I finally upgraded my Macbook to Catalina and now Houdini 18 isn't opening. It will think for quite a while and then give me a crash warning without ever completely spinning up. Also, the license server opens, but just hangs, with no successful connection. I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled, but that didn't help it. Any tips for getting H18 to work on Catalina?

What version of Houdini?

Latest build–18.0.348–Apprentice.

Try renaming your preferences folder to see if a clean slate improves anything. (Available in ~/Library/Preferences/houdini/18.0) I don't know why anything would have changed, but a bad path in houdini.envmight lead to a startup crash.

The system upgrade might have changed your computer's hostname, which could thwart licensing but would be unlikely to cause a crash. Verify in the File Sharing preference pane or with:


A frequent culprit in Catalina problems is an insufficient access privilege level in System Preferences > Privacy > Accessibility and Full Disk Access. Check to see if any Houdini-related applications are listed there that are missing a checkmark.

Thanks for the tips! Alas, no change, even after renaming the prefs folder (the full disk access ticks seemed to be in order). It still crashes immediately upon opening and the license server never logs in.

Other pointers? I assume someone is successfully using it on Catalina . . . .

An inadequate GPU could lead to launch failure, but I don't think the system requirements have changed lately. Be sure to check your temporary folders, including $TMPDIRand /tmp/houdini_temp/for crash logs.

Maybe try installing the latest daily build [www.sidefx.com] and/or launching under a new local macOS user account. Also, applications initiated from the command line often pipe their diagnostic messages and errors directly to the terminal, which can be helpful in identifying problems.

You could also try verifying that the license server daemon is actually running, and if so, if it can deliver licenses:


Some license-related resources:

https://www.sidefx.com/faq/studio/#faq505 [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/faq/license-management/ [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/faq/question/544/ [www.sidefx.com]

Update to the latest Production Build, I would do a complete uninstall first and then re-install including your Library/Prefs/Houdini/18.0 folder

You could also try Daily Build .403 which I am told fixes a few things in OSX.

https://www.sidefx.com/download/daily-builds/#category-devel [www.sidefx.com]


It also sounds like this might be the issue:

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/70723/ [www.sidefx.com]

But it was addressed and fixed in the latest Production Build, so please update first.

I've got H18 running on Catalina, but after a few issues, like slowness.
This was one fix: Turn on File Sharing in the OS X Prefs Sharing panel.
Look through this thread if you haven't already:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/70848/?page=1 [www.sidefx.com]
There may be something there of use to you.