I had an issue with Houdini on my Surface Book where it would give loads of errors like this:

Color name ‘BorderLight’ is missing from the theme.
Color name ‘BorderDark’ is missing from the theme.
Color name ‘BorderDark’ is missing from the theme.
Color name ‘BorderDark’ is missing from the theme.

I tried completely uninstalling Houdini and reinstalling but had the same issue. So I did a complete wipe of my drive and started over.

But even after I did a clean install of Windows and installed Houdini first thing, I still have the same issue.

There also was an “Error in context event handling” window that pops up with the following:

File “Context Event Handler”, line 1, in <module>
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.525/houdini/python2.7libs\nodegraph.py”, line 4, in <module>
import nodegraphbase as base
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.525/houdini/python2.7libs\nodegraphbase.py”, line 5, in <module>
import nodegraphutils as utils
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.525/houdini/python2.7libs\nodegraphutils.py”, line 83, in <module>
hou.ui.colorFromName('GraphDisplayHighlight'), 1, True
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.525/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 52487, in colorFromName
return _hou.ui_colorFromName(*args)
ValueError: Unknown color name

I searched the forums and found references to HOUDINI_PATH being incorrect, but this is a fresh install on a machine with nothing else on it.

Any idea what's going on?

Thanks,

-Paul

please try using the latest daily build of Houdini 16.5 - right now that is 16.5.532
and let us know how it goes.

Thanks - I just downloaded it.

I think it might have been a Microsoft problem. My Surfacebook had installed build 17713 when the problem happened. I rolled it back to 17704 and everything was fine. However over the weekend my main workstation installed 17713 and Houdini stopped working with the same errors.

-Paul

Unfortunately 16.5.532 gives similar results. I'm seeing a console window with things like this:

font.map: Unknown font ‘Vegur Bold’
font.map: Unknown font ‘Source Sans Pro’
font.map: Unknown font ‘WenQuanYi Zen Hei’
Qt Warn: QFSFileEngine:pen: No file name specified

In the middle I see this:

Can't load the default font specification.
resources.std is either missing or specifies
an unknown font for the DefaultFont.
Can't load default DejaVu Sans font. Your Houdini
installation may be missing files or the
HOUDINI_OUTLINEFONT_PATH or HOUDINI_PATH
environment variables point to invalid locations.

And it ends like this:

Error preloading icons:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.532/houdini/python2.7libs\houdiniinternals.py”, line 64, in _addPreloadIcons
icons = _getPreloadIcons(all_desktops)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.532/houdini/python2.7libs\houdiniinternals.py”, line 31, in _getPreloadIcons
shelfdocks = (hou.ui.curDesktop().shelfDock(), )
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.532/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 51593, in curDesktop
return _hou.ui_curDesktop(*args)
NotAvailable: Not available in this context.
No desktops are available

This machine worked fine on Friday.

Ok - I can confirm. Windows 10 build 17713 causes Houdini to fail. Build 17704 does not.

I have no idea what the difference is, but I've rolled my machines back and everything is fine.

-Paul

thanks for keeping up with this - I'll pass this info about Windows 10 build 17713 on to our support team.

This kind of interaction is EXACTLY why I'm thrilled to move to Houdini after 14 years of using Softimage.

Thank you!

-Paul

We're hopefull that tomorrow's release of 16.5.534 addresses this issue. Please let us know if it doesn't. Thanks.

Well, I gave it a shot, but 16.5.536 has the same problem. I've installed it on 2 machines and both of them return the same errors when starting up.

I checked Process Monitor and it looks like the permissions on Houdini's Python directory get changed when 17713 gets installed. I see hundreds of errors like this:

7:48:13.4853721 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\wikipages.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Read Attributes, Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.4855778 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\wikipages.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.4896563 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\i18n.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Read Attributes, Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.4898550 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\i18n.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.5013534 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\pipeline.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Read Attributes, Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.5015842 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\pipeline.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.5054384 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\includes.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Read Attributes, Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe
7:48:13.5056474 AM houdini.exe CreateFile C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\houdini\python2.7libs\bookish\includes.pyc ACCESS DENIED Desired Access: Delete, Disposition: Open, Options: Non-Directory File, Open Reparse Point, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete, AllocationSize: n/a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.5.536\bin\houdini.exe

I just downloaded .537 and get the same result. I've tried launching it as administrator but it made no difference.

It's only Houdini that has problems with Windows 10 17713 for some reason.

Hi Paul! Let's take this offline so we can sort it out. Please file a bug with support and let them know that you're running Windows 10 Insiders Preview Build 17713. Include that latest msg with the access denied python errors. In the bug, let them know that you've tried the latest build and you're getting these errors. Thanks!
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/15604/ [www.sidefx.com]

p.s. They're likely going to inform you that pre-release versions of operating systems are not supported, but it's still something we appreciate you letting us know about so we can address the issue. Thanks.