Please excuse me, I do not know where else to put it (since in the 8.1 EA forums I cannot create a new post)…

I am referring to my post here: http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=5738 [sidefx.com]

It was about problems with licensing (non-commercially) houdini 8.1 for windows. Well apparently I had to give up. It just wouldn't work.

I, too, now did a clean install of my OS (about a month ago) and thought I'd try out again now, as the other guy who had problems said reinstalling the OS worked for him. Well, unfortunately for me it doesn't. It's really starting to creep me out. It must be hardware related then?


Well, in absence of options I outlined my situation as follows:

- The license file couldn't be found or written to it's destination after contact with the sidefx website for getting the non-commercial license.

- It get's the license but fails to install it, as if the license server wouldn't know where to look for it.

- License Server panel says my machine is not allowed to deal licenses, but the process for the license server is running. Not allowed because no server lines could be found. I am gessing that just means it couldn't find any license file (with the server bit info in it).

- I have full admin privileges and c:\windows\keys has write privileges.

- disabling the windows firewall doesn't help.

- creating/deleting “c:\windows\keys” doesn't help.

- if I could “Install Licenses” or “Manually Input License Keys” but these are both greyed out.

- maybe my router is the problem?

- maybe other flexlm enabled software is somehow mixing things up? Provided houdini uses FlexLM protection.

- mabye default windows environment stuff within my German locale is somehow breaking paths (i.e. c:\programme instead of c:\program files) ?

- installing to “C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 8.1.704” didn't help either.

- trying to install it on my laptop doesn't work either.




the ‘new’ diagnostics report follows:



Diagnostic Output:
==================
If you are having licensing problems, please save this information and email it
to support@sidefx.com.

License Administrator output:
=============================
Generated on: Fri Feb 02 11:17:39 2007
Local host name: LIQUID-ILLUSION
Local server code: 54e04617
Local ip address: 127.0.0.1
Number of servers: 1
License server name: liquid-illusion (liquid-illusion)
License server server code: 54e04617
Server ip address: 127.0.0.1
License server is running: Yes
May read licenses from server: Yes
Has SERVER license: No
License server version: 8.1.704
May modify server from this machine: No (no license file permissions)
Redundant server keys: 0
Name Code Redundant Connected Transmission OK
—- —- ——— ——— —————
License Administrator version: 8.1.704
Http proxy host: (none)
Using standalone mode: Yes
Can retrieve http://license.sidefx.com/index.php: [license.sidefx.com] Yes

Installed licenses:
LicID Platform Product Ver Avail Expiry
—– ——– ——- — —– ——

sesictrl -i output:
===================
—– SERVER liquid-illusion ——–

*** WARNING *** - No valid server lines found




hserver -l output:
==================
Hostname: LIQUID-ILLUSION
Uptime: 0:00:13
License Server: liquid-illusion
Server Version: sesinetd8.1.704
Version: Houdini8.1.704
ReadAccess: +.+.+.*
WriteAccess: +.+.+.*

1042 of 2047 Mb available
CPU Usage: 19% load
0 active tasks (2 slots)



licenses file:
==============
* Could not open the licenses file. *



somewhere there must be a misconfiguration. A wrong path or the like. But the only preference files I could find were

“%USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien\houdini8.1\hkey.pref”

and

“C:\WINDOWS\keys\licenses.disabled”

in the self-created “keys” dir. This (empty) file is only created when enabling the option “Show expired licenses” in the license manager.

One last thing:

When running sesictrl.exe -i it gives me this output:

—– SERVER liquid-illusion ——–
WARNING: host ‘liquid-illusion’ does not have a valid SERVER license.

Where do I get this SERVER license? I think that's the cause of my problems! Can I manually install the SERVER key needed for the license server to actually do its job correctly?

Anyway, thanks for reading this lenghty post. Clueless as I am now, any info on this would be appreciated.

André

Hi,

The first thing I noticed is your IP address is set to 127.0.0.1 which might be the problem why you can't generate a Server key. If your PC is connected to a router, it should get an IP address that's not 127.0.0.1. Is your ethernet or wireless adapter enabled?

Before trying to install the license again, please remove the C:\Windows\keys directory first.

Please keep us posted. Good luck!

Cheers!
steven

First off thanks for the fast reply

You could be onto something here. I have a router that's providing wireless access for my laptop and is hooked up to my desktop (liquid-illusion) through ethernet card.

However, I have a second ethernet adapter unit (onboard I think) that's currently disabled in windows network connections. I will try to see if I can fiddle with the adapter setup tomorrow (it's 1:00 a.m. in Germany now).

André

andreb
- It get's the license but fails to install it, as if the license server wouldn't know where to look for it.

Are you still getting those exact same errors from the earlier thread?

Also, do you have any of the environment variables on your system? If so, what are their values?

SESI_LMPATH
SystemRoot

Also note that these are case-sensitive.

edward
Are you still getting those exact same errors from the earlier thread?

Yes, it seems that way.

After pressing “Accept” when the license required dialog comes up, it downloads and after a while tells me in another dialog that the installation of the key has failed.
Reason is “Access denied for operation”. (which seems to me like a read/write error too, which either means permissions are wrong or the path doesnt exist. But I checked that.)

Diagnostics report seems to be the same as far as I can tell.

edward
Also, do you have any of the environment variables on your system? If so, what are their values?

I do not have those. If they are crucial I can of course add new ones.



I will now pull the disabled ethernet adapter out of the PCI slot and in a second step maybe try to temporarily switch off the router as well and plug the cable into the on-board ethernet dapater. I can see how this can be mixing things up. If nothing works, well at the least we know it's not related to the adapter mix-up theory.

André

No, you shouldn't have SESI_LMPATH but it might affect things if you did.

Actually, SystemRoot is one of those special environment variables that doesn't show up in that GUI. Try Start > Run… and Open: cmd. From this shell, do
echo %SystemRoot%

May modify server from this machine: No (no license file permissions)

Is it possible that you don't have write access to the key file? Are you administrator?