Houdini Start-Up Crashed on Render Node

AFAIK, Houdini could not start its main application (GUI) without OpenGL enabled graphics card. Hence if you are trying to start it in a render node with ASPEED on-board graphics, it is impossible. All you can do is to run the render using CLI.

As for user encounters the same issue, if you are using Nvidia graphics card, you would need to switch the XORG graphics driver to Nvidia proprietary driver. You can do it at:

Menu > Settings > Software and Update > Additional Drivers

Sometimes the latest driver may not work well. So you may have to tried different version to get it work.

Tips: To get a clearer picture of why Houdini failed to start, instead of running it from software menu, you can run it from terminal. The error message will be more readable than the crashed dump file.

XFCE4 Desktop Not Showing

Sometimes when you login the desktop wallpaper, icons are all missing. It is due to the xfdesktop not loaded properly. To fix it, simple type xfdesktop in terminal, there will have some message appeared but can be safely ignore.

How to extend screen to second monitor in Linux / Fedora?

Here's the command that could extend the screen to second monitor, in case Linux does not do the job automatically:

xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1920x1080 --output eDP1 --mode 1366x768 --left-of VGA1

Where you need to replace the screen size manually. By running xrandr in terminal, you could get the screen size range for each display output.

Beside --left-of, there are other options such as --above, --below, --right-of

[Fedora] Omit GUI and boot with or into command line

Before you start, you need to know what is runlevel.

runlevel is a number that indicates which mode the computer to boot into. For instance, runlevel 5 is graphical mode, where runlevel 3 is text-only mode. Runlevel 1 is single-user mode, commonly used for troubleshooting.

And GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader), a bootloader which allow you to choose which OS to boot into during computer start up. Here's a screenshot of GRUB.

Now, there are two options:

1. boot with command line, means omit the filling up Fedora logo and show the boot progress by command line
2. boot into command line, means completely omit booting into GUI and end up in command line

What you need to do is at the GRUB screen, select your Fedora OS name and press "e".
Then find rhgb in the line start with linuxefi /vmlinuz. On the right side of rhgb should be word "quiet".

For option 1: Remove the rhgb from the line and press CTRL+X or F10. This should show the command lines as boot progress instead of the Fedora logo. Useful for identifying what has failed during boot progress. The system will still end up in GUI afterwards.

Sample = ... rhgb quiet ... 

For option 2: Here's why you have to understand the runlevel. You achieve this by simply add a runlevel number "3" after the word "quiet" (space in between two words) and press CTRL+X or F10. This should boot the system into CLI instead of GUI.

 Sample = ... rhgb quiet 3 ...

Note:

• rhgb = RedHat Graphical Boot