If anyone would be able to give me some guidance on this, I would appreciate it. Let me tell you what I have on my hands.

My particular flavour of Linux is Debian v3, Kernel bf2.4.18 to be precise. Now I've just installed houdini onto it, changing my install directory from /usr/hfs5.5 to /home/drauga/hfs5.5. The installation of the program component seemed to go quite well, however the installation of the sesi license manager didn't.
Here's what it had to say for itself at the end of the installation:

—————————————————
Checking for existing server…
LMHOST is: core
One moment please …

starting:sesinetd License manager daemon

Licensing information about currently installed licenses follows:

Cannot connect to server core1 (127.0.0.1)- verify that sesinetd is running.
Current License Status:
Cannot connect to server core1 (127.0.0.1)- verify that sesinetd is running.
Please install licenses using the Houdini License Adminstrator
(hkey). Start hkey by first changing to the directory where
houdini is installed and then running :

source houdini_setup
hkey

License tools have now been installed.

———————————————

So of course I did. A quick look at the processes running would seem to indicate that sesinetd was indeed running. from a Tcsh shell I did as it instructed. the license server popped up a nice little box which claimed it was connecting to the server. 10 minutes later it tells me that it couldn't connect to it. Further more, as the license panel appears, it claims that the server isn't running. It still looks like it is. so okay, we'll believe it and start everything manually. Clean out the processes, execute sesinetd manually, try again. no change. start over, this time add hserver to the batch, they are all running, enter hkey. same story.

I have a dialup to the internet ppp0 and an NIC to my internal network eth0 my host machines name is core1 not localhost. I've tried re installing, but here I stand. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, what I have failed to do, or what I might do next to successfully install Houdini properly upon this system, I would really appreciate it, because I have run out of ideas for the moment.

Look forward to seeing what you can come up with.


Drauga`dae

As is always the way. No matter how much you search, and how long you put it off, the solution to your problem always tends to be about 5 minutes after you've asked someone else.
Just incase someone else experiences this problem in the future, I'll give my solution here. And its laughable. Everything was correct, everything was as it should have been, with the small exception that my NIC was not set up with its loop back. Something you can quickly discover by pinging 127.0.0.1 and is quickly fixed with the command ifconfig lo localhost (assuming of course your localhost is set up in your /etc/hosts). With that done and a successful ping, sesinetd running, hkey see's the server, accepts the license key and houdini starts up in a flash.
Was frustrating. But now its time for the fun to begin.
Just so that everyone who reads this knows. 3dbuzz.com is the place to go when you want to know how to use this tool, have just completed the first of the classes assignments after having watched the training and I am impressed, excited and eager to continue and prove myself in houdini.
Thanks.


Drauga`dae