably loathe to make a change to basic window calls just for one window manager, though…

As far as issues with windows focusing and what stays in front of what - it's *all* configurable. One of the benefits(and problems ) with Linux is it lets you configure out the yin-yang. It's in the control centre/Desktop/Window Behaviour. It's all there…I can't remember what the defulats were, but I'm pretty sure on the second tab, Actions - those popups affect things like what happens when you click in the inside of a window - it will pop to top. for instance - you probably don't want that. I think I usually have only RMB over the titlebar causing a pop to top, your needs may vary. Experiment with it. Also - an important one, but deceptively hidden - go to the last tab - see Focus Stealing Prevention Levell? That's a biggie…that will determine how aggressively newly created windows will grab your attention…personally I set it to Low…this may be the one you're specifically referring to.

Doncha love configuring? You do it once a year, and by the time you need to do it again, you forget how…

Cheers,

J.C.