Hi,

I have this weird issue when launching Houdini via the command line on OS X.

It's the same problem as mentioned here [sidefx.com] except that using LC_ALL=C /opt/hfs14*/bin/houdinifx does not help.

In my case, if I launch Houdini via the icon in the /Applications folder, it works fine.

But when I run:
cd /Library/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/14.0.307/Resources
source houdini_setup_bash
houdini

It starts with the black unusable interface.

I am not sure if/what I changed recently in my OS configuration that could lead to that problem.

Thanks for your help.

My configuration:
OS X Yosemite 10.10.3
Houdini 14.0.307 (though problem is the same with 14.0.262)

Try to add LC_ALL = C in Houdini.env.

Also do you use Terminal shortcut in Houdini folder or ?

Thanks SreckoM

I tried that as well
When I do that, the interface looks ok (not black anymore) but houdini is frozen and I have this error message in the terminal:
ERROR: houdini.pref (88): Syntax error: syntax error
ERROR: houdini.pref (111): Syntax error: syntax error
ERROR: houdini.pref (112): Syntax error: syntax error
ERROR: houdini.pref (113): Syntax error: syntax error
ERROR: houdini.pref (131): Syntax error: syntax error
ERROR: hcomposite.pref (59): Syntax error: syntax error
Regarding your question, I tried starting houdini from the Houdini Shell terminal
As well as from a normal shell running the following commands:
cd /Library/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/14.0.307/Resources
source houdini_setup_bash
houdini

Any idea?

try this:
open Terminal -> Preferences->Profiles
add a new Profile
under Advanced Tab under International uncheck “set locale environment variables on startup”
uses this shell to source and start houdini.
this solved it for me.

that solved the problem
many thanks !