Maya 2010 on Linux, and Mac, plus answer to 64 bit Mac question

Yep. New version. 2010. In the house, running happily on my Mac and Linux machines.

The procedures are nearly identical for installing the 2009 version, with the exception of the built in extra packages. I’ll Post a step-by-step instruction for installing 2010 soon, and answer the question about “Why is there no 64 bit version of Maya for OS X”, that pops up at about every g.d forum I visit.

Short answer: Maya is Carbon. Carbon is not 64 bit, because Apple decided that’s a waste of time and resources. So. If there will be a 64 bit version for Mac, the WHOLE application must be re-written in Objective-C in native 64bit Cocoa Framework (this is the only way to program native 64-bit applications on the Mac), vs. the 32 bit Carbon C++ API, that’s as mentioned is abandoned by Apple Inc.
Don’t think we’ll see that happen. Maya has some years on its back… But who knows?

Only the future will know.

Think that actually sums up part two of this post.

Happy living!

A list of required Maya 2009 dependancy packages in Linux

Many people out there, are doing great after following my tutorial, but those that does not run Ubuntu, often run into problems.

Before you post questions to this blog (post anywhere else if you want ;-) ) Make sure you install these packages either in .deb, .rpm or compile the shit from source. The names may differ slightly between distributions, so, search for something similar. The package manager and Google are good friends:

Shell Dependencies
• tcsh
General Dependencies
• glibc
• libpng
• libjpeg
• expat
• libICE
• libSM
• fontconfig
• freetype-
• e2fsprogs-libs
• zlib
• mesa-libGL

X/Motif Dependencies
• libX11
• libXext
• libXi
• libXt
• libXpm
• libXmu
• libXp
• libxcb
• libXdmcp
• libXau
• libXrender
• libXft
• libXinerama

Installer Dependencies
• glibc
• libstdc++
• libgcc
• expat
• libxcb
• libXdmcp
• libXau
• libXfixes
• libXrender
• libXrandr
• libXcursor
• libXinerama
• libXft
• freetype
• fontconfig
• libXext
• libX11
• libSM
• libICE

That should keep you busy for a while!

GC

Getting Java plugin + applets to work on Linux 64 bit

UPDATED:
Many folks out there are having a hard time getting their 64 bit Firefox browsers to run Sun Java plugin to do home banking via secure applets etc.

So, here comes a recipe that works (for me anyhow).

I use Ubuntu 8.10, but the procedure should not differ much on other distributions.

download the early access java jar file from sun from here:
http://download.java.net/jdk6/index.htmlhttp://download.java.net/jdk6/index.html

By the time of writing the direct url is this:

http://www.java.net/download/jdk6/6u14/promoted/b03/binaries/jre-6u14-ea-bin-b03-linux-amd64-10_mar_2009.jar

Make sure to download the 64 bit .jar for Linux!

Uninstall any Java versions you might have laying around, like openJDK, IcedTea plugin, GCJ etc..

Install a 64 bit version of the Sun JRE from standard repositories, to run the .jar file correctly, and execute the following command from the location of the .jar file:

sudo java -jar [path_to_jarfile you downloaded]

choose to install in /usr/lib/jvm/ from the GUI installer that pops up.
This gives you a new directory below /usr/lib/jvm, in this case /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/
now make all files in the new directory executable (as mentioned on Sun’s site):
sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/lib/amd64/*

then link the needed file to the right directory with the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so

This is intended for 64-bit Firefox, using the new plugin format from Sun.

Make sure to use complete file paths when creating symbolic links, or you will get a cyclical link referring back to itself, in other words, it wont work. (too many levels of symbolic links error)

Restart your browser and check with about:plugins in the url field, that the plugin is in fact installed! ;-)

In Ubuntu the Java executable is referenced from /etc/alternatives/java, so we need to update the link to the new version:

sudo rm /etc/alternatives/java

Than we need to symlink the binary from the new installment:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/bin/java /etc/alternatives/java


You can now check that the new version of Java is in use by the system by issuing:
java -version
From a terminal. This should now be:
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_14-ea-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.0-b12, mixed mode)

That should be it!
Happy Java browsing.