Segmentation Faults

[shub]

On Red Hat 9 with Shake 3.50, is anyone experiencing an increase
in segmentation faults ?
Has there been a change in the way Shake loads files - locally or from the network - that may be straining even the highest memory settings for linux boxes running a late 2.4 kernel version ?

[robtheg]

I do agree. I,m actually working in a project with Shake on Red Hat Linux and the segmentacion faults happen very often. It's quite anyoning.

[bmosborn]

We had endless problems with 3.5 on RH9
(running on dual Xeon). Finally gave in
the other day and installed Red Hat Enterprise 3
which seems much more stable and smooth.

Chris

[user_deleted]

Hey all,
is really red hat recommended for shake?
anyone tried running it on a 64 bit Suse or Mandrake with opterons ?

[user_deleted]

Apple Shake 3.5 runs on SuSE Linux Professional 9.1 with the 2.6.5 Kernel and should run just as well on SuSE Linux Professional 9.2 when released in November. It will not run on SuSE Linux Personal (only offered in 32-bit) with out some updating done by the end user due to missing developer libraries. Unknown if Novell Linux Desktop will include all the necessary files for Apple Shake when released later this year but between the software offered by Novell I much prefer the feature rich SuSE Linux Professional for what's included and it's ease of use. It also simply just works with highend software.

As for Mandrake Linux I tend to avoid that distribution since it caused nothing but headaches back when testing Maya and Shake on Mandrake Linux 9.2 then later on 10.0 to experience the same dependency errors and segmantation faults. If you don't want to use or can't afford SuSE Linux or Red Hat Enterprise WS then I'd recommend Fedora Linux which is free. Note: you cannot obtain a maintenance support package if you choose Fedora Linux. Something to consider if you want technical support and gurantee on updates among other things.

[deke-kincaid]

Shake is not supported on any PPC version of linux. Same as all the other linux professional 3d and 2d apps (prman, maya, houdini, xsi, etc...).

[user_deleted]

Thanks for reminding me that highend software on the market ported to Linux is for the x86 architecture and not compatible with Linux distributions on PPC. I've since edited the post. The limited choice available to Apple consumers is really sad but understandable considering Apple relies on selling their software with their hardware. This lock in mentality is one of the reasons why I've stayed with x86 instead of going with PPC.

[deke-kincaid]

I know you blindly love linux to death and seem to think it is the only solution out there but it is not always the best choice for every situtation. Right tool for the right job.

On PPC hardware there is already a really well supported unix based operating system, so there was less of a need to branch out and support linux on that platform. It is the same on SGI, Alpha, Sun, etc.... why support linux on those processors when you already have a rock hard unix supported by a large company(Irix, Tru64 and Solaris respectively). Also one of the biggest issues that originally plauged the x86 from taking off in graphics was 3d accelerated graphics drivers which PPC does not have. It's kinda of hard to support a hardware platform that doesn't have all the pieces in the first place.

The biggest thing stoping the developers is graphics drivers and demand. Apple is such a small niche market in the first place that asking for PPC linux support is really hard to do. Only a really small niche within a niche market would probably support PPC linux like Mental Ray or Prman. I believe MR already does actually and Pixar has stated many times that all it takes is enough orders to pay for a port in order for it to happen.

[user_deleted]

Beaker,

It's not that I blindly love Linux considering I see the positive and negative aspects of using any OS. Specially considering I came from using Windows most of my life and I can't recall if it was the Apple II-E was my first PC or the Commadore 64. Well after all I'm 33 y/o now and the Atari console system I used as a kid is now in the science museum...lol.

Anyway, I was getting fed up with all the Blue Screen of Death, IE lock-ups, spyware, partition fragmentation, viruses and licensing cost with running Windows so I compared several OS to find the one that best suits my needs and the needs for the artist and studio. Linux particularly Novell's SuSE Linux was the one that attracted me most. There were several factors that convinced me to switch to Linux but one important one was hardware support. With Windows I was guaranteed to be able to use DCC cards and so was the case with Linux distributions. I also could run the OS on a wide range of x86 hardware unlike OSX where I was severely limited on my options. Having a wider range of hardware to choose from kept things competitive which obviously lowered cost. Also, considering I like using Shake it was nice to know Apple continued to support the Linux port of Shake after they acquired the software from Nothing Real. Shake isn't the only software at my disposal but with Linux having good support from several highend software developers, Linux's open architecture and the resources available from open source it was the right choice for me. Specially like I said coming from using Windows GUI to using Linux's KDE or Gnome is not a difficult transition. Hey, like I've said to others if you give me around 30 minutes I can have my desktop looking identical to OSX Panther with floating tool bar, widgets and all but that's not what I want. Hopefully this clarifies my choice better for you and that I always weigh the pros and cons of any software or hardware.

[ryokukitsune]

I've just installed shake 3.5x and SuSE 9.1 Professional on a dual Xeon workstation, but am not having any luck starting shake - I keep getting the following error when I type "shake" at tcsh prompt:

/usr/shake-v3.50.0308/bin/shkx.exe: error while loading shared libraries: libnrcc_lx.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Does this look familiar? I have the feeling this is an environment variable issue, but I don't know how to proceed to set it up correctly, whould be grateful for any help I can get.

thanks,

john t.

EDIT: after re-installing SuSE 9.1 professional (different problem), I'm getting a completely different error when I try to run shake:

cohibalinux:/usr/nreal/shake-v3.50.0308/bin # ./shake
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
internal error: can't open X11 display

This is sounding a bit more ominous - perhaps I don't have all the libraries I need? Is there a listing of those I need to run Shake 3.5 in Suse 9.1?

It seems that some on this board are successfully running Shake in Suse, and I'd love to learn how to do this, as I've found RH9 completely unuseable - shake runs, but it's slower than a 286!!! on my system, and the mods I've tried have done nothing but trash my RH9 installation, so I went out and dropped $90 on Suse hoping for something better...

thanks,

jt

[user_deleted]

The one thing I noticed that differs with Novell SuSE Linux and Red Hat Linux is the lack of ".bash_profile" in the user's home directory. I was informed by an I.T. Tech that SuSE Linux uses ".bashrc" as it's ".bash_profile" but there's nothing wrong with a SuSE Linux user creating the ".bash_profile" text file. I did this and added my PATH to Shake as limited user (not root). Example: "PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/nreal/shake-v3.50/bin". Then typed "source .bash_profile" in the Terminal (looks like a computer monitor with sea shell in KDE). Now you should be able to start the application by opening either the Terminal or from "Run Command" in KMenu (start menu) by typing the word "shake". You can also add a shortcut link from the script in "/usr/local/bin" by right mouse clicking the icon for "shake" or drag and drop to your desktop.

Re: "/usr/shake-v3.50.0308/bin/shkx.exe: error while loading shared libraries: libnrcc_lx.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

I did not experience this error. The lib file "libnrcc_lx.so" should be seen in "/usr/nreal/shake-v3.50.0308/lib". I also haven't experienced your second error. My advice is to contact Apple Support and send them a bug report.

Workstation Specs:
CPU: Intel P4-HT 3.2 GHz (Hyperthreading enabled)
Motherboard: Abit IC7-G
RAM: 1 GB OCZ Dual Channel PC4000 500MHz
HDD: x2 Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 AGP / Driver: IA32 53.36
OS: SuSE Linux Professional 9.1 (32-bit) Kernel: 2.6.5-7
Desktop: KDE 3.3.1 (Updated via YaST Source FTP mirror)

[ryokukitsune]

Thanks - that did the trick. I've narrowed it down to environment variable issues, so I'm going to look into getting that all straightened out, but by putting a .bash_profile in my home directory, and moving the shake installation to home/[user]/bin I was able to successfully launch Shake, and I'm very impressed at how blisteringly fast it is - seems faster than XP and OSX...

thanks again,

john t.

[user_deleted]

Glad my info helped you to get shaking with Shake As for the speed yes Shake not only runs faster on Linux but also renders faster than Windows and OSX. You can do a benchmark to test Shake on your system here http://homepage.mac.com/breadboi/shake/http://homepage.mac.com/breadboi/shake/ as well see the previous test results that show Shake on Linux is faster.