From: Daniel Browne <dbrowne@(email surpressed)>
Subject: Maya 2011 Issues on Linux
   Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:46:02 -0500

Hi Greg & the gang,

I thought I had gotten everything set up correctly with my linux test render box but today I've run into a strange problem with Maya. We've encountered at least one, possibly several, Maya scene files which when trying to produce an .mi export for rendering with MentalRay standalone fails... unless you're an admin (or possibly just local user) on the machine. I've disabled SELinux (which I'm still not completely familiar with) to no avail. It also appears that users cannot write into /var/tmp. 

When I did my initial test renders (granted, of a much smaller scene) everything worked fine, and I've had my Nuke installation on the same box working flawlessly for weeks now. Is there some quirk of Maya2011 installation and setup on linux that I'm missing, or something unique to CentOS 5.5?

I've attached the render long but I don't know if it will help. I've been banging my head against the wall with this. Which of course means it has a simple answer.

Please help,

-Dan


----------
Dan "Doc" Browne
System Administrator
Evil Eye Pictures

dbrowne@(email surpressed)
Office: (415) 777-0666 x105

--------------- Rush 102.42a9c --------------
--       Host: bing
--        Pid: 15259
--      Title: rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma
--      Jobid: neildiamond.210
--      Frame: 1001
--      Tries: 23
--      Owner: dbrowne (1089/20)
--  RunningAs: dbrowne (1089/20)
--   Priority: 1
--       Nice: 10
--     Tmpdir: /var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190
--    LogFile: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/1001
--    Command: python /EEP/Tools/Settings/rush/scripts/submit-maya-python-alpha/submit-maya2011.py -render 10 1001 1001 1 yes 1 Fail Licpause+Retry /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2 /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/images/ 2742x2334 mentalray-standalone(mi) all ray 5 0 off - - /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/data Save - off
--    Started: Mon Feb 21 20:19:07 2011
--------------------------------------------
rushd: WARNING: chdir(/var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190): Permission denied

*** MAYA RENDER ***
   RENDERER: mentalray-standalone(mi)
    THREADS: all
  SCENEPATH: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma
    PROJECT: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2
   IMAGEDIR: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/images/
  MAYAFLAGS: 
BATCHFRAMES: 10.0 (1001.0-1001.0,1.0)
MRAYCOMMAND: ray
  MRAYFLAGS: 
MRAYVERBOSE: 5
  SAVEMIDIR: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/data
    RETRIES: 1 (Fail after 1 retries)
LICBEHAVIOR: Licpause+Retry
 MAXLOGSIZE: 0
      DEBUG: off
       PATH: /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2010-x64/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2010/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2009-x64/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2009/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2008-x64/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya2008/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya8.5-x64/bin:/usr/autodesk/maya8.5/bin:/usr/aw/maya8.0/bin:/usr/aw/maya7.0/bin:/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin:/usr/aw/maya6.0/bin:/usr/local/rush/bin:/usr/local/rush/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/rush/bin


Executing: Render -r mi -proj /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2 -s 1001.0 -e 1001.0 -b 1.0  -exportPathNames aaaaaaaaaa -file /var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2.mi /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma

Starting "/usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/bin/maya"
Warning: temp directory /var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190 does not have write permissions.
Resorting to default.
Error: default temp directory /usr/tmp does not have write permissions.
*** Fatal Error: Failed creating directory: /usr/tmp

Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 229301: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 313613: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 396533: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 479611: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 562939: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 647597: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 731455: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 1463220: Unrecognized node type 'mia_material_x_passes'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 1463229: Unrecognized node type 'mentalrayItemsList'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 1463230: Unrecognized node type 'mentalrayGlobals'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 1463233: Unrecognized node type 'mentalrayOptions'; preserving node information during this session.
Warning: file: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma line 1463325: Unrecognized node type 'mentalrayFramebuffer'; preserving node information during this session.
File read in 11 seconds.
Warning: Errors have occurred while reading this scene that may result in data loss.
Result: /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma
mental ray for Maya 2011 
// Mental ray for Maya: using startup file /EEP/Tools/Settings/Autodesk/maya2011/shaders/mentalray/maya.rayrc.
mental ray for Maya: setup
mental ray for Maya: initialize
mental ray: version 3.8.1.26, Feb  7 2010, revision 110437
mental ray for Maya: using 1 license
mental ray for Maya: register extensions
// mental ray Node Factory: loaded
mental ray for Maya: successfully registered
mental ray for Maya: loading startup file: /EEP/Tools/Settings/Autodesk/maya2011/shaders/mentalray/maya.rayrc
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/AdskShaderSDKWrappers.mi
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/architectural.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/architectural.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/base.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/base.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/contour.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/contour.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/paint.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/paint.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/physics.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/physics.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/production.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/production.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/subsurface.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/subsurface.so
// generating Maya nodes...
// parsing /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/include/surfaceSampler.mi
// loading /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/mentalray/lib/surfaceSampler.so
// generating Maya nodes...
Warning: (Mayatomr.Script): The scene contains outdated mentalray nodes not compatible with the current user interface. 
Warning: (Mayatomr.Script): If problems occur try to import the scene into an empty project
Error: No object matches name: mentalrayItemsList.globals
Error: Scene /Casino/Poker/Shows/tst/tstCOMMON/tstDEV/lgt/maya/tstDEV_lgt_DAR2/scenes/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma.log/rtc0020_anim_layoutTrailerRender_v023.ma failed to render.

// Maya exited with status 210


--- MAYA FAILED: EXITCODE=211
--- GENERAL RENDER FAILED

	Others feel free to chime in..

	First and foremost, these errors are an indication something
	is very wrong, regardless of maya or scene files.

> rushd: WARNING: chdir(/var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190): Permission denied
> [..]
> Error: default temp directory /usr/tmp does not have write permissions.
> *** Fatal Error: Failed creating directory: /usr/tmp

	Correct those, and the maya scene file issues will likely
	go away as well.

	Some are messages from rush, some are from maya. Both indicate
	perm problems with /var/tmp. (often /usr/tmp and /var/tmp are
	the same dir; the former being a link to the latter)

	There are at least two things that have been added to linux
	(and OSX) over the years that affect the way permissions
	are handled: acl's and selinux (see 'man acl' and 'man selinux')
	So you'll want to check those.

	Also, traditional unix perms can create this situation as well
	(eg. someone enabling an improper sticky bit on eg. the /var/tmp dir)

	You mentioned you disabled selinux; though I don't right away
	suspect that given the above, what technique did you use?
	Did you disable it in grub, or /etc/sysconfig/selinux, or both?

	Try checking your work to make sure it's off:

selinuxenabled; echo $?

	From the selinuxenabled(8) man page:
	>> It exits with status 0 if SELinux is enabled and 1 if it is not enabled.

	..so if the above prints 0, it's still on.

	Try this test: ssh into host 'bing' as 'root' and run:

		mkdir -m 777 /var/tmp/my-test		# create a dir with wide open perms
		su - dbrowne				# become the dbrowne user
		cd /var/tmp/my-test			# see if you can cd into the dir

	Then try (again, as root first):

		mkdir -m 755 /var/tmp/my-test2		# create a dir with perms mostly for user
		chown dbrowne.dbrowne /var/tmp/my-test2	# change ownership
		su - dbrowne				# become the dbrowne user
		cd /var/tmp/my-test2			# see if you can cd into the dir

	Does the cd operation fail?

	Check the perms + acls on /, /var, and /var/tmp against a working machine
	of the same type to see if there's anything wrong with the perm settings.
	Look in particular for unusual 't' or 's' flags in the perms.

	A messed up /var/tmp could affect /all/ programs badly including maya, rush, etc.

	Checking on my FC14 system, I get:

$ ls -ladZ / /var /var/tmp
dr-xr-xr-x. root root system_u:object_r:root_t:s0      /
drwxr-xr-x. root root system_u:object_r:var_t:s0       /var
drwxrwxrwt. root root system_u:object_r:tmp_t:s0       /var/tmp
 ^^^^^^^^^
$ getfacl -a /var/tmp
getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names
# file: var/tmp
# owner: root
# group: root
# flags: --t
user::rwx
group::rwx
other::rwx

	Also: is this a freshly set up box that you installed yourself,
	or is it a 'pre-installed' system that is perhaps been customized
	by someone else? If the latter, you might consider reinstalling
	the OS yourself if you suspect it may have been customized.


-- 
Greg Ercolano, erco@(email surpressed)
Seriss Corporation
Rush Render Queue, http://seriss.com/rush/
Tel: (Tel# suppressed)ext.23
Fax: (Tel# suppressed)
Cel: (Tel# suppressed)

Well after a rebuild I've discovered the rather bizarre apparent cause of the problem; when you run a Maya desktop session under Linux an additional set of .mel preferences files are created under ~/maya/2011-x64/prefs which do not exist on the mac. Even though they all seem to relate solely to GUI session configuration, the Render command will not execute properly without them, at least in the case of the scene we encountered.

On a somewhat related note does anyone have a good guide for configuring rayrc files? I'm trying to resolve whether or not particular render issues relating to MentalRay Standalone are caused by improper formatting of my centralized rayrc and maya.rayrc files. I also cannot confirm settings and environment variables by placing echo statements into the rayrc's; they all echo the variable name (i.e. "{_MI_REG_INCLUDE}") but not the value. Preceding it with a $lookup call also has no effect. The existing documentation is of little help to me and seems to mostly gloss over the whole area.



On Feb 22, 2011, at 7:55 AM, Greg Ercolano wrote:

[posted to rush.general]

	Others feel free to chime in..

	First and foremost, these errors are an indication something
	is very wrong, regardless of maya or scene files.

> rushd: WARNING: chdir(/var/tmp/.RUSH_TMP.190): Permission denied
> [..]
> Error: default temp directory /usr/tmp does not have write permissions.
> *** Fatal Error: Failed creating directory: /usr/tmp

	Correct those, and the maya scene file issues will likely
	go away as well.

	Some are messages from rush, some are from maya. Both indicate
	perm problems with /var/tmp. (often /usr/tmp and /var/tmp are
	the same dir; the former being a link to the latter)

	There are at least two things that have been added to linux
	(and OSX) over the years that affect the way permissions
	are handled: acl's and selinux (see 'man acl' and 'man selinux')
	So you'll want to check those.

	Also, traditional unix perms can create this situation as well
	(eg. someone enabling an improper sticky bit on eg. the /var/tmp dir)

	You mentioned you disabled selinux; though I don't right away
	suspect that given the above, what technique did you use?
	Did you disable it in grub, or /etc/sysconfig/selinux, or both?

	Try checking your work to make sure it's off:

selinuxenabled; echo $?

	From the selinuxenabled(8) man page:
	>> It exits with status 0 if SELinux is enabled and 1 if it is not enabled