Ubuntu and Maya

[Beamtracer]

Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/) is a derivative of Debian Linux (http://www.debian.org/) Linux. My impression is that Ubuntu is an easier-to-use version of Debian. Debian is one of the most (maybe THE most) popular versions of Linux.

I don't know which ones Maya works with, but I'd imagine that things that work with Debian would also work with Ubuntu.

[argyre]

I did some initial research but there are some complications with just Debian itself (may carry over to Ubuntu as well).

http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=1,3&Board=linuxforum&Number=189551&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=

Lots of mods to the installation on a Debian system. Perhaps I should try it.

[Beamtracer]

I know XSI system specs state that any distribution of Linux should work, as long as certain components are added.
http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/v42/SysReqs/Linux.htm
However Alias gives no specific information like that.

[argyre]

How kind of XSI to be technical (looks at maya =P). Im still configuring my linux box in Ubuntu. I'll keep this updated.

[acidream]

Maya runs just fine with Ubuntu. You need to use alien to convert the .rpms to .deb packages, and install with dpkg. The only problem I encountered was that it didn't set up the paths for mental ray, so I had to look in the documentation and find out what they were supposed to be and manually set them up. Good luck.


scott

[kfc]

I've installed maya under ubuntu. it runs properly except one.
I can't call "maya" from terminal.

it returns 'bash: maya: command not found'

when i try export | grep -i maya it's shows 'bash: grep: command not found'

I understands that it might needs to have the env correctly configured. but I just don't have a clear direction to do it. I've actually added the paths needed to .bashrc , .bash_profiles, /etc/environment (as suggested from some forum).
I hope someone can help me to solve this problem. or i might need to switch distro (which is the last thing i want to do, i've just got my tablet and dual view properly setup).

At the moment, maya can still be run by typing the whole path /urs/aw/maya6.5/bin/Maya6.5. It navigates nicely and it also renders properly in render view. But when i try to do batch render from ui. or even from the terminal. It returns 'bash: maya: command not found' which clearly shows that there's no way i can do sequence renderings.

[kfc]

here i've found a list of problems when i was installing maya.

Setting up maya6-5 (6.5-253) ...
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya' to `maya6.5': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya' to `Maya6.5': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libawcsprt.so' to `libawcsprt.so.1': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libpcw_opa.so' to `libpcw_opa.so.1': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libpcwfindkey.so' to `libpcwfindkey.so.1': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libpcwxml.so' to `libpcwxml.so.1': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libgcc_s.so' to `libgcc_s.so.1': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libstdc++.so.5' to `libstdc++.so.5.0.6': No such file or directory
ln: creating symbolic link `/aw/maya6.5/lib/libstdc++.so' to `libstdc++.so.5.0.6': No such file or directory
sed: can't read /aw/maya6.5/mentalray/maya.rayrc: No such file or directory
sed: can't read /aw/maya6.5/bin/mayarender_with_mr: No such file or directory
sed: can't read /aw/maya6.5/bin/mayaexport_with_mr: No such file or directory
mv: cannot move `/tmp/maya.rayrc' to `/aw/maya6.5/mentalray/maya.rayrc': No such file or directory
mv: cannot move `/tmp/mayarender_with_mr' to `/aw/maya6.5/bin/mayarender_with_mr': No such file or directory
mv: cannot move `/tmp/mayaexport_with_mr' to `/aw/maya6.5/bin/mayaexport_with_mr': No such file or directory

Currently my maya location in system is
/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/Maya6.5

can anyone showing me some example on how to use the 'ln -s' command to link these stuff up?

(with my limited knowledge of linux, I've tried "sudo ln -s /usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya /maya6.5". But i'm not sure whether this is correct.)

btw, there's also a point in the instruction which seem not beable to follow.
"4 - Put in the folder /usr/lib the library libstdc++-3lib6.2-2-2.10.0.so"


(quoted from http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=linuxforum&Number=189551&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=)





I'm trying to be really careful this time without breaking the OS again.

[loden]

Hi, the symlink works like you thought, i.e.: "ln -s original_path link"; anyway if you want to call maya from a terminal you could set up an alias, think about that like a shortcut...In your ~/.bash_profile just write: alias maya="/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya" and everytime you type "maya" is like you were typing the path you specified in the alias...
Anyway that "grep command not found" you had may be bad... hope that the maya installation didn't mess up the permissions, that was happened to me in the past.
Bye

[kfc]

Hi, the symlink works like you thought, i.e.: "ln -s original_path link"; anyway if you want to call maya from a terminal you could set up an alias, think about that like a shortcut...In your ~/.bash_profile just write: alias maya="/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya" and everytime you type "maya" is like you were typing the path you specified in the alias...
Anyway that "grep command not found" you had may be bad... hope that the maya installation didn't mess up the permissions, that was happened to me in the past.
Bye


"~/.bash_profile just write: alias maya="/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya""
i'll definately try this.
This is the only part left to make maya runs perfectly in ubuntu. currently i can launch maya perfectly except when it comes to the rendering. It doesn't recognise the 'maya' command both in terminal and batch ui path.

I'll do a research on "~./bash_profile" in ubuntu. I remember i've read something about the difference in ubunutu compare to other distro.

btw, during the time i've been waiting for the answer. i've been installing different distros like mandrake and suse. both doesn't work that well to me, mandrake is a dependency hell. After i've got the video card driver installed, config in xf86config doesn't recognise my dual monitor. Suse is easier, but it's a hell to get the video card working because YaSt doesn't have the latest nvidia driver. And it doesn't recognise my Quadro FX4000.

I still prefer ubuntu for a newbie like me. atleast i've already got everything else working.

[kfc]

Maya runs just fine with Ubuntu. You need to use alien to convert the .rpms to .deb packages, and install with dpkg. The only problem I encountered was that it didn't set up the paths for mental ray, so I had to look in the documentation and find out what they were supposed to be and manually set them up. Good luck.


scott

i've got this working.
just "sudo gedit /usr/aw/maya6.5/mentalray/maya.rayrc"
change [PREFIX] to ur maya path (ex. /usr/aw/maya6.5/)

but do u encounter problems like can't call maya from terminal?
if u don't how did u 'solve' it?

[loden]

I think your is a permission problem; to check it out try to type "sudo maya" in a terminal: if maya sturt up means your user doesn't have permission to access /usr/aw/.
Try to check if you have execution permission tipyng "ls -la /usr/"; you must have "drwxr-xr-x" in the first column of the output in the "aw" line. If not, type "sudo chmod -R a+x /usr/aw" and try again to call maya from command line.
Hope this could help!

[kfc]

I've finally got the problem solved. And i'm so excited!

ok... this is what i did. according to loden. He's right. i need to add something to .bash_profile. But after some researh i've found out that .bash_profile only reads in login and not on the further session in terminal. so i've to edit .bashrc instead and added the line

alias maya="/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya"

then, I've added another line in .bash_profile

source .bashrc (in order tell the system to refer to .bashrc)


Next, according to the error messages. I've found out that my maya doesn't have "/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya" dynamic link at all. If at this point we call maya from terminal. nothing will happen. so what we need to do is to make a dynamic link from "/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/Maya6.5" to "/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya"
the command is

sudo ln -s /usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/Maya6.5 /usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya

Somehow, Maya6.5 batch render only can be evoke if "/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya" exist. if u are lazy enough just to put "alias maya=/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/Maya6.5" instead of "alias maya=/usr/aw/maya6.5/bin/maya" in .bashrc file. U'll have alot of trouble launch batchrender.

now i can call maya from terminal and lauch batchrender from ui and terminal.

Phew... what a series of trouble. Anyway, i'll make a detailed tutorial for all my fellow maya artist . Now what i can say to everyone is Ubuntu is definately the friendliest Linux Distro for maya artist. Especially to a newbie like me.


Cheers and have fun.

[serris9]

I did some initial research but there are some complications with just Debian itself (may carry over to Ubuntu as well).

http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=1,3&Board=linuxforum&Number=189551&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=

Lots of mods to the installation on a Debian system. Perhaps I should try it.


I just converted and installed the rpms, messed around with some config files to get ubuntu to find a certain .so file that it couldnt find before..but when i call maya (using the full path), i get segmentation fault :(

are all the steps for debian above required?

[loden]

@serris9: the most common situation where you could get a "segmentation fault" deal with graphic card river: make sure to have properly installed the driver and that the 3d acceleration is enabled; also make sure to have 24-bit color depth in your xorg.conf configuration file!

[Allabulle]

Phew... what a series of trouble. Anyway, i'll make a detailed tutorial for all my fellow maya artist . Now what i can say to everyone is Ubuntu is definately the friendliest Linux Distro for maya artist. Especially to a newbie like me.

I'm trying Ubuntu right now and I'm having more or less the same problems. I agree it's a fine and friendly distro (I used to work on Fedora and RedHat before). The point is that not being a Linux expert at all it's some kind of hard and overwhelming to set it up right in orther to work well with Maya. I don't want to mess my OS just to use an app, so please, if you could share a link to your tutorial it would be so appreciated. Thanks in advance.

------
excuse my poor english.

[loden]

If you're not a linux expert, if you don't want to mess up your os and if you want an user friendly distro like ubuntu....why don't u try suse? It's certified by alias along with Red Hat, it's a good distro to start with, very user friendly and has a great package tool based on rpm...so why not? ;)
Bye

[Allabulle]

Hi,
the only problem I find using Ubuntu is installing Maya. I'm working just fine on another machine using Fedora but on this new one PC I would like to stay with Ubuntu: I found it faster, smaller, more up to date and easy to maintain (drivers, etc..) and synaptic is definitely a better software manager than the others I've seen based on rpm files. But, of course, if I'm not able to install maya on Ubuntu, I'll be forced to switch back to Fedora again. A pitty.

If only I had some more free time just to learn a bit more of Linux... :sad:

------
please, excuse my poor english.

[loden]

Sure Ubuntu is faster than Suse but also a bit more complex to get maya properly installed.
Amyway what I recommend you is to follow the instruction given in this thread (http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=1,3&Board=linuxforum&Number=189551&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=) on highend, it covers most of all the steps you have to do to get maya working in a debian based distro.
If you've tried yet, please explain your problem so we can try to figure out what's wrong.
Bye

[MukMan]

I'm using gentoo 2005.0 for amd64 and MAya 6.5 for linux is running quite nicely. Just had to install rpm and the 32bit fam libraries but it does everything nicely after that.

[Carina]

Is it possible to get 6.5 working under Ubuntu 64, has anyone tried it? I've heard 64 bit gentoo has better support for running 32 bit applications...

[MukMan]

most likely possible
you may need to do what I did on gentoo for amd64 and get yourselfthe 32bit fam libraries. Not too hard though, just find a recent libfam rpm, then use rpm2targz and then unzip the file. Copy the files over to where maya's looking for em and poof, solved.

[Carina]

most likely possible
you may need to do what I did on gentoo for amd64 and get yourselfthe 32bit fam libraries. Not too hard though, just find a recent libfam rpm, then use rpm2targz and then unzip the file. Copy the files over to where maya's looking for em and poof, solved.

cool,

will have a shot when i get a chance.

cheers

[matty429]

I can't get mental ray to see my dual core cpu in ubuntu...

Im running a SMP kernel ,but for some reason Maya won't use the extra core....

Render times seem to be slower under debian based linux also...

I ran the Zoo Render MentalRay Bench..

Ubuntu: 2:37

Xp: 2:10

Both single core....

[Allabulle]

Sure Ubuntu is faster than Suse but also a bit more complex to get maya properly installed.
Amyway what I recommend you is to follow the instruction given in this thread (http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=1,3&Board=linuxforum&Number=189551&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=) on highend, it covers most of all the steps you have to do to get maya working in a debian based distro.
If you've tried yet, please explain your problem so we can try to figure out what's wrong.
Bye

First of all, thank you for your support. I was so frustrated so I decided not to bother no one else and do some research myself instead of annoying you any more.

After reading tons of info on using linux and storys on installing Maya on Ubuntu... I got more frustrated and upset. And then I installed Fedora Core 4... :-) And it was not a funny experience. I disliked it a lot. So back to Ubuntu. And more research...

Ok, finally I did this:
- converted the .rpm's to .deb's with the "alien -c" flag.
- installed them typing "dpkg -i *.deb"
- linking /usr/aw to /aw ("ln -s /usr/aw /aw") <-- without that, the maya installation ends up with a remarkable mess.
- being installed maya before the linking part, I went to the /usr/aw directory and removed it completely (asdfasdf@asasfd:/usr/aw# rm -rf *) [¡¡pay attention not to type that on another directory, it could murder your linux system!!]
- then I installed again the .deb's files (dpkg -i again).
- installed the license with /usr/aw/COM/bin/installKey
- installed "csh" packet (it seems that Maya needs it in orther to run) typing "apt-get install csh"
- created a tmp directory in /usr (I read somewhere that Maya needs it). Then I chmod 777 that directory. I did it like this, as SU: "mkdir /usr/tmp" and then "chmod 777 /usr/tmp"
- back in the shell in user mode (not SU nor sudo) just typed "maya" and it finally worked.

Thank you all for your support and to so many others in the net who helped patiently.

(Please excuse my english. I do my best to improve it)

[kfc]

did u get the sound import working?
the sounds scrub doesn't work. suse and gentoo works in the sound import but the alsa driver for my card doesn't support sounds scrub that well.
anyway, i'm temporary using my window os for jobs at the moment before i can find a distro or driver to make the sound scrub works.

to be honest, i've got a little tired of trying new distro lately. Suse 9.3 doesn't work well with my at card. 7500 doesn't have official driver support. my quadro fx 4000 works fine. but I just hate the fact that i have to buy a new laptop in order to make things work.

Vertex size in 7500 just too small to be seen in viewport. it's a problem in every distro running maya in 7500 ati with DRI drivers.

[MukMan]

Yeah, having an ati card is a crappy thing, especially in linux.

[Carina]

Anyone using it in Ubuntu yet?

[MukMan]

I had maya installed under ubuntu x86 at least, yeah.

[Carina]

Heh, I meant Maya 7;)

[Allabulle]

Just updated to Maya 7 and it works well. I've done it the same way as I posted above, but creating first the directory /usr/aw, then link it to /aw [like this: 'ln -s /usr/aw /aw'] and then I've just created /usr/tmp and chmodded it. After that I installed with synaptic the csh and finally I've 'alien -c' the rpm's and then installed it with dpkg -i *.deb

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.