Houdini For Linux "Invalid node type name"

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1

Hey there

When I try to place any V-Ray nodes in Houdini for Linux I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “object_VRayNodeLightDome”, line 1, in <module>
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/toolutils.py”, line 1492, in new_func
return function(*args, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/objecttoolutils.py”, line 492, in genericTool
node = toolutils.genericTool(scriptargs, nodetypename, nodename,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/toolutils.py”, line 1492, in new_func
return function(*args, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/toolutils.py”, line 1614, in genericTool
(child, newnode) = createNodeInContainer(container, nodetypecategory,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/toolutils.py”, line 1470, in createNodeInContainer
newnode = _mapSubnetToNode(parent, nodetypecategory, container.childTypeCategory()).createNode(nodetype name, nodename,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/houpythonportion/ui.py”, line 1242, in decorator
return func(*args, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/opt/hfs21.0.596/houdini/python3.11libs/hou.py”, line 16672, in createNode
return _hou.Node_createNode(self, node_type_name, node_name, run_init_scripts, load_contents, exact_type_name, force_valid_node_name)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
hou.OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
Invalid node type name

Any idea why this might be? It works fine on my Windows boot.

Thank you!

2

HI @tommygdawg The “Invalid node type name” usually means that the V-Ray installation was not successful and Houdini is unable to read the tools.

This could have happened for couple of reasons.
- Interrupted installation
- Wrong build
- Unmanacling Python / Qt versions

I see that you are using Houdini 21.0.596. Have you tested with other Houdini versions before?

What version of V-Ray are you using now? ( V-Ray > About V-Ray )
Have you installed any other V-Ray builds on this machine before?

Finally, lets confirm whether Houdini is loading V-Ray at all.
- Check your packages folder: ~/houdini21.0/packages/
- You should have a V-Ray *.json package there

3

Hi!

I’ve done some testing since the original post.

I’m using the latest stable build for Houdini on Linux. It does work up through version 21.0.440 which, to be fair, is what it’s approved for. However, I assumed that because the latest stable Windows builds worked on 596 that it would on Linux too.

I somehow did something that got it to briefly work on 596, and then it stopped again. Not sure what happened there.

Furthermore, I’d like to be able to use it on the qt5 version of Houdini if possible since there’s some UI bugs in the QT6 version of Houdini for Linux, but that doesn’t work either. Is that normal?

If you couldn’t tell, I’m fairly new to Linux as a life long Windows user.

I appreciate your time!