Hi guys,

So I had installed Houdini 17.5.327 about a month a half ago on my Macbook Pro 2017 and had no issues whatsoever installing and licensing. But about a week ago I went to use it (I traveled away) and I kept getting SSL certificate and licensing errors when launching apprentice and the license administrator to root out the issue. I couldn't figure out what was wrong and figured I had bad internet. Then 18 came out and I just uninstalled 17.5 and got 18 (I'm now back home). But I'm having different errors now.

When I launch Houdini, the boot goes and goes then I just get an error that says “License Error: incorrect version of hserver detected (or problems with a connection to hserver)”

When I launch license administrator it just never connects to the server. My internet works fine though.

I have already uninstalled Houdini and made sure it was removed from Applications completely and redownloaded and installed. No luck I get the same error about having the incorrect version of hserver. I've already emailed support a week ago about the first issues I was having and have yet to hear back so I figured I would post here.

Is there somewhere on my Mac that I would find information about the hserver installed or find the old verison? I should also mention that 17.5 was the first version installed on my Mac.

Thanks!

That error is a little strange as it indicates that hserver is not currently running or is not reachable. I would suggest emailing support or filing a bug. Please make sure to attach a license diagnostic and any other relevant material in either case.

@mattw I would email them a diagnostic report but I cant even reach the licensing server. When I run license administrator it takes a while to connect and when I do it asks to login. I enter my email but it says my account exists but does not have the ability to manage licenses.

UPDATE: So I have submitted a bug report and been in contact with someone and I was able to give her a diagnostic. She sent me a license file to put on my Mac. Went to launch Houdini and received the same error: “Houdini Error - License Error: incorrect version of server detected (or problems with a connection to the server)”

I have already reinstalled hserver multiple times with fresh downloads from SideFX so I don’t think it is out of date. Still waiting to hear back but I'm really at a loss for what the problem is because I have internet connection. Will post update or solution as soon as it is fixed.

FIXED! What happened is that OSX can change names when switching between networks. My license server started having issues when I was traveling.

To fix - open license admin -> main menu -> change license server -> click local server button and accept changes if name is different -> boot Houdini.

Thanks to the support team!

Thanks hopeschroers. Had the same issue after travelling to a new country. Houdini is now running. Woohoo, saved me heaps of time waiting for the support team to get back to me.

Cheers

Thanks hopeschroers. Had the same issue after traveling to a new country, I was banging around to run Houdini Apprentice. Houdini is now running. Woohoo, saved me heaps of time waiting for the support team to get back to me.

Thanks & Cheers

same issue...hopeschroers's solution worked. thanks :]

Thank you hopeschroers for posting your solution. It gave me the tip I needed to fix my problem.

As you said, if you use another network (in my case a public library wifi) OSX can change your Mac's hostname which is what Houdini Licence Administrator uses to connect to server for licences.

My fix was to change my local hostname back to what it was on my Mac at the time I installed Houdini (I had it noted), in my case MaMacBook-Pro-2.local instead of MacBook-Pro-3.local - go to System Pref-Sharing and click on EDIT button to change it. Perhaps Houdini support can tell you what your original hostname was if you can't remember it if your method does not work, or try reducing the iteration of the name, i.e. "2" instead of "3". This original reference hostname seems to be embedded, so reinstalling Houdini didn't fix it for me. I was considering erasing my hard drive to kill the hidden file as a last resort.

There is a fix to stop OSX doing this:
https://www.sidefx.com/faq/question/osx-and-the-licenses-have-stopped-working/ [www.sidefx.com]

mattw
That error is a little strange as it indicates that hserver is not currently running or is not reachable. I would suggest emailing support or filing a bug. Please make sure to attach a license diagnostic and any other relevant material in either case.

Can confirm contacting support fixed my problems, they were really quick to reply and helpful.

I did my licensing through my account on the houdini webpage (not the license server) and that was the only way that would work for me.

Hello David,

I marked your licenses as lost and reissued them to your account.
You can install them in the machine of your choice.

Alternatively, you can leave the licenses on our server and use login based licensing instead:
https://www.sidefx.com/faq/question/how-can-i-use-login-licensing/ [www.sidefx.com]


Cheers,
Monika