Hello forum,

Somehow I can't install my apprentice license for Houdini 12.5.427 on my Debian machine.

It keeps asking me to install / reinstall a apprentice license and I say “accept”, “agree” and Houdini prompts me its installed successfully but then Its asking to install / reinstall again.

Do anyone of you guys know how to solve this?

Thanks in advance!

H12.5.427

Getting the same problem trying to install on Win7 machine.

On my Windows 8 machine everything works fine..

Would like see it working on Debian now.. ops:

I also tried to install the apprentice license through offline activation using all steps from this page:

http://license.sidefx.com/help.php?platform=linux&commercial=no&mode=quickinstructions&ipaddress=84.104.130.247#2 [license.sidefx.com]

Houdini tells me license installed succesfull but still not working here..

Any ideas?

Anyone else using Debian have the same problem?

well i am having troubles getting the license to run right on win 7 too. I tried loading the install from the dailybuilds and the apprentice but both give me errors .
after you agree to agreements get an error regarding the ver 2 key.
I can open the application —and do things but cannot then render.

rich

Have you tried the offline activation way?

There's a link in my previous post on how to do that.

I found out that there was a window there where the Apprentice license server was issuing bad keys after it came back up after the Toronto flood. So if you're still having troubles with your Apprentice activations, it's recommended to move aside your current licenses file [sidefx.com] to somewhere safe and then restart Houdini to re-activate.

I just happen to have contact from sidefx but I will try your solution when I get home.. looks promising.

Thanks

Supposed that one attempted to renew the Apprentice license key and got bad keys, can SESI invalidate the bad keys that were generated during those few bad days? I can't seem to get a good key any more because my current bad keys won't expire until Aug 8/9, and I am currently getting the same bad keys and same errors (after moving aside the old license directory and restarting lic server) no matter how many times I tried.

Thanks!

If that doesn't work, then yes you will need to contact support AT sidefx.com to have them delete the bad keys from the license database itself.

Ok I just took a look inside the license file using nano and its like 400 lines of apprentice licenses that have failed during my attempt to fixing the license.. woops..

Anyways I've backed it up, removed all lines and tried to reinstall the license but same problem.

Also tried to remove all license and then using the offline activation enter them.
Still same problem.

I think the hkey can't read the license somehow.
Im not sure this is because license is correct or incorrect.

Just tried to install on CentOS system.. same problem
This is really depressing..

We believe that we have now fixed our Apprentice License Server.

In order to clear your machine of the faulty license you were issued earlier please delete your “licenses” or “licenses.local” file. This is located in :

On Windows: C:\Windows/keys/

On Linux: /usr/lib/sesi/

On Mac: /Library/Preferences/sesi/
(do not confuse this location with /users/username/Library/Preferences).

Once this file is deleted please install your Houdini Apprentice license as usual.

Thank you for your patience on this issue…

Sorry this does not work for CentOS 6.4, also tried this yesterday on Debian 7.1, unfortunately also wasn't working.. :cry:

Ok I found something odd now (see screenshot).

I was looking at the License Administrator just now and I noticed my Local Machine IP was incorrect, so I tried to restart the license server and I found out that “sesinetd” is not available in /etc/init.d (see window on the left)/

Do you think this might have something to do with it?

Btw thank you all for helping, I really appreciate it!

Ok got it working now!

Not 100% sure what fixed it, I tried two different things at the same time.

- first I removed the license in usr/lib/sesi/
- uninstalled houdini 12.5 entirely
- reinstalled (with one minor adjustment)
- when asking “install using apprentice licence” or “install license server” I chose the license server this time, might have been the game changer..


Also.. I noticed something with using the “install apprentice license” option.
When I do this I only have one file in the usr/lib/sesi/ folder, which is the license file.

And when choosing “install using license server” I get alot more files in my usr/lib/sesi/ folder, might not have been too smart when trying two things at the same time but this should narrow it down..

I hope these instructions also help for other people.

Cheers

silvina
We believe that we have now fixed our Apprentice License Server.

In order to clear your machine of the faulty license you were issued earlier please delete your “licenses” or “licenses.local” file. This is located in :

On Windows: C:\Windows/keys/

I tried this (numerous times) and it still isn't working. I also tried doing a full uninstall and reinstalling with the latest version and also manually entering the offline activation keys. This is on Windows 7.

It always says the licenses were successfully installed but then when I try to run the app it just starts the license install routine again in an endless loop.

I haven't been able to use Houdini in several days. What should we do to get it working?

I've removed the existing licenses.local file as well and am likewise unable to install a new non-commercial license for 12.5 on Win 7.

I receive the same error dialog stating

Could not write the license to a file:
C:\Windows/keys/licenses.local


When the old expired license file existed, the license administrator stated I did not have permission to modify the licenses. Without the license file, the license administrator does not enable the file menu option to manually install keys at all.

I was able to acquire a new non-commercial license for the H11.0.701 without any trouble, but I need 12.5 to work on my files so H11 being active doesn't help me.

Have you guys tried this:

When installer asks “install using apprentice licence” or “using server license”, try picking the server license part. I think this solved the problem for me on CentOS.

johnnycore
Have you guys tried this:

When installer asks “install using apprentice licence” or “using server license”, try picking the server license part. I think this solved the problem for me on CentOS.

We don't have that option on Windows 7. The options are either “Install my free Houdini Apprentice License” or “I have a paid license for Houdini”. Either option just takes you around in the same endless loop.

Can someone from Side Effects provide those of us effected with some guidance on what we should do?