Since writing the lamentation about my absence from the Linux scene I discovered that I had actually installed an older version of Mays since SP1 is now out for 2009

So this seemed like a good time to hammer out  a more in depth guide to setting up Maya 2009 x64 on Ubuntu Jaunty.

Pre-install setup:

First you will need to make sure that CSH is installed for the Maya setup scripts:

sudo apt-get install csh

Next some directory house-keeping for Maya :

sudo mkdir /var/flexlm

sudo cp <your Windows Maya 2009 license file “aw.dat”> /var/flexlm/

sudo chown 444 /var/flexlm/aw.dat

if [ ! -f  /usr/tmp ]; then sudo mkdir /usr/tmp; fi

sudo chown 777 /usr/tmp

Installing Maya:

Now we are ready to start installing Maya.

Although Maya comes packages natively from Autodesk in rpm format that is not a problem, just install the rpm tool for Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install rpm

Now download the Linux version of Maya 2009 from Autodesk, it only comes in one flavor x86_64 (Also known as AMD64) which can only be installed on a 64bit version of Linux.

wget http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autodesk_maya_2009sp1a_linux64.tgz

It takes around five minutes to download, after you download right-click and choose “extract here” and then navigate into that folder using the terminal and install the rpm’s

sudo rpm -ivh –nodeps AWCommon-11.5-19.i686.rpm AWCommon-server-11.5-19.i686.rpm Maya2009_0_64-2009.0-452.x86_64.rpm

Post-install clean up:

Once that is finished click the “System” menu at the top of the screen and go to “System -> Preferences -> Windows” and change it so “Movement Key” = “Super”

Then add this line “MAYA_MMSET_DEFAULT_XCURSOR=1″ to the file located at /home/<your user name>/maya/2009-x64/maya.env

Adding that line will tell maya to always use the default cursor if you dont set this maya will change the cursor when you use it.

The final thing we must do before launching Maya is to change the xorg.conf file to disable the Composite feature.

Edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf  add these lines to the bottom

Section “Extensions”
Option        “Composite”    “Disable”
EndSection

Now, restart your desktop to make sure you edited the file properly.

If the desktop does not restart press CTRL+ALT+F1 and log into a terminal and check the file for spelling mistakes then restart your computer.

Once that is all finished, just launch Maya by pressing ALT+F2, and typing in “maya” and pressing enter.

If everything went properly Maya should pop up on your screen in just a few seconds. You should not see the Licensing window.

Now feel free to add a short cut to your hot-bar or menu, I will leave that up to you.

Trouble Shooting:

If you get errors when you try to launch Maya saying that it is missing necessary libraries then I suggest installing and running a packaged named “getlibs”

wget http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb

sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb

sudo getlibs /usr/autodesk/maya/bin/maya.bin

If you have any licensing problems please contact Autodesk for further support.

Hope this guide is useful to some out there.

Maya is an amazing package I just wish it was open source, but I’ve got my eye on Blender maybe someday I’ll make the switch.

As you may know I’m just finishing up a 1 year course of Computer Animation/Modeling at college and I’m currently working on my year end demo reel.

Before I started school I decided that I would un-install Linux and work primarily using MS-Windows because that’s what the school would be using and I wanted my system to “just work” as they say.

Well now that the year is over let me tell you that I made a huge mistake.

Here is the list of problems that I’ve had with my computer this year:

First I had WinXP crash into an un-bootable state just a few months after the original install which required a reformat and reinstall, so i decided I’d upgrade to Vista x64 which I had hoped would be more stable.

After installing Vista x64 I had driver issues for several weeks, and then my video card died, and then one of the two internal hard-drive in my computer died (not the OS drive thankfully) and then finally Vista crashed into an un-bootable state just like WinXP, requiring a reformat and reinstall, so I decided to switch back to WinXP which at least has less driver issues.

Finally, to top it all off after reinstalling WinXP and getting my system back up to good working order I was unlucky enough to pick up a Windows Virus which set me back to square one.

So enough is enough I am tired of playing the Windows Game, it is time to reinstall Ubuntu Linux.

The first thing I installed after getting the system setup was of course Maya 2009 x64 and I can tell you it was incredibly fast and easy:

#rpm -ivh –nodeps

That’s all it took, and then I inserted my old windows License file and Maya was good to go.

I did have to change 2 things: the desktop uses the ALT key for some of its hot-keys and so I had to switch this over to the Windows-Logo key so that Maya could use ALT (pan, rotate, etc, etc).

Next I had to edit the xorg.conf file which manages the desktop display and add these lines:

Section “Extension”

Option “Composite” “Disable”

EndSection

Because Xorg tries to do some fancy screen display stuff which Maya doesn’t like so these lines just turn off the Compositing feature of the desktop.

Now I’m using Maya 2009 x64 in Ubuntu Linux, the program loads in under 5 seconds (compared to between 30 to 45 seconds in WinXP) and everything simply works the way it should Ubuntu took care of all my drivers and setup everything else so that it all really does “just work”.

Now, I can finally get back to work and finish my demo reel!