Installing Maya 2009 / 2010 64-bit on Linux

This stuff works. Do it right, and please, don’t post questions as comments. See the comments that says something like “Works Perfectly”. Then give it another go.

So….

Here is a rundown to installing Maya 2009 or 2010 on Linux. This is for Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04, but other distro’s should not differ much.

If you have access to the openmotif as a package or want to install from source, it’s a good idea to do this, as I feel it gives a nicer UI.
THIS IS NOT A MUST.

Anyway, here is the drill:

Maya Ubuntu install:

Many folks out there has had some issues regarding installing Maya on Ubuntu Linux
This guide is used on Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64 (also tried successfully on 9.04) for installing Maya 2009 and 2010 (also in x86_64)

First of all, Maya uses some libraries, that you must install before installing the program itself.
The Motif GUI Maya uses is an old GUI type, dating many years back.
The static libraries are installed by default and can be linked directly from /usr/autodesk/_maya_version/libs to /usr/lib64 and /usr/lib in your installation (by sudo cp, or similar). This is the libXm.so[version] file.

If you don’t want to compile and install openmotif from source, install the runtime files from Multiverse, called libmotif3.

Also Maya uses FAM for keeping track on file changes, so you need to install FAM or GAMIN (newer alternative with same/better functionality in Maya) install both the runtime and development libraries of gamin found in the core repository, called gamin, and libgamin-dev.

Maya will try to write files to /usr/tmp, so make sure to create the directory and give it write permissions:
sudo mkdir /usr/tmp
sudo chmod a+rwx /usr/tmp/

Now, you need to convert the .rpm packages to .deb.
The installer scripts in Maya requires csh, so you need to install that and the alien package.

If you have the install files on a DVD, copy the Linux-64 directory to a place you have write access, like ~/MayaInstall (create that directory)
cp -R /media/Maya2009/Maya/Linux-64 ~/MayaInstall

I like to give access to the files in this directory and change the ownership:

sudo chown -R _username_ ~/MayaInstall/
sudo chmod -R +rwx ~/MayaInstall/


Then:
sudo apt-get install csh alien
OR sudo aptitude install csh alien

This will install the csh shell, that Maya depends on when using Alien for conversion.

cd to the directory where you copied the .install files to (the .rpms) from the install media.

Type the following in a single line, include the “done” ( PRECISELY AS WRITTEN HERE, DO A COPY / PASTE ):

for i in *.rpm; do sudo alien -cv $i; done

(the command will take a while to complete!)

Now install the .deb packages with dpkg:

sudo dpkg -i maya2009-0-64_2009.0-102_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i maya2009-0-64-docs-en-us_2009.0-64_amd64.deb

The licensing application will include itself in the maya package and pop up after running Maya for the first time.

Start the program from a shell, to verify any errors, just open a terminal and type maya.
The license installer will launch and guide you through the licensing process.

My output looks like this:
Starting license manager:

cody@zenmachine:~$ maya
cody@zenmachine:~$ @@@@@@@@ opening log
(enter to get the prompt back, now try executing maya again)

cody@zenmachine:~$ maya
mental ray for Maya 10.0
mental ray: version 3.7.1.26, Jul 30 2008, revision 26576

So, everything works fine. Read on for additional tips’N’tricks:

Gnome modifications:

For Maya to work properly with Gnome, some modifications should
be made to the mouse control. The default bindings of the Alt key and mouse
buttons do not work well with Maya. Turn off the
Alt+mouse buttons. Since Maya uses the Alt+mouse buttons for scene view
tumbling, you need to ensure the bindings don’t conflict.
Different versions of Gnome may have different methods of selecting
the key bindings. See the Gnome documentation for instructions if
the following steps don’t work for your particular window manager.

Select Applications, then Preferences and then select Windows.
In the Window Preferences dialog box, set the “To move a window…”
key to Super.

Modifications and problem solving:

XCursor problem (pointer is a cross)
add the line:
MAYA_MMSET_DEFAULT_XCURSOR=1
in the /home/[your name]/maya/2009-x64/Maya.env file

Fonts, font sizes, and colors can be configured using the MayaScheme file.
This file lets you specify X Resources that Maya uses for configurable text. The default file is found in:

/usr/autodesk/maya2009-x64/app-defaults/MayaScheme.

Edit this file as root (sudo) and change to the preffered fonts and colors.
(make a copy of the original file first, if things turn out messy).

Example of my modified MayaScheme file:
————————————————————————————–MAYA BG COLOR AND FONT PROPERTIES:
sudo gedit /usr/autodesk/maya2009-x64/app-defaults/MayaScheme

*extraLargeBoldLabelFont:    -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*largeBoldLabelFont:         -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*boldLabelFont:              -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallBoldLabelFont:         -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*tinyBoldLabelFont:          -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*plainLabelFont:             -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallPlainLabelFont:        -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*obliqueLabelFont:           -*-helvetica-bold-o-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallObliqueLabelFont:      -*-helvetica-bold-o-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*fixedWidthFont:             -*-fixed-medium-r-normal–11-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallFixedWidthFont:        -*-clean-medium-r-normal–10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
*basicBackground:            #d9d9d9
Maya*Background:             #d9d9d9
*textForeground:             #000000
*textFieldBackground:        #eeeeee
*readOnlyBackground:         #bdbdbd
*buttonBackground:           #bdbdbd
*scrollBarTroughColor:       #bdbdbd
*scrollBarControlBackground: #bdbdbd
*indicatorBackground:        #cbcbcb
*radioColor:                 #0000ff
*checkColor:                 #ff0000
*blueSelectBackgroundColor1: #3884c4
*blueSelectBackgroundColor2: #81a7c1
*drawingAreaBackground:      #90abb1
*drawingAreaContrastColor1:  #b86b6b
*drawingAreaContrastColor2:  #7894bf
*drawingAreaContrastColor3:  #7ba988
*drawingAreaContrastColor4:  #ab7ec8
*scrolledListBackground:     #bdbdbd
*textBackground:             #b5b5b5
*highlightColor1:            #ff0000
*highlightColor2:    #0000ff
*highlightColor3:    #00ff00
*highlightColor4:    #a01ef0
*highlightColor5:    #ffa500
*highlightColor6:    #00ffff
*highlightColor7:    #ff00ff
*HighlightColor8:    #ffff00
*wMBackground:    #aaaaaa
*wMForeground:    #000000
*wMActiveBackground:    #c6c1aa
*wMActiveForeground:    #000000
*textSelectedBackground:    #e6e6e6
*textSelectedForeground:    #000000
*indicatorLightColor:    #ffff00
*selectFillColor:    #ffff00
*redColor:    #ff0000
*orangeColor:    #ff7e00
*yellowColor:    #ffff00
*greenColor:    #4fe44f
*blueColor:    #0000ff
*brownColor:    #743f3f
*purpleColor:    #ae00ff
*errorColor:    #ff0000
*warningColor:    #0000ff
*informationColor:    #00ff00
*alternateBackground1:    #c1adad
*alternateBackground2:    #a7b7a7
*alternateBackground3:    #bbbbcd
*alternateBackground4:    #9fbfbf
*alternateBackground5:    #87aaca
*alternateBackground6:    #d1d1c9
*disabledTextForeground:    #aaaaaa
*layerAdjustmentTextForeground:    #e56929
*lightRadioFillColor:    #9e9edc
*disabledCheckColor:    #dc9e9e

Maya plug-ins and standalone apps:

To compile plug-ins and standalone applications for Maya 2009 on Linux,
use the released gcc 4.1.2 compiler. Maya has been compiled with this compiler
under RHEL 4 WS. As well, some libraries and symbolic links are installed in
the /lib directory under your Maya directory, and should not interfere with
the normal operation of your Linux system.