Maya 2025-2026 on Linux

[modeler_pagan755]

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Companies can't keep using outdated software for much longer.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

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-ma...

specifically message 5

[managementR59Y9]

Majority of Linux Distros and Desktop Environments have been dropping the support for X11 entirely here and there. Recently both GNOME 49/50 and KDE 6.8 (a week ago) has just fully dropped the support for X11 on their recent/future release (Newly released Rocky Linux 10 also replaces their X.Org Server entirely with Wayland/Xwayland as well). Maya 2024 partially works on Wayland (XWayland?) where both Graph Editor and Arnold RenderView is not being shown properly; 2025-2026 straight up just got a black viewport and crashes a bit later when you interacted with it.

As a creator this is the primary reason preventing me from fully migrating my workflow over to the Linux so I'm currently stuck with dual booting with Windows right now- which in and of itself is quite bloated and very wasteful on hardware resources... It'd be nice to see some progress on the Wayland support or expected release date for this. Cheers.

[modeler_pagan755]

There is some light at the end of the tunnel... Alma Linux has started a SIG (Special Interest Group) to work towards a full and seamless integration of all software used in the Media and Entertainment https://almalinux.org/blog/2025-12-02-almalinux-media-entertainment-sig/

I have joined in on Mattermost (but there is a Matrix mirror too, as far as i can tell) , and would strongly encourage everyone who participated to this thread to do the same. A group of developers and their whole community group have a better chance to get things moving with Autodesk than the single users complaints we can throw out in here.

[modeler_pagan755]

The support drop for X11 sessions was announced and planned at the very least 2 years ago, if not longer, and it's just ludicrous that a multi billion dollars company such as Autodesk delays catering development so much for such a critical thing as functional UI to the portion of its user base that uses Linux (which is mainly made of animation and VFX studios).

I do agree that it would be nice and polite of them to, at the very least, give the user base some info about development AND an expected release date.

[modeler_pagan755]

Little progress, but still not 100% operational.

As mentioned, I joined the AlmaLinux Media and Entertainment SIG. Over there, a very talented tech artist found out a partial solution, that can be found here:
https://github.com/AlmaLinux/wiki/issues/729
Basically, these issues are tied to the NVidia drivers.
Viewport 2.0 can be made functional again by running Maya after having set either of these environment variables
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa <--- for desktops where all processes go straight through the GPU

OR

DRI_PRIME=1 <---- for laptops using an Optimus setup (integrated + discrete GPU)

However, sadly the OpenCL device can't be found, with this environment variable Maya looks for an AMD device and can't find it. 
From the terminal start-up printouts:

```

Initialized VP2.0 renderer {
 Version : 2016.11.62.12. Feature Level 5.
 Adapter : zink Vulkan 1.4(NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (NVIDIA_PROPRIETARY))
 Vendor ID: 4098. Device ID :  
 Driver : 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.0.7.
 API : OpenGL V.4.6.
 Max texture size : 16384 * 16384.
 Max texture coords : 32
 Shader versions supported (Vertex: 5, Geometry: 5, Pixel 5).
 Shader compiler profile : (Best card profile)
 Active stereo support available : 0
 Forced GPU Memory Limit : 2047 MB.
 CPU Memory Limit : 183348 MB.
 MultiDraw consolidation : enabled
}
OpenCL evaluator is attempting to initialize OpenCL.
Detected 1 OpenCL Platforms:  
0: NVIDIA Corporation. NVIDIA CUDA. OpenCL 3.0 CUDA 13.1.112.
Supported extensions: cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomi
cs cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_3d_image_writes cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pra
gma_unroll cl_nv_copy_opts cl_nv_create_buffer cl_khr_int64_base_atomics cl_khr_int64_extended_atomics cl_khr_device_uuid cl_khr_pci_bus_info cl_khr_external_
semaphore cl_khr_external_memory cl_khr_external_semaphore_opaque_fd cl_khr_external_memory_opaque_fd cl_khr_semaphore  
OpenCL evaluator failed to find OpenCL device with vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc..

```

So, openCL is out of question, which brings down XGen's half of features (at least half if not more) and GPU Override.

@t would be nice to have a list of ALL possible environment variables to try and see whether there is anything we can do to force Maya to use a specific device

[modeler_pagan755]

Little progress on the topic
I joined the AlmaLinux M&E SIG and overthere, a talented Tech Artist found out how to, at least, make Maya almost entirely functional
https://github.com/AlmaLinux/wiki/issues/729
Tested and works well for what concerns the original issue, where the viewport renders black.

However, with this "trick", OpenCL does not choose the correct device (even though it detects it!) and so the OpenCL is disabled. 
Which takes down at least half of XGen's features and the GPU Override.

@nelsoncruz it would be nice to get a comprehensive list of all the environment variables available in Maya. And not only those in the official documentation, I mean hidden, esoteric ones like one i found today by surfing the Autodesk forum (MAYA_OPENCL_IGNORE_DRIVER_VERSION, nowhere to be found in the official documentation).
Perhaps there is a way to bypass Maya's automatic selection of the device, so to be able to pass it to Maya ourselves?

[marinhosgiK2GQ6]

In my case, I can't even start Maya because Autodesk's licensing system doesn't support Wayland on Linux.
The usual workaround (switching to X11) is no longer available in Fedora 43, which has dropped GNOME X11 support entirely.

[modeler_pagan755]

I'm running Maya on an AlmaLinux 10.1 installation, which is Wayland only as well. It worked for me also when I was on Fedora 42 and 43.
You may want to try forcing the XWayland layer onto the software you run by setting QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb environment variable prior to launching the application, so that it can actually render the window. Also, it may have to do with NVidia support (or lack thereof) for some Qt6 widgets... so you may also want to try setting this other environment variable
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa
prior to running the application. Good luck!

[velocity3dZ92QT]

Hello. It seems that installing Maya with Distrobox fixes all the xWayland issues (according to my testing)

I made a guide:

Installing Autodesk Maya 2025.3 work on Arch w/ Wayland, NVIDIA using Distrobox.
Guide may work with other distros but I haven't tested personally.
Arnold not been tested.

0. Gather the .rpm file installation of Maya

1. Install Distrobox and Docker

sudo pacman -S distrobox docker

2. Post install steps for Docker / Manage Docker as a non-root / Configure Docker to start on boot with systemd

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo systemctl enable containerd.service

You may have to reboot for the non-root mod to take effect.

3. Install Rocky Linux 9.3 on Distrobox

distrobox-create Maya -i rockylinux:9.3
distrobox enter Maya

4. Install Autodesk Maya 2025.3
cd to the packages folder of Maya's

sudo rpm -i adskflexnetclient-11.18.3-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -i adsklicensing14.4.0.11537-0-0.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -i Maya2025_64-2025.3-2178.x86_64.rpm

(may have to replace the names manually)

5. Install dependencies.
Autodesk have not provided the full list of dependecies needed even for the recommended systems. For more info read this great guide from Oscar Domingo: https://www.oscardomingo.com/blog/installing-maya-on-a-rocky-linux-9-container/

sudo dnf install libpng libjpeg libtiff freetype libXpm libXi fontconfig libXinerama alsa-lib libXcomposite libXdamage libXrandr libXrender libXtst libxcrypt-compat libxkbcommon nspr nss nss-util pciutils-libs libnsl xcb-util-wm xcb-util-image xcb-util-image xcb-util-renderutil libxkbcommon-x11 libmng libXcursor

for any missing dependecies please check the guide above on how to fix them.

6. Maya should be able to launch, but only without hardware accerelation.

7. Install NVIDIA Packages
https://docs.rockylinux.org/9/desktop/display/installing_nvidia_gpu_drivers/

8. Run Maya with __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa as environment variable (thanks Donnie Alex)

__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa maya

9. Make a desktop entry

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Autodesk Maya 2025
Type=Application
Comment=Run Autodesk Maya 2025
Categories=Application;Graphics;
Icon=/usr/autodesk/maya2025/desktop/Maya.png
Exec=/usr/autodesk/maya2025/bin/maya2025
Encoding=UTF-8

[velocity3dZ92QT]

https://tonidaraban.neocities.org/posts/autodeskmayawayland

[lms2k]

Hello! I am switching to Linux myself and read (mostly skimmed) this thread. 

IMO, Windows is falling off so I'm in the beginning stages of seeking out different Linux distros I like. Just wanted to throw in another voice just to say: "Hey! Let's make Maya easy to install on Linux! Rocky, Red Hat, Arch or whatever distros seems viable."

I'm using Arch with KDE Plasma right now with Wayland. 

[blendernoob64]

This is amazing! Thank you for making a guide. Going to try this in a Bazzite VM. I have been installing Maya locally on Fedora and Arch Linux but if we can Distrobox it like how people install Resolve, that would be a game changer!

[managementR59Y9]

Some update: I've recently switched to CachyOS and I was able to use the `maya` AUR package to install the software (I've modified the AUR so I would be able to install 2025.3 instead of latest package 2026.x).

There were bunch of missing libaries after that which require the manual hunting and installation process. I would also need to explicitly enable X11 session on KDE (temporary) and run Maya from there (only for the license activation process) -- then I would switch back to the Wayland session and continue setting up the environment variables at ~/maya/2025/Maya.env ->

__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa
MAYA_OGS_GPU_MEMORY_LIMIT=16384

(thanks to velocity3dZ92QT for the mention and Donnie Alex for figuring out the mesa workaround)

"mesa" fixes the black viewport issue on Wayland, manually setting the GPU vram limit will also be required due to Maya being unable to figure out this automatically on its own and fallback to its default 2GB limit which causes extreme visual glitches and freezing. (>8GB vram) should be good enough, I've set mine to full 16GB and it has been running pretty well.

The caveat of this "hacky" workaround would the black Arnold RenderView (I haven't test Bifrost yet) and occasional crashes due to exceeding vram? possibly a rare event I don't know. It's also possible to get around the black RenderView problem by previewing the render on Maya viewport renderer instead but it's still such a hassle.

Mesa is probably not the recommended way you should be running Maya on but we got lucky and it ran well enough on there (definitely not perfect). I really hope we'll soon get the official stable Wayland support and not having to look back at this fourm 2 years later or so.

[john_anthony_gatto]

The extended Linux support and Wayland being on the roadmap is really exciting to see as someone who just switched to linux! 🙂

[gigiovannivicentini]

Since Zorin OS (Ubuntu Based) is the new distro with more than 2 million users only in last months. Maybe a support to this distro (Ubuntu LTS) could be a focus too?

[velocity3dZ92QT]

I'd like to report another bug on Wayland (Gnome)

Setting fractional display scale in gnome to a value like 150% will correctly scale Maya as well. However when setting scaling individually in Maya settings, it won't change. 

For example, gnome set at 150% and maya at 200%, maya will still show as 150%.

Besides this, any fractional scaling done by Gnome will result in a blurry text in Maya.

This is crucial for HiDPI monitors. Autodesk, please fix.

[marinhosgiK2GQ6]

Hi Nelson Cruz,

Big thanks for the earlier replies here! 

Just a quick question: any update on Wayland in Maya 2025/2026?
Many of us on modern distros, including ones in the officially supported Red Hat ecosystem, are still running into these issues.

Appreciate your time and support!

Best regards,
Marinho Silva

[anubis_loba]

I've finally solved all my Linux problems, and it's Blender. It turns out all my new clients are switching, and so am I. I understand that not everyone can easily change tools, but I'm going to give it a try, even though I've been using Blender by little for several years. These Windows problems, combined with Autodesk's issues with Linux and the possibility of switching, make it a good choice. It won't be an easy path, but it will certainly be cheaper. There are so many Windows and Autodesk licenses. One thing I forgot to mention: Blender runs very smoothly even on RHEL 10. What does Autodesk do with the money they're paid for licenses?Goodbye, goodbye.

[luisalonsotechartist]

I don't blame you and I've been debating the same thing for my personal projects as well.  Getting the latest version of Maya to work in Linux has been less than optimal. In the end, I successfully got Maya (2023 - 2026) to work flawlessly in Linux (even with my custom Maya plugins) but I'm using a "supported" version of Linux (Rocky Linux 9.3+). Meanwhile Blender3D works on every distro including the ones I use regularly. Despite that, not using Maya is not an option for now, since the majority of professional companies are still using it. This goes for teaching too since I'd be limiting the options my students would have entering the workplace. The college where I was teaching explicitly instructed me to avoid teaching Blender (since the majority of the staff comes from the movie industry). They might be dinosaurs with their Maya quicktime plugins and all, but it's not a fight we can currently win.

Godspeed! Hopefully more people make the same choice you did and it puts a little pressure on Autodesk to get this mess cleaned up. Between this and dismantling PyMel, they are shooting themselves in the foot.

[modeler_pagan755]

This is the only problem Autodesk has got so far with Maya, a rather big one to be honest, but the product is top notch.

All the while dismantling the pymel filthy garbage was overdue and always too late. If one knew what they were doing, OpenMaya is the solution, not a third party layer that makes one's tools a fourth party tool, becomes a liability if anything goes wrong (from the wrong version installed to the remote chance of the whole project going unmaintained), it dirty abuses built-in operators (like the bitwise shifts << and >> used to create connections or the / to break the connections... prime examples of what absolute TRASH it is), and on top of it all... it's SLOW AF. All of this, to just avoid learning how Maya internals work... bah. Mediocrity at its finest level.

The dinosaurs you refer to, know full well the issues they'd be bringing in, if they allowed Blender to be taught. I'm all for open source, and I really wish Blender was at the same level as Maya in production, but "the meat isn't there". Being a great modelling package doesn't compensate all the other shortcomings / missing features it's got, and deceiving students with the notion of being an all-round option for production is not good.

@nelsoncruz is there any news on this front?

[velocity3dZ92QT]

Fedora 43 Wayland Gnome

Graph Editor is not updating unless the cursor leaves the window.

Autodesk please fix

edit: uploaded the right video