Hello! I was wondering if anyone knew what would cause software to just hang in the background? I know it works because I've used it before in a previous version of mandriva....but when I try to use it in 2008.1, it doesn't load. I'm talking about Side Effects Software's Houdini. If you don't know it, it's a 3d app used in the visual effects industry mostly for complext particle and shading effects. They have a demo "apprentice" version you can use for free. I'm trying to get 9.0 to work as I have a license for 9.0 that allows me to render in HD. Right now I am using windows but that version is buggy and crashes all the time (mostly due to windows itself not handling memory well). I want to swap to the linux version but I can't even load it. I install it as normal, then I cd to /opt/hfs9.0.794 and then source houdini_setup_bash and type hkey. hkey is what you use to get a trial license from sesi. I have the sesinetd license administrator running and responding fine. I have the programs all installed and functional, but it won't load. If I go to command-line interface for it, I can still use it.....but not well since I need to see what I'm doing. I tried running with and without compiz. I deleted all my preferences. I tried running as several different users. I ran it in kde 3.5.9 and 4.1. When I run hkey it will pop up a window that says "Connecting to license server" and then, after that window closes, it just sits there running in the background until I kill it. Never draws a window or anything. Does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be? I have glxgears running fine and that checs out, so I am at a loss for what it could be. The people on odforce are going through what they know of but I thought there might be a small chance that someone on these forums would know what the issue with it could be.
Anyone?

Thanks in advance!

Some debugging output would surely help
urpmi strace
And after that
strace -o /home/flarefox/houdinierr /opt/hfs9.0.794/hkey

When the execution of the command stops, get the "houdinierr" file and paste it somewhere (it can be very large).