Hi, does any of you receive this error when trying to install houdini in ubuntu 6.10:

./houdini.install: 765: let: not found

thx
calin

There was a talk on the mailing list recently and what I got from there is that Houdini works very well with Dapper but not at all with Edgy.

Dragos

Well that's no good for me because I'm running a sort of edgy hardware and ubuntu 6.06 doesn't work on my machine, can't find the SATA hdd. Its the new IBM/Lenovo T60p.

calin

Hi Calin, I was having similar troubles getting Houdini installed under Kubuntu Edgy. Try these tips:

First of all, if you try to do the install as so: # ./houdini.install, you will get the “./houdini.install: 765: let: not found” error. However if you do it like this: # . houdini.install the installation will proceed. Problem is you don't have permissions for a proper install, so just do it with ‘su’ (I didn't have any luck with sudo, same error).

Also I would recommend fixing the houdini.install and sesinetd.install scripts as described in this thread, http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=6304 [sidefx.com]

Otherwise it will probably bomb out when it gets to setting up the license tools.
Hope this helps, cheers!

Here's how I solved two problems installing Houdini Apprentice on ubuntu 6.10.

The problem with:
houdini.install: 765: let: not found
can be fixed by editing houdini.install. The very first line:
#!/bin/sh
should be changed to:
#!/bin/bash

It looks like ubuntu 6.10 has /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash which does not support the “let” builtin command. /bin/bash does support “let”.

The other problem can be fixed by editing sesinetd.install. The line:
gunzip -c $HERE/houdini.tar.gz | tar xf - “houdini/sbin/sesi*”
needs “–wildcards” added to the tar. It should look like this:
gunzip -c $HERE/houdini.tar.gz | tar xf - –wildcards “houdini/sbin/sesi*”

Those two changes should get houdini installed.

I continue to have trouble getting a license.

Have you solved your licensing issues with Ubuntu Edgy?

Thanks so much for info - this totally solved any installation issues with Houdini. Now it runs like a charm on Ubuntu 6.10

Hey guys, just thought I'd post a word of thanks! I have Houdini 8.2 apprentice finally installed on Ubuntu 6.10 - now if I can figure out how to setup my wireless connection, I don't need to boot into XP to work

Thanks again!

DriesD
Have you solved your licensing issues with Ubuntu Edgy?

I'm using Kubuntu Edgy 6.10 and don't have anymore issues installing after changing those few lines of code from above just have to make sure you run the license server every time you start Houdini it seems…

*** Edit *** added some pictures of my license server running

KeithBallinger
Here's how I solved two problems installing Houdini Apprentice on ubuntu 6.10.

The problem with:
houdini.install: 765: let: not found
can be fixed by editing houdini.install. The very first line:
#!/bin/sh
should be changed to:
#!/bin/bash

It looks like ubuntu 6.10 has /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash which does not support the “let” builtin command. /bin/bash does support “let”.

The other problem can be fixed by editing sesinetd.install. The line:
gunzip -c $HERE/houdini.tar.gz | tar xf - “houdini/sbin/sesi*”
needs “–wildcards” added to the tar. It should look like this:
gunzip -c $HERE/houdini.tar.gz | tar xf - –wildcards “houdini/sbin/sesi*”

Those two changes should get houdini installed.

I continue to have trouble getting a license.

Worked like a charm Houdini is up and running !!!

Once again thanks !!!!

What's the advantage of using 6.10 vs 6.06? Isn't 6.06 a lot less picky as far as installing Houdini is concerned?

Just to bump this for a rant(although this is by no means a SESI problem, should really be in General):

Due to an ancient Slavic curse, I've been forced to try and get Unbuntu 7.04(fiesty fawn) installed on a new workstation and get various apps, including Houdini, running. I have been spitting, cursing, pullin my hair out every single step of the way, and it seems to be equally part Debian and part “easy Ubuntu - for the rest of us!” that causes this for me.

The dash/bash hassle is still there, and it's precisely the sort of crap that will kill Linux. “We're Debian, we have our own political agenda, so you should alter all your scripts instead of us following what virtually every other distro does. sh is not *supposed* to have a ‘let’”. *sigh*

I've noticed the default Gnome install(for Unbuntu) still uses the same useless metacity manager which is unusable for a production environment(it's been a while for me, but the hate still simmers :evil: ). I gave it a chance, but in the end I switched to KDE, but I still find certain aspects of KDE don't work properly(disk management, for one) under a previously Gnome based Ubuntu. I even tried an all-Kubuntu install but again, it didn't seem to have all the bells and whistles of the Gnome set.

And don't even get me started on the lack of a root account. Really cute idea, guys, except it pretends that you're never going to network with other computers that don't share your philosophy. Again, the kind of crap that Linux really does not need right now. (yes, I know the workaround. ).

I'm lost as to why this distro is so popular. Marketing?

The only thing I've liked so far is the apt-based software management, which is the most rock-solid management I've personally used in Linux.

Cheers,

J.C.

well… I wont start a useless “flame' or sort of.. but I'm a long term Fedora/gnome user.. that now is on ubuntu 7.04…
apart from the fact that I never found a so ”userfriendly“ and stable distro so far (i mean .. which doenst need to be an hacker to make it working)… I must admit that onlyl big problems I have with Houdini and Ubuntu are:

- 8.2.xxx when the popup windows asking ”save or discard“ the scene when closing houdini should appear.. it just kills down houdini.. no question.. no shell. and its quite annoying when you click the wrong button…

EDIT: REMOVED… for mistake and distraction.. sorry guys.


apart from that.. I must say I'm really happy with Ubuntu and it'll take me a lot of time before I'll ever format my laptop ever again.

but yeah .. I agree with the fact that seems Debian (dont call it Ubuntu people and viceversa.. they would eat you) builts arent under the sesi care about fixing basic problems which tends ”non hackers" to just jump to another distro.. or worst.. software..

btw.. I fixed this issue by symlinking /sbin/sh to /sbin/bash

Give tomorrow's build a try, it should have the sh/bash/dash “let” issue worked out.

Sorry to jump in, but thanks for that catlee. You know, I recently started integrating 3rd party software like houdini a bit more into my ubuntu desktop, following the freedesktop guidelines and this document here: http://primates.ximian.com/~federico/docs/gnome-isv-guide/index.html#desktop-references [primates.ximian.com]

I found an svg icon somwhere on the forum here and it's really nice.
Is Sidefx planning on providing a desktop file by any chance? My self made one looks like:

#/usr/local/share/applications/Houdini.desktop


Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Houdini Master
Comment=Houdini 3D Animation by SideFX
Exec=houdini %f
Icon=houdini
Terminal=false
MimeType=application/x-houdini;
Categories=Graphics;3DGraphics;


Got some mime-types as well, for bgeo, geo and hip files.

I can imagine it's a pain trying to do the good thing on all linux distro's, but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel nowadays.

I would also like to point out that Debian policy is actually not to use enviromental variables and only initiate variables in startup scripts. I got a setup at the moment where all houdini/bin files are symlinked to /usr/local/bin/houdini_init which is a shell script that loads my Houdini environment and has the `basename $0` trick in it to set HOUDINI_PATH and others. This way, it plays nicely with nautilus and any other piece of gnome.

Sometime though, when I double click a houdini scene file, Houdini launches the scene twice and I have to quit one. Anyone ran into that using Ubuntu? I had it on Edgy but is still there in Feisty. I haven't encountered another package that does that this far…

Thanks for your time.

Dries.

Thanks for posting material that might take the pain out of things a bit for those sticking with Ubuntu/Debian. Luckily for me, we solved the problem that kept me from using SUSE on the workstation, so I've gone back to it, and life is so much easier.

Honestly, I love the whole open-source thing, but the demagogue politicizing that crops up, resulting in “Debian policy of no envars in shell environs ” and “no, sh does not have a ‘let’” just makes me want to lie down on hot coals and cry. When all is said and done, it should come back to Torvald's level-headed attitude that the point here is to make something that's fun and powerful to use, not making endless rules and restrictions. This stuff wears me out. SUSE may be the new satan now that it's signed up with MS, but it's still the better choice for painless production environments.

Cheers,

J.C.

Do you have houdini and mplay installed in the menu and well integrated in Gnome or KDE under Suse, John? My latest experience with OpenSuse (10.2) was that it was as hard to do so for third party software in Suse. So I fired up the terminal and launched houdini from there all the time. But when you think about it, that's not much of a whopping desktop experience. And in Debian and Ubuntu's defense, at least there is a policy. In Suse it seems you can set your env path in about 10 different places. Trying to be consistent is quite a task then.
And it actually makes sense that desktop software doesn't rely on system wide envars. (envars in startup shell script ARE okay though): say your desktop environment has a JOBDIR envar, system wide. It is used to set your HOUDINI_PATH. That would mean that you have to log out of your desktop environment and log in again if you want to switch jobs.

I could be totally wrong here, it's interesting to touch on, ‘cause I’m considered a bit of a loner with my houdini/ubuntu combination over here.

I think it's very user-specific. Nobody here really wants or needs icons in menus for starting production apps. We're all shell(or spy *cough*) power users here - we start a houdini session with the hip file we want. It's faster.

Having said that, it's trivial to set up. There's a small handful of apps that aren't KDE specific(small inet apps I run in wine, for example) that take all of 30 seconds to set up. That includes cute icons, bouncing hourglasses - whatever you want. No biggies. <shrug>

The “making sense” thing is precisely what separates the men from the boys(and I use that rather jurassic expression deliberately, due to the endless pissing contests) in the world of what's “right”, the “duty” of Open Source, and all the other exhausting, wasteful arguments that plague Linux and associated applications. I invoked Torvald's name because he never wanted all this nonsense - it's more about politics than user experience. I rank the Debian Dinosaurs right up there with the Havoc Pennington's - who are more interested in telling you how you *should* be using the OS rather than giving you options.

The lack of a root account with Ubuntu is a perfect example. Does it matter this doesn't play nicely with other distros, makes far more typing with everything you do? Check out their FAQ on the topic. One of the entries - “what if I don't like this and want a root account?”. The answer? “You shouldn't”. If that ain't arrogance, nothing is. You need to surf around a bit to find out the workaround(which is trivial, and that's galls all the more).

All of this is, in fact, not production friendly. I'm not talking about little Johnny's first experience with Linux - I'm talking about using it in the real world. I'm talking about installing it and not having to discover you don't get and NFS and *openssh* servers, for crying out loud, installed by default. “Wouldn't be prudent”. You need to hunt down all this stuff that other distros gladly and practically install by default.

I realize this is all subjective, of course. Just voicing what's important to me.

Cheers,

J.C.

P.S. No-one here logs in and out of sessions to change scenes or jobs. It's all manageable, you just need to understand envars. Problem is, Debian likes to assume you *don't*, or shouldn't have to, understand them. They try to remove the option as opposed to simply letting everyone co-exist. They know what's good for us.

Dries, thanks for your nice Houdini.desktop file plus the links! I just switched distro's again (sorry i do love installing Linux, guess i am a little distro-whore oops ) and am now running archlinux with the e17 wm. E17 is using the desktop idiom these days so i could use some manuals to help me rebuild my menus.

About J.C.'s rant you are right about what you are saying. Despite the fact that there is something like a LSB every distro thinks they need to add, improve or just neglect it. Then add some politics aka Debian and count me out (renaming fireferret to icemonkey just because the Mozilla guys have trademarked their logos is dumb and has nothing to do with OSS). I do prefer the Torvald/Raymond attitude over the Stallman philosphy.

Dries i do prefer using the teminal these days because houdini does print out messages that could be usefull debugging scripts etc. etc. In Suse you can add your own applications via the menumaker in the configuration manager. It's all gui based so no need to worry about where to put icons and scripts etc.

J.C. do you have scripts that invoke houdini like hescape $JOB $HIP


Pagefan

Hey Pagefan - you don't really need scripts per se. You just need to specify what you want your $JOB to be, such as

setenv JOB /my/job/location

(that's for csh which we use here - bash is a little different). You might want to add paths relative to $JOB and reassign after changing it. Could be scripts, could be as simple as an alias. Remember that although you might have a $JOB specified in your shell, if you load an existing hip file that had a $JOB saved then the hip version will be used from within that Houdini session, so you don't really need to manage that as much.

Use the HOUDINI envars liberally, like HOUDINI_PATH. They're very flexible and allow you to source things from appropriate locations.

Of course, you can get more elaborate like adding $SCENE, etc. $JOB is just a standard one shipping with Houdini, you can make up as many as you want/need. Really this is all all about job management, which is a book unto itself. My experience has been to start small, add things as you think of them, and listen to others who have been in other shops. It's rarely practical to implement something as complicated as how a large shop would do things in a small studio, but there's inevitably things that can be learned. Just be careful to not make things more complicated than they need to be. Once the “path police” start running things you might as well be working for the government. Needs to be keep simple and grasp-able by the end user, or they'll buck.

$HIP is positively useless, only good for demos. Where you started up Houdini is about as important as what colour shirt you're wearing that day. Discard, ignore. Far far too error-prone.

Cheers,

J.C.