The Definitive Guide to Running DaVinci Resolve on Linux

There's no better video editor on Linux than DaVinci Resolve, but it's still a royal pain to get working. I'm going to break down what's needed to install it, using containers, the quirks of its DRM, and some ongoing problems.

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👋 Outro: Khaim - Neon Lamp

👇 Sauce:

Chapters:
0:00 The State of Linux Video Editors
1:59 The Codec Conundrum
4:36 Distro(box) Choice
6:59 Outdated Libraries
8:22 Reverse Engineering Resolve's DRM
11:03 Linux machine-id
12:45 Discrete GPU Problems with Distrobox
14:10 Download My Stuff!

[enderpirate]

Why can't Black Magic just make it into a Flatpak at this point?

[Jelly]

MPEG-LA is now part of Via-LA, Via Licensing Corp. The cancer grows.

[thekthe]

Will try that - I wasn't able to get it running under Kubuntu 23.10 with Nvidia RTX 3070 (8GB) - even after copying missing libraries, I'm getting Your GPU memory is full (no matter what I do) and there is no media preview etc. Seems useless in this state. This is NOT how the support for Linux should look like.

[VinylRescue]

I've gotten Resolve to work in Zorin 17, but had to use Shutter Encoder to convert MP4 to MOV and then render back to MP4 in 4K before I upload to YT. I did have to update the package manger, but it wasn't hard.

[GuyJames]

I got it working on Garuda Linux (Arch-based) simply by running the normal installer. No messing around at all. It's a bummer the lack of codecs on the free version but Shutter Encoder is a handy GUI for converting files to editing formats. Handbrake can convert to H264-5 formats at the end if necessary.

[halano]

I use blender for 2d vfx
and olive for video editing & honestly they doing great keep in mind that (olive still beta)
DaVinci in other hand is #1 for now but i don't use it due old dependencies and trust issue.

[charika]

Actually laptop runs Davinci Resolve just fine. At least on my machine (haha...). The way to deal with this dGPU problem is finding a way to disable iGPU. Whether in BIOS or using env variables.

Another tip is that distro like Linux mint and Pop OS don't need to go through that much process with dependencies. Usually one can just install DVC and run it. Only thing need to pay attention to is whether the GPU driver is installed or not. (for nvidia users)

[manuelrivera]

Basically because of the MAC address detail, only buy Davinci resolve if you have a computer specifically for Davinci Resolve with basically the same internet connection….. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[JCO]

Excellent. Just started watching this and will save it. I run Linux Mint Cinnamon and have been using an Appimage of Shotcut to edit videos for our channel. I downloaded DaVinci over a month ago, read up a little on it, but it seemed a bit daunting so haven't pursued it yet. Not sure if my GPU will handle it. It's integrated in an i7 11700k desktop with 32 GB of RAM. Subscribed.

Ok, the only way I can see using that thing is in a VM running Win 10, which I do occasionally for a GIS program. I'll give it a try. Win 10 in VMWare usually only uses about 9 GB of RAM along with a couple of other things running, so should be no problem with that. Still don't know about the GPU, but guess I'll find out.

Ok, just tried that. Win 10 in VMWare wouldn't run it because it wanted drivers. Gonna stick with Shotcut. It works, and don't need to get too fancy anyway. I just edit videos of caving fieldwork here in Jamaica.

[QHawk]

I already have a Manjaro linux up and running can't switch.. can Resolve be installed and run with AMD GPU?

[altrogeruvah]

I was writing a one-click Davinci Resolve auto-installation script for F39 that included fixes for AMD GPUs, pixbuf, mp4 export plugins etc, but by the time I was almost done, I realized that having to jump through all these hoops to run a single piece of software on Linux is morally degrading to everyone and thus, lost interest in finishing it. I currently use Lightworks, which has a beautiful UI (similar to DR), offers a .deb and .rpm package, has active support for Linux and most of all, its Create plan is half times cheaper than DR.

[OrcsBR]

Hey Trafotin, how do you generate your digital avatar? Could you make a video about that?

[SimisearOfficial]

What happens when the Fedora installation we use in the container becomes outdated? Does that become a security risk?

[Totallynotmwa]

idk if davinci resolve 19 beta solves the aac problem and h264 problems
I was able to play mp3
and i have a nvidia gpu + drivers
and i ran rocky

When i tried playing mp4 it does not show a video output

[ProgressivePerspektive]

I've been on Linux for over a year now, and the hardest install I had to do thus far was some "sudo apt install" stuff. This is quite the jump in difficulty

[craftycub]

Love blackmagic design. I bought the studio version but i am now trying to learn linux and downloading davinci resolve on it

[KeBizarroES]

With an Nvidia 4090 I have this error: "DaVinCI Resolve could not initialize OpenGL. Please ensure that the latest graphics drivers are installed."

[dennisbecker]

Hello and thank you for this video and the scripts! Sadly script 1 fails with:
dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
Last metadata expiration check: 0:19:57 ago on So 10 Mär 2024 17:22:50 CET.
No match for argument: xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
Error: Unable to find a match: xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda

I habe created the container like so:
distrobox create -i fedora:38 --nvidia -n f38

Do you have any idea what could be wrong?

[pingas]

Have you tried installing the program through the nix package manager? It’s probably not as secure, however it might be more convenient

[Guitartube]

I didn't get it to work yet this way, but over the AUR. But hell yeah I'mma try it for the codec support, because as it stands I need to convert a 3.5 gig mp4 to a 450 gig mov to work with. And if you get affinity running on my Manjaro computer I'm sold!