topic Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux in Maya Forum

Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Wed, 07 May 2025 17:47:23 GMT

Hi! Here is a topic about the two latest Maya versions, running on Linux.

Background: Maya runs just fine on Linux with Wayland session up to version 2024.

Current issue: starting form Maya 2025 (and now 2026), the Viewport 2.0 is black, and so is the UV Editor viewport. Possibly also other editors that use some OpenGL Qt view/widget.

The only solution is to switch to an X11 session. Installing it is not difficult, but this operation downgrades the whole Qt6 package ecosystem, along with all the system applications that rely on it. It goes without saying that this is not ideal (if not proper unacceptable).

This happens coincidentally with Maya switching from Qt5 to Qt6, which most Linux distros support both. However Maya's version is a bit older than what comes with most distros.

Now, the issue is Wayland compositor full support (which, again, works just fine up to 2024), considering that both GNOME and Fedora (the cutting edge "experimental platform" for RHEL and its down-streams, including Rocky) are planning to drop support for Xorg (= X11) entirely on their next release.

Are you guys at Autodesk planning to take action and make sure Maya works on Wayland sessions? And not like "it goes for Maya 2027" kind of plan?

Companies can't keep using outdated software for much longer.

Seriously, telling your customers to just switch to an X11 session is not a solution. It feels like Maya and most importantly on Linux is kind of a neglected child.

I mean, Maya current situation:

glTF import/export support missing (which is good for use with game engines as well as an exchange format),

Collada export is broken for skinned meshes since Maya 2025 (open source glTF conversion tools from Khronos Group are based on that format) already reported mid 2024

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/bug-collada-export-is-broken/m-p/13001759

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-animation-and-rigging-forum/can-t-export-an-animation-using-collada-in-maya-2025/m-p/12935185

which hinders the use of a workaround to get the previous point sorted

FBX does not support the latest shaders you added and is locked at its 2020 version of development...which glTF would solve...

and now a second Maya version that's got the same issue on Linux running on a Wayland session and a historically relevant feature being broken for the same amount of time.

Please, seriously, please. Look into this Wayland compositor issue ASAP, for real. Or find a way for Linux users to make it work. X11 is not an acceptable solution.

Thanks

Edit to add:

@kelly_hynes @code13th01 @juan_bruscoQ3U5H

even more context on how a by now 2 years old broken feature has not been addressed yet
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-animation-and-rigging-forum/cant-export-joint-skeleton-dae-on-maya-2025-what-happend/m-p/12821176/highlight/true#M30611

specifically message 5

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

nelsoncruz — Thu, 08 May 2025 14:57:57 GMT

Thank you for sharing your experiences with Maya on Linux with us.

We are aware of the current limitations with Wayland and are actively exploring future support for as part of our roadmap. Even if not fully supported we have successfully removed several known problems along the way. Regarding the blank viewport issue, this is something I have not personally encountered, and I will need to investigate further. Could you please let me know which Linux distribution you are using?

As for the OpenPBR shaders and the DAE issues. We have some changes in place for future update that may resolve the problems you are hitting.

Cheers!

Nelson

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Sat, 24 May 2025 20:25:49 GMT

@nelsoncruz
Hi and thank you for your reply.

Now, to the points at hand:

let's make it clear that RHEL, and therefore Fedora, Rocky Linux and Alma Linux with it, will deprecate X11 sessions entirely in the next release (RHEL 10 and Fedora 43). So it's about time that Maya gets up to speed with that in mind.

I personally use Fedora, 42 at the moment. And obviously I'm running on Wayland. I know, your official support is on Rocky Linux and not even on a super recent one (Rocky Linux 8 IIRC), other distributions aren't supported etc etc I know that, no need to repeat that. Until 2024 version everything was working just fine, and then from 2025 on the openGL widgets just do not render their contents.

This machine's system specs:

Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.14.6-200.fedora.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 32 × Intel® Core™ i9-14900KS
Memory: 188.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090/PCIe/SSE2

Please bear in mind that I won't accept a "switch to GNOME desktop environment" as a valid answer to be able to switch to an (insecure) XOrg X11 session

Thank you for your time

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Mon, 26 May 2025 14:38:50 GMT

even more good news: also Gnome itself is going to remove the X11 session as default behavior in new installations and switch to Wayland on existing ones! One more reason for "switch to an X11 session" not being an acceptable answer anymore.

Time for Autodesk's engineers to actually put effort into the transition to Wayland. The clock is ticking.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 20:02:15 GMT

@nelsoncruz

few weeks have gone by, and no follow up yet.

Is there any news on your side, considering you were asking what Linux distro i was using to let you investigate the issue?

Thank you 🙂

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

gigiovannivicentini — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 09:30:59 GMT

Im trying to install on Fedora 42, but no success. This is holding me back a lot. When i wait to be able to use Maya on Linux (Fedora 42), im learning Blender.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 18:43:33 GMT

@nelsoncruz @gigiovannivicentini

Thank you for your interest in the issue. One genuinely, the other sarcastically.

Maya 2026.1 has finally brought Collada back to a working state as per release notes and reports from colleagues, thank you for that. Of course, glTF support not in sight in the slightest, but at this point it's ok.

I haven't had a chance to try and install this new version to verify its viewport working order (or any of the broken OpenGL widgets) as I'm too busy for that at the moment.

It would be nice to se any form of acknowledgment from a staff member though. Dropping in to ask a question to reproduce the issue and ghosting right after certainly isn't leaving room for any hopes of getting an answer to what is a serious question about an issue for a platform (Linux) that powers so many high end studios. We also bring revenue. Not as much as the BIM and CAD products branch, but still...

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

blendernoob64 — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 17:40:41 GMT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEWskFQ5GtY I made a whole video on installing Maya on Fedora 42. I hope this helps if you're still interested in trying Maya out.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 15:54:04 GMT

Dear Blender Noob,

while the effort to help someone is appreciated, there's a little point that needs to be brought to your attention, which is the main point of this whole thread: the hard requirement of an X11 session is not acceptable as a solution, and your video starts right from that. The current plan for Fedora is to drop support for XOrg server altogether, starting from version 43. Even if that gets pushed back to 44, it's less than one year away from now.
The whole "Maya does not support Wayland" is clearly not true, since I'm running Maya versions up to the 2024 no problem on Wayland, and this whole issue began with version 2025, when Qt was upgraded to version 6. There certainly IS a way to fix it, but it can not be a user-side system's downgrade.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

modeler_pagan755 — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 16:55:24 GMT

@nelsoncruz

I really appreciate the ghosting so far. Most likely because this account has no ongoing subscription. SO, not a paying customer, no reply. The thing is, though, that this is an ongoing issue that the paying customers are facing and, at the moment, coping with.

Well, news-flash: not every employee is allowed by workplace policies to personally go to this forum and ask questions using the company tied account. It may be a bad look on the company... or at least this is what those who put these kind of policies in place within the company thinks.

Unfortunately, at this point I guess I'm SOL on this issue.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

nelsoncruz — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:48:33 GMT

The blank viewport is something I have since logged on our end. As mentioned earlier in the thread the wayland support is something we are working towards for future releases. Current versions of Maya support RHEL 8/9 only.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

gigiovannivicentini — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:03:48 GMT

Are you using KDE or Gnome? I'm trying to install (even the 2024) in a brand new installation of Fedora 42 Workstation, but with no success so far.

There is a way to get some tips with you how to install on Fedora 42 Maya 2024?

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

luisalonsotechartist — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:31:42 GMT

Just thought I'd add my two cents here, since I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone in a tight production schedule as well as someone that makes plugins on the side for a class on rigging at a local college. I've been struggling to get Maya 2024, 2025, and 2026 installed even on fresh install of Rocky Linux 9.3, although I ended up succeeding in the end. I passed along some information to Autodesk customer support in hopes that it will help them move forward in making the installation at least smoother for others in the future. After all, what does "support Rocky Linux 9.3" actually mean when it doesn't work out of the box after an install like it does on MacOS and Win64? Even Rocky Linux 10 is a straight up no go because it has significant differences that make it a waste of time to try. Just the removal of the old DHCP clients and the new NetworkManager's internal subsystem implementation will stone wall you.

Anyhow, I am supporting my students and community by compiling plugins for the last 3 versions of Maya on all platforms (which means Win64 and MacOS too). It's shocking how bad it is on Linux but I imagine Autodesk is playing a numbers game with their user base and dedicates resources based on how many users are on each platform. I have multiple Linux distros running at the same time since I'm also a game developer doing performance and general compatibility tests for the games I work on. Rocky Linux is a poor choice for game development but I can understand Autodesk's choice of Red Hat since it has corporate interests/assurances in mind. I have worked for large AAA companies that had platinum support with Autodesk and I can confirm this fits their M.O.. I have resorted to ignoring using Maya in Linux for actual work and I won't be wasting any more time trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I would rather spend my time on something more productive. In my opinion, using Fedora 42 in X11 somewhat defeats the purpose of using Fedora since you're not really getting all the nifty advancement that attracted you to that distro in the first place. Frankly, I feel I have lost quite a bit of time already trying to get Maya to run on more modern distros. If you have a tight schedule, I would recommend against using Maya in Linux for production until the issues are addressed or at least wait until Autodesk fixes the installers. If I was in a large movie production, I would simply have RHEL render farms to benefit from Linux and have the artists use a different platform to work in or have them use Rocky Linux 9. I am going to take the sunk cost and move on.

I strongly suggest contacting customer support and expressing your dissatisfaction with the current state of Maya on Linux as well as your concerns for future Linux developments that will obviously be a blocker very soon. I'm looking forward to Kernel 6.16 and all the good stuff that it brings in the meantime.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

gigiovannivicentini — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 22:56:53 GMT

Very good!!! I was struggling, but i was able to finally found the exactly version 9.3 os Rocky, who in theory is supported. But for my surprise, do t worked too… and the packages also.

to install Maya 2024 , we need a lot of packages for this, and on those days the links and servers are down now. Is a dead end. Im so frustrated with this.

I was excited to work with Maya on Linux, but im leaving for some time. I will focus on Blender, Substance Painter , Unreal and Houdini. They all work fine on Linux.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

blendernoob64 — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 03:05:03 GMT

It really is a sad state of affairs. Linux is such a great platform especially for those who customize their environment. Windows 11 has been such a hostile platform for many a power user, and Linux is the antidote for that. Autodesk and Blackmagic treating Linux users who do not work for Disney or Pixar like this is a tragedy. Ironically, Pixar's ragtag Renderman Discord server is full of Linux artists who are happy to help, and Pixar is trying to make Renderman work on other distros than RHEL, or at least makes it possible to do so. Maybe if Linux starts to steal Microsoft's thunder, then maybe we can get a flatpak or something to make the installation experience much nicer. On the positive side, because I troubleshooted and stretched these programs from one galaxy to another, I know more about how the Autodesk Licensing Service and Identity Manager works way more than I think Autodesk wants us to know, and I am happy that for my work I can use Linux for almost everything, I even installed Zbrush via Wine recently and its been great, but it took a lot of time and effort to get all these DCCs working with each other. The VFX industry runs on Linux, I just wish Autodesk can make general Linux usage more viable.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

gigiovannivicentini — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 08:07:58 GMT

Im a newbie student. There is a way for me to get a help with you this pipeline on Linux? Im bought a Asus ProArt P16 to study 3D, and im trying so hard to work with linux on it (with the 3D and VFX softwares).

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

luisalonsotechartist — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 03:45:23 GMT

Just to let you know that I started with Rocky Linux 9.3 Workstation (as recommended by the docs), but by the time you do a few installs and updates, don't be surprised if you get to Rocky Linux 9.6 (which is the last one available for 9). That's ok, if it does. The important thing is that you have everything that's expected by the installer (which is the reason why we're in Rocky Linux).

Make sure to install what Autodesk recommends:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-D2B5433C-E0D2-421B-9BD8-24FED217FD7F

Here's two problems I encountered that took some doing:

#Problem: Maya won't start because:
qt.qpa.plugin: From 6.5.0, xcb-cursor0 or libxcb-cursor0 is needed to load the Qt xcb platform plugin.
qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Solution:
sudo yum install -y xcb-util-cursor

or simply install something like OBS which will install QT resources you need.

#Problem: /usr/autodesk/maya2024/include/maya/MGL.h:32:18: fatal error: GL/glu.h: No such file or directory
sudo yum install glfw-devel
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

Also, whenever I hit an issue that was beyond my ability to solve it and there was nothing I could find online to help, I used chatGPT or Gemini to ask it questions and quite often it had a solution. Just be critical of what it tells you.

Hope it helps.

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

luisalonsotechartist — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:59:36 GMT

The sad part is that Maya for the most part has no trouble installing on other distros. While I was working in other distros I figured I'd try to install it and I had no issue even with debian distros like Linux Mint. The problem is exclusively with the subscription license and license manager (like you stated). However, if you can get the QT6 issues solved, you can easily get Maya to start with a local license file. When I spoke to Customer Support, I recommended having some sort of official license key method so that we can bypass the issue with getting the license manager to connect to a browser that logs in for verification since at one point (even with Rocky) I had to adjust my DNS to properly connect to license.autodesk.com since I had the dreaded ADLSDK_STATUS_LICENSE_CHECKOUT_ERROR. I mean you're paying for a subscription, so it doesn't matter what method it uses to start the application. If Autodesk can't justify a budget to fix these issues, then at least it can provide an alternative for the license verification. After that, it's up to the user to chose to go a path that is not officially supported and have to deal with the technical issues that it will ensue (X11, Wayland, or whatever Viewport 2.0 doesn't like). In it's current form, I will strongly discourage my students or any production I'm working in, to use Maya in Linux.

I think I laughed the hardest when I was trying to make Rocky Linux usable as a workstation and I hit all kinds of issues (like no xbox controller driver because Rocky Linux 9 uses old Kernels). I started considering a two-OS setup by simply rebooting or VMware so I could run Maya in Rocky Linux and do the rest in a modern distro (which is an awful workflow). At some point I asked chatGPT for an analysis and it said this:

"Rocky Linux in a VM is risky for GPU acceleration, so dual-boot is safer for Maya. However, if you make Rocky Linux your daily driver, you’d basically be backporting workstation usability into a server-grade OS, which is a lot of yak-shaving." ROFL

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

marinhosgiK2GQ6 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 20:30:25 GMT

Hi everyone,
Any updates from the Autodesk team regarding native Wayland support (especially for the licensing service) in Maya 2026 or upcoming 2027?

Thanks.
Marinho Silva

Re: Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

luisalonsotechartist — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 08:16:55 GMT

I second this. It's been a minute and still no news.

The Linux community is growing significantly in numbers as Microsoft continues to fumble with Windows 10 end-of-life, unwanted AI implementation, and privacy issues. If Autodesk is playing a numbers game, they should be aware that productions are also migrating to Linux and that Blender 3D works on almost every Linux I have tried. Frankly, this is starting to be a bit embarrassing.