I downloaded Apprentice 16.5, liked it and payed for Indie license. I got an email showing how to install license, non of it worked. I tried running Houdini License Manager and got a popup showing only the Apprentice license, I went command line and ran sesicrtl -L and got a popup saying “you are not currently entitled to any license”. there is a link in email from Houdini licensing which when followed shows my Indie license, at the bottom there is a tab for redeem license entitlements. it also has a warning about - - Using the License Administrator is much easier and less prone to error. should I use this?

I have had easier times in electronic test by having to convert to binary, then twos complement, then octal then finally to HEX than getting the Houdini license activated.
EDIT: should I uninstall Apprentice and reinstall it using the license? what of the two projects I am working on in Apprentice?

Reinstalling is usually the first thing to do, if that fails then email support. Alternately I always solve license issues using manual license installation. Simply delete where the licenses are kept, sidefx.com/faq/license-management/#faq8, then do the manual installation. Copy pasting in the license lines.

https://www.sidefx.com/login/?next=/services/licenses/ [www.sidefx.com]

I reinstalled H16.5, made sure I clicked commercial check box
I get “no server found at localhost:1714”
when I run sesictrl -L I still get “you are not currently entitled to any license” even though I do show a license from SideFX.

don't know. never user sesictrl

When I installed indie I noticed that the desktop launch icon was pathed to /bin/houdinifx.exe instead of the one that is indie /bin/houdini.exe

First, I'd recommend contacting support; they deal with this stuff all the time, so they're pros at figuring out problems with licensing.

I'm not an expert in licensing, but the first post sounds like the license just isn't redeemed, so isn't showing up. The “no server found at localhost:1714” sounds like the license server isn't installed or isn't running. (It should be at C:\Windows\System32\hserver.exe) If it's not there, make sure to Reinstalling Houdini usually does not help anything, unless it's something like that the previous time, you didn't turn on Commercial Licensing to install the license server and now you need it. However, there are a bunch of various permissions issues, antivirus, or firewall issues, among others, that might prevent a license server from working.

Also, a clarifying note. There's only one installer for Houdini on a given platform; there aren't separate installers for Indie, Apprentice, Core, FX, etc. They're all the same Houdini files. The different shortcuts should only differ in the type of license that they try to select first when starting up. I'd guess that any of them would be able to fall back to use whatever license is available if the first type isn't available, but I'm not super familiar with licensing, so maybe they don't.

Oh, and if you contact support, please send them a license diagnostic: https://www.sidefx.com/faq/troubleshooting/#faq70 [www.sidefx.com]

thanks all. I have been working with support, tried about half dozen different things to no avail. I'll keep at it.

rpurcell
When I installed indie I noticed that the desktop launch icon was pathed to /bin/houdinifx.exe instead of the one that is indie /bin/houdini.exe

oh wow man,that is it wrong path. THANKS A MILLION rpurcell!!!