Maya 2019 Installation on CentOS 8

Overview

The default installation instructions for Maya 2019 on a fresh install of CentOS 8 do not work as outlined. Although the installation docs note that installations are hardware-specific, the instructions are generally unclear. This document shows the steps I took to install Maya, as well as my recommendations for making the installation process less difficult.

To install and troubleshoot Maya, I followed three Autodesk Knowledge Network documents:

• Install Maya on Linux using the RPM utility
• Additional Linux notes
• Additional required Linux packages for Maya installation.

Summary of Findings

Missing Dependencies not Mentioned

The documents do mention that additional dependencies are required, but none of them mention the following, both of which were needed to run Maya successfully:

• libprcre16
• libpng15

Malformed GNOME Desktop File

The desktop file that allows Maya to be launched from a GNOME desktop icon has a typo that says UFT-8 instead of UTF-8. After correcting all other issues, this was found not to be a problem, but it should be fixed anyway.

2019 Installation instructions have 2018 information that prevents registration, even with a valid license.

While following the official steps to register my Maya license with ADLM, I got an opaque code 13 error and no contextual information.

The actual issue appears to be that the command used for registration was copy-pasted from the 2018 guide and not updated accordingly. See step 12 in Maya Installation for more details.

Recommendations to Maya Devs

1. Make note of the required libpcre16 and libpng15 packages in the Additional Linux Notes and Additional required Linux Packages for Maya installation documents. Installation of Maya on CentOS 8 does not work without them.
2. Fix step 8 in the Install Maya on Linux using the RPM Utility document. The correct instructions for standalone licensing should be:

/usr/autodesk/maya2019/bin/adlmreg -i S <productKey1> <productKey2> 2019.0.0.F <serialNum>
/var/opt/Autodesk/Adlm/Maya2019/MayaConfig.pit

3. Fix the UFT-8 typo in the GNOME desktop file located at /usr/autodesk/maya2019/desktop/Autodesk-Maya.directory. The corrected file contents should be:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Autodesk Maya 2019
Encoding=UTF-8
Icon=Maya.png

4. Make adlm errors less opaque. It is very difficult to troubleshoot an error that says Registration failed with code: 13 with no contextual information whatsoever.

Maya Installation

Steps to reproduce the issues:

1. Download official Linux64 Maya installer from Autodesk.com.

[brenden@errmac Downloads]$ sha256sum Autodesk_Maya_2019_Linux_64bit.tgz 
6eacc6e80b4a7bec21eb5e6aa693c0b33ebad50187c5805107b3bd248c569c1c  Autodesk_Maya_2019_Linux_64bit.tgz

2. Pull up RPM installation instructions from official documentation.

3. Become the root user using.

su -

4. Extract the Autodesk_Maya_2019_Linux_64bit.tgz file.

tar xvf Autodesk_Maya_2019_Linux_64bit.tgz

5. Ensure that the required files are present.

[root@errmac Downloads]# ls -1
adlmapps14-14.0.23-0.x86_64.rpm
adlmflexnetclient-14.0.23-0.x86_64.rpm
adlmflexnetserver-14.0.23-0.x86_64.rpm
adlmreg
Autodesk_Maya_2019_Linux_64bit.tgz
bifrost.rpm
EULA
libadlmPIT.so
libadlmPIT.so.11
libadlmutil.so
libadlmutil.so.11
libQt3Support.so.4
libQtCore.so.4
libQtGui.so.4
libQtNetwork.so.4
libQtScript.so.4
libQtSql.so.4
libQtXml.so.4
licensechooser
Maya2019_64-2019.0-7966.x86_64.rpm
package.zip
resources
setup
setup-bin
setup.xml
SubstanceMaya-1.4.0-2019-Install.sh
support
unix_installer.py
unix_installer.sh

6. Use rpm to install the 3 required packages for standalone installation, and verify successful exit status.

[root@errmac Downloads]# rpm -ivh Maya2019_64-2019.0-7966.x86_64.rpm adlmapps14-14.0.23-0.x86_64.rpm adlmflexnetclient-14.0.23-0.x86_64.rpm 
Verifying...                          ################################# [100%]
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
Updating / installing...
   1:adlmflexnetclient-14.0.23-0      ################################# [ 33%]
   2:adlmapps14-14.0.23-0             ################################# [ 67%]
   3:Maya2019_64-2019.0-7966          ################################# [100%]
[root@errmac Downloads]# echo $?
0

7. Create a license.env file with the required contents.

MAYA_LICENSE=<redacted>
MAYA_LICENSE_METHOD=standalone

8. Search for libGL.so files in the directories specified in the instructions.

# searching /usr/lib has no results
[root@errmac Downloads]# find /usr/lib -name '*lib[Gg][Ll]*.so*' -type f 2>/dev/null
[root@errmac Downloads]#

# /usr/X11R6 isn't even a directory in CentOS 8
[root@errmac Downloads]# file /usr/X11R6/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib: cannot open `/usr/X11R6/lib' (No such file or directory)

# /usr/lib64 has some potential winners:
[root@errmac Downloads]# find /usr/lib64 -name '*lib[Gg][Ll]*.so*' -type f 2>/dev/null
/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so
/usr/lib64/libGLdispatch.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib64/libglapi.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib64/libGLESv1_CM.so.1.2.0
/usr/lib64/libGLESv2.so.2.1.0
/usr/lib64/libGL.so.1.7.0
/usr/lib64/libGLX.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib64/libGLX_mesa.so.0.0.0
/usr/lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.5600.4
/usr/lib64/libglusterfs.so.0.0.1
/usr/lib64/libglibmm-2.4.so.1.3.0
/usr/lib64/libglibmm_generate_extra_defs-2.4.so.1.3.0
/usr/lib64/libgladeui-2.so.6.5.1
/usr/lib64/glade/modules/libgladegtk.so
/usr/lib64/glade/modules/libgladepython.so
/usr/lib64/glade/modules/libgladewebkit2gtk.so

9. Run glxinfo to verify the OpenGL driver, vendor, and renderer.

NOTE:Step 6 in the documentation specifically says that the expected driver is not Mesa, but my output shows Mesa, so I will likely need to install additional drivers as mentioned on Maya's Additonal Linux Notes.

[root@errmac Downloads]# glxinfo | egrep -i 'vendor|renderer|driver'
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
    GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_MESA_query_renderer, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_query_renderer, 
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: VMware, Inc. (0xffffffff)
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 8.0, 256 bits)

10. Try to install every single dependency listed on Maya's Additional required packages for Maya installation page.

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install mesa-libGLw mesa-libGLU libXp gamin audiofile audiofile-devel e2fsprogs-libs libxkbcommon-x11 xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-100dpi xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-75dpi liberation-mono-fonts liberation-fonts-common liberation-sans-fonts liberation-serif-fonts 

Out of the above list, only two files were not already installed or available from the Yum default repos:

• audiofile
• audiofile-devel

Those two packages are available through the EPEL repository, so I installed epel-release and updated the yum cache to enable installing them:

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install -y epel-release
...
[root@errmac Downloads]# yum makecache
CentOS-8 - AppStream                                                     7.4 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS-8 - Base                                                           21 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS-8 - Extras                                                        4.3 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64                   168 kB/s | 119 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                           5.8 MB/s | 7.0 MB     00:01    
Metadata cache created.
...
[root@errmac Downloads]# yum search audiofile
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:50 ago on Tue 16 Jun 2020 01:11:46 PM PDT.
==================================== Name Exactly Matched: audiofile ====================================
audiofile.x86_64 : Library for accessing various audio file formats
======================================== Name Matched: audiofile ========================================
audiofile-devel.x86_64 : Development files for Audio File applications
[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install audiofile audiofile-devel
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:59 ago on Tue 16 Jun 2020 01:11:46 PM PDT.
Dependencies resolved.
...
[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install -y audiofile audiofile-devel

11. Modify LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include an Autodesk ADLM directory with additional libraries.

[root@errmac Downloads]# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/Autodesk/Adlm/R14/lib64/

12. Register Maya using Autodesk's ADLM using default instructions.

[root@errmac Downloads]# #/usr/autodesk/maya2019/bin/adlmreg -i S <key> <key> 2018.0.0.F <serial> /var/opt/Autodesk/Adlm/Maya2019/MayaConfig.pit
Registration failed with code: 13

This registration code failure confused me at first. Then I noticed that even though the doc says the command above should work, the string 2018.0.0.F indicated to me that these were copy-pasta instructions from the 2018 installation instructions.

I changed the 2018 to 2019 in the command:

[root@errmac Downloads]# /usr/autodesk/maya2019/bin/adlmreg -i S <key> <key> 2019.0.0.F <serial> /var/opt/Autodesk/Adlm/Maya2019/MayaConfig.pit
Registration succeeded.

13. Attempt to run Maya by clicking the GNOME desktop icon.

• Nothing visible happened, no Maya window ever spawned.

14. Troubleshoot by looking at logs.

[root@errmac Downloads]# grep -ni maya /var/log/messages
3376:Jun 16 12:33:53 errmac journal[8794]: Couldn't properly parse desktop file 'file:///usr/share/desktop-directories/Autodesk-Maya2016.directory': 'Key file contains unsupported encoding “UFT-8�”'
3377:Jun 16 12:33:54 errmac journal[8789]: failed to rescan: Failed to parse /usr/share/applications/Autodesk-Maya2016.desktop file: cannot process file of type application/x-desktop
4670:Jun 16 13:29:21 errmac Autodesk-Maya2016.desktop[9661]: /usr/autodesk/maya/bin/maya.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre16.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
4683:Jun 16 13:30:27 errmac Autodesk-Maya2016.desktop[9702]: /usr/autodesk/maya/bin/maya.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre16.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Interestingly there is a typo in the GNOME Desktop file for Maya that says UFT-8 instead of UTF-8. This may be preventing the program from launching, or it may be an innocuous error.

[root@errmac Downloads]# cat /usr/autodesk/maya2019/desktop/Autodesk-Maya.directory
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Autodesk Maya 2019
Encoding=UFT-8
Icon=Maya.png

As noted above, the Maya desktop launcher requires a library for Perl regular expressions, but none is installed, and none of the installation instructions (on any of the 3 pages) mention libpcre16.

15. Install libpcre16.

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum whatprovides "*/libpcre16.so.0"
pcre-utf16-8.42-4.el8.i686 : UTF-16 variant of PCRE
Repo        : BaseOS
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib/libpcre16.so.0

pcre-utf16-8.42-4.el8.x86_64 : UTF-16 variant of PCRE
Repo        : BaseOS
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib64/libpcre16.so.0

Of the two in the list, the x86_64 version is the one we want:

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install -y pcre-utf16-8.42-4.el8.x86_64

16. Attempt to run Maya by clicking the GNOME desktop icon.

• Nothing visible happened, no Maya window ever spawned.

17. Troubleshoot by looking at logs. /var/log/messages shows that Maya is also dependent upon libpng15 despite the documentation making no mention of it:

Jun 16 13:42:02 errmac Autodesk-Maya2016.desktop[9938]: /usr/autodesk/maya/bin/maya.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libpng15.so.15: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

18. Install libpng15.

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum whatprovides "*/libpng15.so.15"
Last metadata expiration check: 0:03:13 ago on Tue 16 Jun 2020 01:41:34 PM PDT.
libpng15-1.5.30-7.el8.i686 : Old version of libpng, needed to run old binaries
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib/libpng15.so.15

libpng15-1.5.30-7.el8.x86_64 : Old version of libpng, needed to run old binaries
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib64/libpng15.so.15

Again, we want the x86_64 version:

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install -y libpng15-1.5.30-7.el8.x86_64

19. Attempt to run Maya by clicking the GNOME desktop icon.

• Nothing visible happened. No window was spawned.

20. Troubleshoot by looking at logs: /var/log/messages shows that Maya is also dedpendent upon libssl even though it is not mentioned in any documentation:

Jun 16 13:51:59 errmac Autodesk-Maya2016.desktop[10386]: /usr/autodesk/maya/bin/maya.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.10: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

21. Install the "Compatibility version of the OpenSSL library". Searching for the missing shared object file shows the package name:

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum whatprovides "*/libssl.so.10*"
Last metadata expiration check: 0:11:38 ago on Tue 16 Jun 2020 01:41:34 PM PDT.
compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.i686 : Compatibility version of the OpenSSL library
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib/libssl.so.10

compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64 : Compatibility version of the OpenSSL library
Repo        : AppStream
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/lib64/libssl.so.10

Once again, install the x86_64 version:

[root@errmac Downloads]# yum install -y compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64

22. Attempt to run Maya by clicking the GNOME desktop icon.

• Success! An Autodesk Licensing window is spawned this time

23. Follow the Autodesk Licensing dialog

24. Click I agree to agree to the Terms of Service.

25. A pop-up appears that says it's verifying the license, presumably from license.env created earlier.

26. Maya finally opens and runs!

CentOS 8 Operating System / Hardware Details

In order to reproduce this issue, I used a system with the following specs:

• brand new installation of CentOS 8 with no additional programs installed or configured
• Software Selection set to Workstation in the CentOS installer dialog box
• kernel: 4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64
• GPU: GeForce GTX 1070

[root@errmac Downloads]# lspci -vnn | grep VGA
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] [10de:1b81] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])