**Houdini HQueue on macOS Sonoma Setup Tip**
The recent Houdini 20.0.724 release (houdini-20.0.724-macosx_arm64_clang14.0_13.dmg) has several issues that impact the ease of running HQueue on macOS Sonoma systems.
Step 1. The first problem is the Launch Daemon file (/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.hqclient.plist) points at a missing Python v3.9 library, while HQueueClient’s Frameworks’ folder now ships with Python v3.10. This requires an edit of the plist file in two places to correct the file paths to point at Py 3.10:
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and
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Step 2. The macOS Sonoma operating system now uses “AirDrop” on port 5000. This setting can be disabled by changing the “System Settings… -> General -> AirDrop & Handoff -> AirPlay Receiver” setting to OFF. This is relevant if you really want to keep HQueue running on the default port 5000 setting for Houdini cross-platform consistency.
The following macOS zsh terminal command checks for programs using an open network port (like port 5000): “`lsof -i :5000“`
You will likely see an lsof output similar to the text below when running on a default install of macOS Sonoma:
“`COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME ControlCe 436 vfx 10u IPv4 0xf… 0t0 TCP *:commplex-main (LISTEN) ControlCe 436 vfx 11u IPv6 0x3… 0t0 TCP *:commplex-main (LISTEN)“`
In the Isof output, the text “ControlCe” indicates that the macOS AirDrop setting is active, which in turn means port 5000 is already in use. This is solved by disabling the AirPlay Receiver.
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