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.
