Hello forum,

I am facing a “small” problem out of blue. Houdini had installed in a windows OS few months ago and it was running without any problem, until last night.
It was already open at the time where I tried to open another session but nothing. I closed the one was already open and tried again, but nothing. Here is the odd, in the task manager the all the processes which I tried to open was running but there was nothing on the desktop.

I uninstalled it and reinstalled then another problem came for first time which was related with the gfont.exe which didn't let my installation to complete. I skip the problem by ending the process of gfont.exe and then the installation completed.

But again the first problem was here, with all the applications of houdini (image viewer, geometry viewer, command line tools, license admin etc.) the processes running but nothing on the desktop, not even an error.

Does anyone have any idea what that can be?

Cheers

35 views but no respond
I know its not an easy one.

I tried to find any info in google for that problem and there are only two people describing the same problem with other softwares (non cg) but in both of them nobody was able to give them any solutions.

I like to believe that there is always a logical reason about what happen in your computer and soon or later I have found the answers. But this one drives me crazy.

cheers

license server issue?

Check the license administrator and see that you have licenses and there are no issues in reading them.

Check the license administrator and see that you have licenses and there are no issues in reading them.

thanks jeff for your reply but it has nothing to do with license issue,
the processes of all houdini's applications works but there is nothing on the desktop. I cant open license admin or anything else retailed to houdini, I installed the apprentice version but the same problem.

Try to start houdini from the console and see what error message you get. Also check if there are residue files in your temporary directories. Did you recently install a new graphics drivers? Rename your $HOME/houdini10.0 directory and then start houdini again, does this solve it? Is houdini allowed in the firewall settings?

Just a few things you could check.

Try to start houdini from the console and see what error message you get. Also check if there are residue files in your temporary directories. Did you recently install a new graphics drivers? Rename your $HOME/houdini10.0 directory and then start houdini again, does this solve it? Is houdini allowed in the firewall settings?

Pagefan, once you said about the $HOME/houdini10.0 directory, I realized that this directory is missing, every time where I am reinstalling houdini, this directory is missing.

I am installing the same version which used to work fine on my machine in the past, but now I am getting an error during the installation, and it can not complete it because of some gfont.exe, but when I am ending the process of of gfont.exe from task manager, the installation continues and completes without more errors.
(someone had the same problem in the forum and he said that probably is some broken font or something and its ok to skip it, but the odd is that it was not used to be problem for me in the past installation)

But again, I cant say if there is any link between those problems.
1) When Houdini was working in my computer, 2 days ago, and there was the $HOME/houdini10.0 directory, then for first time the second session which I started was vanished. So there that problem was exist even with houdini installed proper in my machine.

2) the gfont.exe problem during installation for first time

3) the missing $HOME/houdini10.0 directory in every new installation that I am trying.

as you can see I have freaked out, I love that software and I am really missing it.

Tomorrow I am gonna show my workstation to my school's IT guys (ncca) and maybe they can help me. If they do, I am gonna post the solution here for the records.

Either way, I am gonna appreciate any help.

p.s. I have done only a windows update recently but I had restarted my machine after that and Houdini was working fine.

p.s I m gonna empty my temp folder and try reinstall again, nothing else left for me to do.

There was some other guy here on the forums who had issues with mplays file assosciation…while not related to your problem, he solved his by cleaning houdini references in his registry. You could check if there is any information left of old houdini installs. In fact, would be best to completly remove houdini from your system, clean the registry of any references and then install again.

Letting a sys admin having a look at it is also a very very good idea

I cleared the temp and registry… nothing seams to help.
I cant believe that none is able to help me with that.

What graphics hardware do you have, and what driver version is it running? And which Windows OS are you on?

Does hython run? As it is a non-UI app, it might tell you if the problem is a license or a graphics issue.

Houdini used to run in the same machine for many months without problem, its not that I change something thats why I said everything happened out of the blue. I tried to explain the problem as best as I could.

I am in windows 7 (32-bit)
AMD Althon 64 x2 dual core processor 4200+ 2.20 GHz
2.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800

how can I say if hython runs?
the problem is the suddenly I have more than one issues to solve, but I think the first is to have a proper installation, how is possible not home directory (c\Users\myname\My Documents\houdini10.0) have been created after installation?

Can you manually create a Houdini10.0 directory in your My Documents dir?

You can run hython if you run a command shell; I believe it is in the Houdini Start menu program folder. Then, just type “hython”.

what the point to create manually the folder, there are some stuff that must be inside, I think.

Well, if you can't manually create a folder as a user, then Houdini won't be able to either (run as that same user). Houdini will fill the folder as it needs to (as prefs are saved, icons created, DSOs compiled, etc), but creating it yourself won't harm anything.

Another thought - do you have a HOME environment variable set? (Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings, “Environment Variables”. This is where Houdini will write the houdini10.0 directory to. If it's not set, it'll create it in the cUsers/<Username> folder.

twod thanks for your help,

no there is no environment variable set about houdini, do I have to created it manually? Do you know what do I have to write? In the path?
So you mean that I can try to create manually the home houdini directory and the environment var and then install houdini?

I'm having a similar problem, though with different results. Installed 9.1 on a new system with Windows 7 64, and it stalled at the gfont.exe part so I was forced to end the process.

Uninstalled and put it back on, this time it went through fine, but anytime I click on a text menu in license server or anything (like View, etc), it freezes up. I can click on the tabs just fine until I click a text menu and get the freeze up.

It seems I have the preferences folder installed under Users.

Any ideas?

It seems I have the preferences folder installed under Users.

surely you want to log in as a user with full admin privileges.


rob

I'm having the same problem as the OP. On Win7 x64. Install hangs at gfont for hours, end it manually, install finishes, Houdini doesn't work, etc.