I just tried firing up Apprentice and found my original license having expired. My understanding from the documentation is that Apprentice should automagically give me the option of renewing my license. That does not appear to happen. Any attempt to say “Install Licenses” in the license administrator ends when my e-mail address and password are rejected. How do I force a relicensing?

Here is my diagnostic output:

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

License Administrator output:
=============================
Generated on: Wed May 30 16:49:05 2012
Local host name: dhcp-143-169.caltech.edu
Local server code: 5c7d4697
Local ip address: 131.215.143.169
Number of servers: 1
License server name: Love.local (love.local)
License server server code: 5c7d4697
Server ip address: 131.215.143.169
Reported host name: Love.local
Reported host ip address: 131.215.143.169
License server is running: Yes
May read licenses from server: Yes
Has SERVER license: Yes
License server version: 12.0.581
May modify server from this machine: Yes
Redundant server keys: 1
Name Code Redundant Connected Transmission OK
—- —- ——— ——— —————
Love.local 5c7d4697 no - -
License Administrator version: 12.0.581
Http proxy host: (none)
Licensing options file: /Library/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/12.0.581/Resources/houdini/Licensing.opt
Can retrieve http://license.sidefx.com/index.php: [license.sidefx.com] Yes

Installed licenses:
LicID Platform Product Ver Avail Expiry
—– ——– ——- — —– ——
b27870da Generic Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 12.0 0/0 29-may-2012
+.+.+.+ Love.local (license known to: Love.local)
=== This license has expired ===
1da9b253 Generic Render-NonCommercial 12.0 0/0 29-may-2012
+.+.+.+ Love.local (license known to: Love.local)
=== This license has expired ===

sesictrl -i output:
===================
—– SERVER Love.local ——–
Lic b27870da: 0 “Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 12.0” Generic 29-may-2012 +.+.+.+ Love.local

Lic 1da9b253: 0 “Render-NonCommercial 12.0” Generic 29-may-2012 +.+.+.+ Love.local

Serv Love.local 5c7d4697
redundant: no
connected: no
transmission successful: no



hserver -l output:
==================
Hostname: dhcp-143-169.caltech.edu
Uptime: 0:08:30
License Server: Love.local
Server Version: sesinetd12.0.581
Version: Houdini12.0.581
ReadAccess: +.+.+.*
WriteAccess: +.+.+.*

973,224 of 4,194,304 MB available
CPU Usage: 16% load
0 active tasks (4 slots)



licenses file:
==============
* The local machine is not the server machine, so the licenses file
cannot be shown. *

I edited /Library/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/12.0.581/Resources/houdini/Licensing.opt to use localValidator.

That did the trick, though I suspect this is not the official way to do it. I should add that I installed out of the box with no modifications of any kind.

While I am back up and running I'd like to learn how this is supposed to work and suspect that my hand edit really isn't the right long term solution…

For the free Apprentice license reinstallation you should choose the first option, namely “Install (or reinstall) my free Houdini Apprentice license”, which should not prompt you for your licensing login. And it should install a new free license.

If you choose the second option, “I have a paid license for Houdini. Install licenses”, you will be asked for the licensing login (which may be different than the website/forum login). But that applies only to the users that purchased either Apprentice HD or commercial licenses. The free Apprentice users don't have licensing login.

One suspicious thing in the diagnostic output is the host name:

Local host name: dhcp-143-169.caltech.edu
License server name: Love.local (love.local)

Normally, it is not an issue, since the reinstalled licenses will pick the correct host name. Although old licenses issued for “Love.local” may not work on “dhcp-143-169.caltech.edu”. Macs can change the host name when they join other network. One way to avoid that issue is to configure OSX in the Terminal::

sudo scutil –set HostName Love.local
sudo scutil –set LocalHostName Love


After you edited Licensing.opt file to use localValidator, I suspect that Houdini automatically forced the non-commercial license installation or perhaps used the consistent host name. I'm not really sure. But modifying Licensing.opt is the right thing to do if you want to change the licensing mode (which somehow fixed the problem here).