H12_A lot of crashes with Windows Vista

[thinkinmonkey]

Hello all,

I'm experiencing a lot of crashes with 12.0.558 with Windows Vista (32bit).

I'm saying this, because with same version BUT with Windows XP SP2 (32bit), I have no problem at all.

Just two examples:

1. I CTRL+click on sphere of "Create" shelf, then I go in the sop to change the type from Primitive to Polygon Mesh and... CRASH!

2. I have an ADD sop, I write "0-$N" under Polygons->By Pattern->Polygon 0 and.. CRASH! Yeap, there are no points in the ADD, I just wrote the formula and it crashes Houdini.

Houdini says always it is a "SEGMENTATION FAULT" error.

Could you try and tell me if you have the same problem?

Do you have some suggestion about how to solve this?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Just to let you know, I cannot use the XP laptop, because it's very old, instead the Vista laptop is new and with a Quadro.

[hopbin9]

Houdini says always it is a "SEGMENTATION FAULT" error.

I seriously need to get that put on some tshirts.

P.S. Just to let you know, I cannot use the XP laptop, because it's very old, instead the Vista laptop is new and with a Quadro.

I hate it when vendors sell laptops with 32bit Vista. If it's still under warranty send it back, and get Windows 7 64-bit home edition.

With that said, the first thing I would suspect is the display drivers. Update them to the latest version, and if that doesn't work, then down grade them to some older versions from 2010 or early 2011.

I know a lot of people who run Houdini on laptops without any problems.

[thinkinmonkey]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try both, downgrading drivers (just updated them some days ago!) and asking Dell for Windows 7 64 bit, hoping it won't be a problem with other applications.

For the tshirt, I take one!

[Erik_JE]

/me points at http://linuxmint.com

Better stability and performance than on Windows

[edward]

For anyone experiencing crashes, my advice is to (in this sequence):

1. If you were on the beta, first move aside your $HOME/houdini12.0 subdirectory and try again.

2. Ensure you have a reasonably up to date driver. If not, get one and try again.

3. Still crashes? Try the latest daily build. For example, I just fixed a crash displaying trimmed NURBS curves today.

4. Still crashes? Fallback to the H11 viewport (Main Preferences > Viewports).

If you get to step 4, then you should log a bug. When logging the bug, you should detail the exact steps on how to reproduce. For the attachment, prepare a .zip with:

1. Your .hip file. Make sure you embed any and all HDAs. If possible, the simplest possible .hip file that still reproduces would be appreciated.

2. Any external files that your .hip uses

3. The crashlog generated in $TEMP as a result of following your description with the provided .hip file

4. A text file of the video driver details from Houdini's main menu > About Houdini > Details

[thinkinmonkey]

@Erik: I'd like it a lot, my experience with Ubuntu years ago was great thanks to its speed, stability, security... but I have some programs too Windows-centric and the trick wine/virtual machine was a "little" painful. But we'll see.

Anyway, could you tell me why you suggested me that distro? Just for curiosity, I don't know a lot about Linux world, I know only that:

a. RedHat isn't free

b. Ubuntu is the simplest, but a bit "heavy"

c. CentOS is used In FX companies

@Edward: thanks for your suggestions.

1. As SESI Support told me about another issue, I tried to delete that folder, but with no success.

2. I have the last nVidia driver (for the Quadro), I should downgrade them and try again.

3. I'm always using the last build, I see they are improving Houdini build after build.

4. I changed from H11 to GL because I had viewport problem. I'll go back just to be sure as you suggested.

[Erik_JE]

@thinkinmonkey

I like it caused it's based of Ubuntu but don't use Unity. It also got some other neat stuff as the Mint Menu , Mint Update and Cinnamon. Neither Ubuntu or Mint is heavy compared to Vista but they indeed come packed with more stuff than some other distros. They include most basic stuff that you usually use and guess that is a love or hate situation. I like it cause it makes me spend less time on installing the stuff I need. After a fresh install of Mint I usually only need to install Houdini, Spotify and activate proprietary Nvidia drivers and after that I am done.

CentOs is popular i guess because you don't have to muck around so much to get Maya running. But if you are primarily gonna run Houdini and/or maybe Nuke it runs perfect in Ubuntu and Mint.

[thinkinmonkey]

It seems ok now: upgraded Houdini to 12.0.599 and Viewport->HD11.

@Erik: I'm downloading Mint just for giving it a look, I know I have to switch to Linux someday to give applications all the resources and power available in my computer instead to have them (poorly) shared with an "hungry" operating system.

Do you know if there's a Mint live cd or is it possible to create that?

What kind of videocard do you have? Is it problem to make it properly work? Does nVidia Quadro drivers work under Mint?

Anyway, when I said Ubuntu is heavy, it was compared to other distros as I read somewhere, it wasn't a comparison with Vista, that IMHO Ubuntu will come out winner for a lot of good reasons.

[Erik_JE]

@thinkinmonkey

You should be able to use the Install cd/dvd as live for test.

I got a 310M in my laptop. It's super easy to get going. It will tell you that restricted drivers are available. Then it is just to activate them and reboot and you should be all set.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia Mint works the same way as it is based of Ubuntu.