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chrisc
Mirko Jankovic
OS: Nobara Linux 42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) x86_64
Host: X570 Creator
Kernel: Linux 6.15.7-200.nobara.fc42.x86_64
Display (WAC1057): 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz in 32"
Display (LG TV SSCR2): 3840x2160 @ 120 Hz in 72" *
DE: KDE Plasma 6.4.2
WM: KWin (Wayland)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (32) @ 5.09 GHz
GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
GPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Memory: 11.68 GiB / 125.71 GiB (9%)

And still unusable. Sometimes it lasts longer, sometimes crashes after couple minutes.
I tried default and qt6 versions as well.
Maybe I will try with just 1 monitor attached... who knows

Hi,

I made a quick install of Nobara to give it a try (iso wiht nvidia and kde), and same problem as you, Houdini is unusable. Blender seems to work. Nobara is based on Fedora, it would be interesting to know if Houdini crashes too on Fedora ?

On my system, Houdini works fine at the moment. But I'm not a power user as you, a lot of modeling and a bit of Copernicus to learn it and some rendering stuff. But no crashes anymore for several months now.

Do you know CachyOs ? It's a fork of Archlinux for gamers, it works out of the box, very quick to install and easy to configure. Actually, I would be interested to know if an impressive configuration as yours, with two Nvidia cards, works on Archlinux ?

My last system :

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.9-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.3 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
NVIDIA Driver Version:575.64.05
NVML Version:12.575.64.05
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product Name: All Series
Mirko Jankovic
CachyOS and arch does not support rpm so would need to convert rpm installations to something else. I need maya, houdini, davinci resolve... I'm trying to have linux with as least as possible manual work involved and just install and use. That is why so far Nobara was best for me, but something in there is crashing Houdini so will probably have to wait till H21 to see how it behaves.
Thinking to try rocky 10 maybe... but still Nobara was great for both work and gaming ( I love to game when I catch some time... guilty)
martinium
I installed Nobara for the same reason - everything seems to be working out of the box if you want to use nvidia drivers. I barely had to touch the terminal. However, sadly, Houdini crashes every minute as well, such a shame!
chrisc
Mirko Jankovic
I'm trying to have linux with as least as possible manual work involved and just install and use

Yes, that's right, Nobara works out of the box with nvidia, but the installation of Archlinux is really simplified with the script Archinstall, just do not forget to install with the script or at the end of the installation opencl-nvidia for Davinci and Houdini.

Mirko Jankovic
I need maya, houdini, davinci resolve.

I know it's not the good place, but it can help someone : to install DaVinci on Arch, just download it, install "libxcrypt-compat", install davinci, and if davinci doesn't start you just have to delete the files between the {} or displace them in a folder like "_disabled" (I think it's a secure way). You can do it manually or with this line in a terminal :
"sudo mkdir /opt/resolve/libs/_disabled && sudo mv /opt/resolve/libs/{libglib-2.0.so*,libgio-2.0.so*,libgmodule-2.0.so*,libgobject-2.0.so*} /opt/resolve/libs/_disabled", (where "sudo mkdir /opt/resolve/libs/_disabled" create the folder and the second part moves the files in that directory)

It works for me, and you do not have to use AUR.

For Maya, I don't know, I'have tried Unreal and it works too.

I don't want you to think that I'm pushing ArchLinux too hard against others Linux distributions, especially since I'm not an expert on Linux, Houdini, or DaVinci. I'm just an amateur, explaining what seems to work for me. And it's true that ArchLinux is the most stable version of Linux I've used so far, but yes, it requires a little more work at the beginning. I just want to help, as a lot of Linux users helped me.

Cheers
Mirko Jankovic
Seems like it works just fine on rocky linux 10.
But on rocky have some other issues... nvidia proprietary drivers install is not working properly, have to use rpm fusion akmod, but then maya have some issues there ahahha. But Houdini is working fine. So.. always something...

Wondering why Nobara is failing..
kilian89
Mirko Jankovic
But on rocky have some other issues...

What happens when you follow these recommended steps for installing Nvidia Drivers?
https://docs.rockylinux.org/desktop/display/installing_nvidia_gpu_drivers/ [docs.rockylinux.org]
AslakKS
I think the main thing making Houdini crash is xwayland itself. Arch recently got xorg-xwayland 24.1.8, this I believe is the main reason Houdini is now able to run under Arch without crashing.
I see that e.g. rocky 9 is on xorg-x11-server-Xwayland-23.2.7 - and I doubt rocky 9 will update this.
So the best way to get Houdini running under Wayland is probably to make use of a recent distro release.
Mirko Jankovic
As mentioned moved to rocky 10 and Houdini ss happy now but nvidia... run into one more issue on rocky 10.. when I start rendering 1 of my 4090s just disappears from system, fans ramp up 100% and I need to reboot system.
Will take a look at that rocky nvidia guide. If that fails as well then it is stuck to windows again for a bit
Mirko Jankovic
Trying cachyos after multiple failures on rocky 10, I think those are nvidia issues still not all up to date.. anyway, installing Houdini I get this error:
Error while processing installation options: Could not figure out where to place init scripts

Any ideas? Launcher installed but seems like problem when installing licence server?
johnmather
Arch and any of its derivatives are unsupported. The error that you are encountering above is raised when it can't find /etc/init.dor /etc/rc.d/init.d.
MattiBRND
Mirko Jankovic
Trying cachyos after multiple failures on rocky 10, I think those are nvidia issues still not all up to date.. anyway, installing Houdini I get this error:
Error while processing installation options: Could not figure out where to place init scripts

Any ideas? Launcher installed but seems like problem when installing licence server?

I am also on CachyOS, but not using the launcher and using the login license, so I have to log into my sidefx account once a session - being very happy with that so for what its worth: As john mentioned, start with creating the necessary directory
sudo mkdir /etc/init.d
, and install houdini after that as you would do on any other supported distro. Once thats done, copy the licensing service to the respective directory, on arch thats
sudo cp /opt/hfsYour.Houdini.Version/houdini/sbin/sesinetd.service /usr/lib/systemd/system
and start the service with
systemctl enable --now sesinetd.service
Mirko Jankovic
Creating /etc/init.d did the trick... and seems to work fine now. Will bully it it for a bit see if it is stable but I really hope to have good experience as others here.
ALso figured out Davinci resolve studio and everything else I need.. except for Maya unfortunately still need it from time to time..
But that is topic for another forum.
Hopefully with H21 and latest APEX improvements maya is out of window completely and .. problem solved by itself
Still wondering why Nobara is failing... ANyway


Thank for support I will cry back if it starts crashing again but so far seems to be just fine!

EDIT:
And here is reason why I just don;t give up and move to windows:

Both machines are dual 4090, 110 is abit better CPU but rendering is fully on GPU only I turned off CPU from rendering, doesn't add much to overall speed but ads ton of heating and noise...
111 is on windows 10.. 110 is cachyos
hMonkey
Here's what worked for me, it might not for you.
Double check according to your own requirements!

This is for Rocky9(.6), should be done on fresh install.

# NVIDIA Install
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-next-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf --enablerepo="epel" check-update
sudo rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
sudo dnf install https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-9.el9.elrepo.noarch.rpm -y
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/rhel9/x86_64/cuda-rhel9.repo
sudo dnf install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel-$(uname -r) tar bzip2 make automake gcc gcc-c++ pciutils elfutils-libelf-devel libglvnd-opengl libglvnd-glx libglvnd-devel acpid pkgconfig dkms
sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:latest-dkms
echo "blacklist nouveau" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
echo 'omit_drivers+=" nouveau "' | sudo tee /etc/dracut.conf.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
sudo dracut --regenerate-all --force
sudo depmod -a
sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub

# Install Houdini via HoudiniLauncher

# Custom paths - If you don't use the defaults (note the > and >>, uncomment if you want to set your own)
# echo 'export HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR="/path/to/folder/__HVER__"' > /etc/profile.d/houdini.sh
# echo 'export HOUDINI_PACKAGE_DIR="/path/to/packages"' >> /etc/profile.d/houdini.sh

# Needed for SELinux step (maybe)
sudo dnf install -y policycoreutils-python-utils

# If you use RESOLVE, it has a lot of missing libs on Rocky (this links to octane installed libs, uncomment if you want to use them)
# sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/lib/libc++.so.1 /usr/lib64/libc++.so.1
# sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/lib/libc++abi.so.1 /usr/lib64/libc++abi.so.1
# sudo ldconfig

# FIX Licensing

# 1. Create dedicated user/group
sudo useradd -r -s /sbin/nologin -U sesinetd

# 2. Fix ownership of binaries and data
sudo chown -R sesinetd:sesinetd /usr/lib/sesi

# 3. Optional: Set up log directory (better than /tmp)
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/sesinetd
sudo chown sesinetd:sesinetd /var/log/sesinetd
sudo chmod 750 /var/log/sesinetd

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t var_log_t "/var/log/sesinetd(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -R /var/log/sesinetd

# 4. Stop currently installed instance (on fresh install) // prep for upgrade/fix
sudo systemctl stop sesinetd
sudo systemctl disable sesinetd

# 4a. Create corrected systemd service file
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/sesinetd.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=SideFX License Server
After=network.target
Documentation=https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/ref/utils/sesinetd.html

[Service]
Type=simple
KillSignal=SIGQUIT
TimeoutStopSec=10

# Run in working dir, no 'start' argument, -D = foreground mode
ExecStart=/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd -D \
    --logfile /var/log/sesinetd/sesinetd.log \
    --max-logfile-size 10MB \
    --append-date \
    --min-logfile-level 5 \
    --enable-console \
    --log-to-system \
    --license-logfile /var/log/sesinetd/license.log \
    --license-log-level 3 \
    --max-license-log-size 5MB
WorkingDirectory=/usr/lib/sesi

# Drop privileges
User=sesinetd
Group=sesinetd

# Logging (optional)
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=sesinetd

# Restart logic
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StartLimitInterval=10
StartLimitBurst=5

# Security: minimal hardening
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# 5. Fix SELinux file contexts
# Binaries and scripts → bin_t
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t bin_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t bin_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesictrl"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t bin_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd.startup"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t bin_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_safe"

# Data files → var_lib_t
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t var_lib_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_cache.db"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t var_lib_t "/usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_peak_usage.bin"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t var_lib_t "/usr/lib/sesi/licenses"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t var_lib_t "/usr/lib/sesi/licenses.disabled"
# Apply contexts
sudo restorecon -R /usr/lib/sesi

# 6. Reload systemd
sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# 7. Stop any old instance and re-enable
sudo systemctl stop sesinetd
sudo systemctl disable sesinetd
sudo systemctl enable --now sesinetd

# 7a. Wait for sesinetd_cache.db to be created
sleep 5
if [ -f /usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_cache.db ]; then
    echo "Fixing sesinetd_cache.db permissions..."
    sudo chmod 640 /usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_cache.db
    sudo chown sesinetd:sesinetd /usr/lib/sesi/sesinetd_cache.db
fi

# Next step is probably not needed, but given that houdini is not setting up SELinux it might be needed.

# 8. Wait a moment, then check status
sleep 3
sudo systemctl status sesinetd --no-pager -l

# 9. Now check for SELinux denials (critical!)
echo "Checking for SELinux denials..."
sudo ausearch -m avc -c sesinetd --since today

# 10. If denials exist, generate custom policy
if sudo ausearch -m avc -c sesinetd --success no --format raw | grep -q .; then
    echo "Generating custom SELinux module..."
    sudo ausearch -m avc -c sesinetd --success no --format raw | audit2allow -M sesinetd_custom
    sudo semodule -i sesinetd_custom.pp
    echo "Custom policy installed. Restarting service..."
    sudo systemctl restart sesinetd
else
    echo "No AVC denials found. SELinux may not be blocking (yet)."
fi
duveil
Houdini may or may not work under Wayland. All of our test machines are configured to use X.

I expected more than that. After waiting more than two years I am disappointed to hear it.
kilian89
duveil
I expected more than that. After waiting more than two years I am disappointed to hear it.

I don't think that VFX indurstry will transition to Wayland so quickly. Especially since Wayland does not support GPU accelerated remote sessions for VFX artists - via Terradici, Zmesh central, or NiceDCV...

Maybe one day Wayland will be ready for that.
duveil
kilian89
duveil
I expected more than that. After waiting more than two years I am disappointed to hear it.

I don't think that VFX indurstry will transition to Wayland so quickly. Especially since Wayland does not support GPU accelerated remote sessions for VFX artists - via Terradici, Zmesh central, or NiceDCV...

Maybe one day Wayland will be ready for that.

I dont have an expectation for vfx industry in general. Autodesk Maya and Blender are already works on wayland so I don`t get why Hou doesn`t.
Mirko Jankovic
But it does work. Im running it on CachyOS and fedora on Wayland, and seems to be fine.
Erik Ws
duveil
kilian89
duveil
I expected more than that. After waiting more than two years I am disappointed to hear it.

I don't think that VFX indurstry will transition to Wayland so quickly. Especially since Wayland does not support GPU accelerated remote sessions for VFX artists - via Terradici, Zmesh central, or NiceDCV...

Maybe one day Wayland will be ready for that.

I dont have an expectation for vfx industry in general. Autodesk Maya and Blender are already works on wayland so I don`t get why Hou doesn`t.

duveil very interesting to hear in which part of houdini you have problem with wayland ?
guan9287
the new Houdini 21 version is experiencing issues on Fedora 42: the mouse wheel zoom function in the Network View stops working, and using the scroll wheel in the parameter panel causes the panel to go blank. These problems were resolved after switching back to X11.
MattiBRND
holding space in the networkview will make the mousewheel zoom work, unfortunately this does not work for parameter views/panes, unless you hower over the scrollbar directly. hopefully sidefx is going to fix this, as it worked just fine in houdini 20.5 and is, for me atleast on CachyOS, the only issue on wayland so far.
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