[dtf]

I recently used Resolve (just the free version) for a project. It was my first time seriously using the software but I ended up spending a lot of time with it - lots of timeline editing, keyframe animation, some simple Fusion compositions, and a fair bit of work in the Fairlight page, rendering out daily . I did all this on my beloved Arch Linux workstation, and frankly it was rock solid, apart from exactly one crash when using the timeline keyframe editor - something that was solved by upgrading Resolve to the latest version.

I was really impressed by how well it worked for me on Linux.

I think these things might have helped:

- I use an X11 desktop (Cinnamon), not Wayland. I've tried it out on a GNOME Wayland desktop but it seemed quite a bit more clunky and froze frequently.

- PipeWire runs the system's audio routing, so Resolve just appears as another ALSA client, and I can then use wiremix to send to my preferred speakers or headphones. (I haven't tried any audio input yet)

- I didn't try to install Resolve natively, I used davincibox [1] to install and update it within a container (it uses distrobox, which then uses podman).

I'll now be purchasing the studio version, which hopefully will work as well.

[1] https://github.com/zelikos/davincibox

[googie]

You encouraged me to try again and somehow, blackmagically ;) it works this time. It may be that recent DaVinci version has made some improvement. I'm so happy!

Installation still requires workarounds and codecs support is limited, but having that aknowledged and accepted, the application is finally usable!

PS. I don't know where the h264 (and other codes?) limitation come from, since ffmpeg has full support of it. Or is it just business model? Weird.

[dtf]

Great to hear!

I would guess the codec limitation might come from licensing requirements, as BMD would need to pay for h264/h265 licenses for Linux, and that can't really be sustainable for a free product. MacOS and Windows already come with licensed system codecs.

My project had ProRes source media, so there was no codec issue and everything worked very smoothly. I exported ProRes and used ffmpeg to transcode to whatever I needed.

I don't think I would have bothered trying to run Resolve on Linux were it not for finding that davincibox script. It was incredibly straightforward to install, and now I just start it by clicking on an icon like a regular application.

Have fun!

[googie]

For those seeking quick solution for missing codecs, here are bash scripts that use ffmpeg to convert any input clips (including these problematic h.265/h.264) to format acceptable for DaVinci

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  
  set -euo pipefail
  
  INPUT_DIR="${1:-}"
  TARGET_FPS="${2:-30}"
  
  if [[ -z "$INPUT_DIR" ]]; then
      echo "Usage: $0 <directory with clips> [target fps (defaults to 30)]"
      exit 1
  fi
  
  if [[ ! -d "$INPUT_DIR" ]]; then
      echo "Error: directory does not exist: $INPUT_DIR"
      exit 1
  fi
  
  OUTPUT_DIR="$INPUT_DIR/conv"
  mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"
    
  EXTENSIONS=(
      mp4 avi wmv mpg mpeg mov
      mkv m4v flv webm ts mts m2ts 3gp
  )
  
  shopt -s nullglob nocaseglob
  
  for ext in "${EXTENSIONS[@]}"; do
      for file in "$INPUT_DIR"/*."$ext"; do
          filename="$(basename "$file")"
          name="${filename%.*}"
  
          output="$OUTPUT_DIR/${name}.mov"
  
          echo "Konwersja: $file -> $output"
  
          ffmpeg -y -i "$file" \
              -map 0:v:0 -map "0:a?" \
              -vf "fps=${TARGET_FPS}" \
              -vsync cfr \
              -c:v prores_ks -profile:v 1 \
              -pix_fmt yuv422p \
              -c:a pcm_s16le -ar 48000 \
              "$output"
      done
  done
  
  echo "Results in: $OUTPUT_DIR"

and then converting final exported video to h.265:

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  set -euo pipefail
  
  INPUT="${1:-}"
  CRF="${2:-21}"
  PRESET="${3:-slow}"
  
  if [[ -z "$INPUT" ]]; then
      echo "Usage: $0 <input file> [crf=21] [preset=slow]"
      exit 1
  fi
  
  if [[ ! -f "$INPUT" ]]; then
      echo "Error: file does not exist: $INPUT"
      exit 1
  fi
  
  DIR="$(dirname "$INPUT")"
  FILE="$(basename "$INPUT")"
  NAME="${FILE%.*}"
  
  OUTPUT="$DIR/${NAME}_h265.mp4"
  
  ffmpeg -y -i "$INPUT" \
    -map 0:v:0 -map '0:a?' \
    -c:v libx265 \
    -preset "$PRESET" \
    -crf "$CRF" \
    -pix_fmt yuv420p \
    -tag:v hvc1 \
    -c:a aac \
    -b:a 192k \
    -movflags +faststart \
    "$OUTPUT"
  
  echo "Ready: $OUTPUT"

[embedding-shape]

I use Resolve (paid) all the time on Arch with Gnome+Mutter+Wayland, works completely alright for me, except when it comes to anything generating 3D in Fusion, for some reason. Mostly use it for quick cutting and also audio mastering.

Got my license when I bought a second hand Blackmagic camera, must have been 5-6 major Resolve versions ago, and it still works as a charm! They're a rare star among a sea of trash in the software and (arguably bit less trash) hardware world.

[cowmix]

As per my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765893

I run Resolve under CachyOS using the project I mentioned -- everything works afaict.

[embedding-shape]

> It helps you build and run Resolve in a Docker or Podman container

Why though? I run it perfectly fine on Arch as-is, what problem does containers solve here? Install it to different paths and you have different versions working too.

[cowmix]

How are you installing Resolve in Arch? I have not actually tried installing directly (in Arch at least). What problems are you having in the Fusion page too?

[HDBaseT]

The AUR has Davinci Resolve and appears to be maintained. (Untested) [0].

[0] - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/davinci-resolve