Blackmagic Forum

My main computer is running Ubuntu. I downloaded Resolve 17 Beta and just run the installer on my system. I all went good, the program is starting and working - surprisingly, because I see it's not supported on ubuntu/debian systems. Maybe I had all the libraries in place already.

The window not having any decoration is a minor problem, I can use Super key to drag around and resize.

The main problem is I still can't get decent speed with my 4K drone footage. I'm using the free version and on Linux it comes without H264/H265 support. I had to convert to DNxHR. But timeline rendering speed is so bad it makes it unusable. With no effects at all, it stutters and even freezes all the time. On a similar spec MacBook Pro it runs perfect even with my original H265 footage.

I am a die-hard Linux user, I'm faster in anything I do on Linux. I'd really like to have Resolve usable on my main machine.
I wonder, am I doing anything wrong?
Would the $300 Studio fix it for me with supporting H264? Maybe using the original footage would be more efficient compared to the large DNxHR files.

I am hesitant to buy Resolve Studio if it doesn't perform good enough on my system.

My System
i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz
GeForce GTX 960
SSD over 400MB/s read/write

Studio will definitely provide support on Linux for h264 & h265 plus other goodies, however you've omitted some key details...

Are you using the latest CUDA drivers (not the nouveau ones)?
Is Resolve configured to use CUDA or OpenCL?
How much VRAM does your GPU have?
How much RAM does your system have?

Thank you RikshaDriver for answering.

SISTEM RAM: 16G
GPU VRAM: 4G

nvcc --version
nvcc: NVIDIA (R) Cuda compiler driver
Copyright (c) 2005-2019 NVIDIA Corporation
Built on Sun_Jul_28_19:07:16_PDT_2019
Cuda compilation tools, release 10.1, V10.1.243

This is from logs/ResolveDebug.txt

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0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 | Detected System:
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - OS: Linux Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - Model: Gigabyte H110M-S2H-CF
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - System ID: 0532b4ae1d644ba48d7a2639f9900fac
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - CPU: Intel Core i7-6700, 8 threads, x86-64
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - RAM: 5.6 GiB used of 15.6 GiB
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - NVIDIA Driver: 460.32, supports CUDA 11.2
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 | Detected 1 GPUs:
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960" (gpu:4198d46b.f91e8f0c) <- Main Display GPU
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |     Discrete, 916 MiB used of 3.8 GiB VRAM, PCI:1:0.0
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |     Matches: CUDA, NVML, OpenCL, XOrg
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 | Detected 1 monitors:
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - "Monitor" <- Main Monitor
0x7f07b0d1c640 | GPUDetect            | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |     3840x2160, connected to "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960" (gpu:4198d46b.f91e8f0c)
0x7f07b0d1c640 | Main.GPUConfig       | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 | Selected compute API: CUDA
0x7f07b0d1c640 | Main.GPUConfig       | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 | Manual GPU Selection:
0x7f07b0d1c640 | Main.GPUConfig       | INFO  | 2021-01-14 21:14:00,392 |   - "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960" (gpu:4198d46b.f91e8f0c)


One more detail, this is how I convert the H264 footage for use with free Resolve:

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ffmpeg -i "$source" -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hq "$dest"


I really hope I'm doing something wrong and my system is actually capable of running Davinci Resolve with 4K.

I'm running Studio 17 on Linux Mint 20.1. It flies with H.264 and H.265. Also, I'm not sure about Ubuntu, but in Mint I can use Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow (or left arrow) to switch workspaces to work around no minimize/maximize handles. I just run Resolve in my second workspace and switch to my first workspace if I need to do something else while Resolve is running.

If you need Resolve in windowed mode, you call toggle the full screen option from the Workspace menu.

Shrinivas Ramani wrote:If you need Resolve in windowed mode, you call toggle the full screen option from the Workspace menu.

There's no option for that.

Can I take this opportunity to have you guys confirm that v17b opens with only 16GB of RAM? BMD call for 32GB in Linux - both Windows & Mac are 16GB.
My Mint machine is running fine with 16GB (I don’t use Fusion yet) on v16 Studio but it wouldn’t open v17b Studio and the RAM was an obvious possible issue.

RikshaDriver wrote:Studio will definitely provide support on Linux for h264 & h26?

Without any audio stream in MP4 container!

Perry Mitchell wrote:Can I take this opportunity to have you guys confirm that v17b opens with only 16GB of RAM? BMD call for 32GB in Linux - both Windows & Mac are 16GB.
My Mint machine is running fine with 16GB (I don’t use Fusion yet) on v16 Studio but it wouldn’t open v17b Studio and the RAM was an obvious possible issue.

Sorry, I have 32GB.

Lucius Snow wrote:

RikshaDriver wrote:Studio will definitely provide support on Linux for h264 & h26?

Without any audio stream in MP4 container!

Yes,that is a drawback. You must convert the audio to WAV.

So again, my Linux System:

i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz
System RAM: 16GB
GeForce GTX 960, VRAM 4GB
SSD over 400MB/s read/write

Using NVidia proprietary driver (version 460)
Resolve is set to use CUDA

Resolve stutters and freezes all the time, it's not usable. Any clue?

Your GPU RAM is definitely on the lower side. Your logs clearly show that it's already used 1GB of the 4GB vram available at the time of Resolve startup.

That sounds like your main bottleneck.

If you're trying to work on a 4K timeline, then you'll most likely get poor performance.

You could try creating proxies at a lower resolution which would help.

I just want to know one thing. I installed Resolve 17 on Mint following the guides and using that Debian packager and installing the AMD open CL Mroc drivers. It is not seeing my Ultra Studio 4K extreme and other issues like not seeing the firelight PCIE card. I saw SnazzyLabs installed it on Pop OS and he had a few fixes and it ran but it is still Ubuntu. I talked to another guy that said I should install it on Suse. I am going to get a call from a red hat linux guy but I heard that the server version of red hat recommended is $500.00 a year. Now that CentOS is gone. What is the best most stable flavor of Linux that DaVinci Resolve works the best with?

This is my system build - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 core 3.8GHz Processor CPU, ASRock X570 Creator Motherboard, 64 GB Crucial Ballistic Sport LT PC4-22400 RAM, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB M.2 Drive, Dual AMD Vega 56 video cards and Blackmagic Design Fairlight PCIE Audio Accelerator Card

I've been running Resolve since v14 pretty stable on Elementary OS (derivative of Ubuntu 18.04) for years now. I don't use the Debian packager and always install directly from the run file.

Haven't had issues with my Intensity Pro 4K either. There are even deb packages for the Desktop Video software.

RikshaDriver wrote:I've been running Resolve since v14 pretty stable on Elementary OS (derivative of Ubuntu 18.04) for years now. I don't use the Debian packager and always install directly from the run file.

Haven't had issues with my Intensity Pro 4K either. There are even deb packages for the Desktop Video software.

Cool. Are you on 17 now too?

Yes i'm on Resolve 17 now.

you don't NEED the deb package installer, unless of course it doesn't work on your flavor of Debian Linux.

In Elementary, it just works without the deb package and Resolve even has an uninstaller icon under the Apps list

RikshaDriver wrote:Yes

Also if Elementary is Unbuntu don't you need that Make Resolve deb script ( https://www.danieltufvesson.com/makeresolvedeb ) thing to install it? Every tutorial says to install on Ubuntu you have to use that. I am so confused.

Clayton Von Isaacs wrote:

RikshaDriver wrote:Yes

Also if Elementary is Unbuntu don't you need that Make Resolve deb script ( https://www.danieltufvesson.com/makeresolvedeb ) thing to install it? Every tutorial says to install on Ubuntu you have to use that. I am so confused.

Nope. See my edited post above.

RikshaDriver wrote:

Clayton Von Isaacs wrote:

RikshaDriver wrote:Yes

Also if Elementary is Unbuntu don't you need that Make Resolve deb script ( https://www.danieltufvesson.com/makeresolvedeb ) thing to install it? Every tutorial says to install on Ubuntu you have to use that. I am so confused.

Nope. See my edited post above.

I'll give it a shot. Thanks dude

RikshaDriver wrote:Your GPU RAM is definitely on the lower side. Your logs clearly show that it's already used 1GB of the 4GB vram available at the time of Resolve startup.

That sounds like your main bottleneck.

If you're trying to work on a 4K timeline, then you'll most likely get poor performance.

You could try creating proxies at a lower resolution which would help.

That seemed plausible, so I checked VRAM memory usage.
Gnome uses about 800M (multidesktop, 4K monitor). Resolve takes a bit when it starts, bringing total usage up to 1G. When I open and play the 4K project, GPU memory usage goes up to around 50% (2G) and stays there. I looks to me that GPU memory is NOT the culprit.

Also, GPU utilization is low, max 9%. And that seems like a problem to me. I was expecting the GPU to do the heavy lifting of video rendering. Instead, CPU usage goes to about 45% on all 8 cores. RAM usage is low, 7G out of the 16 available.

It's not the system, it's something else. On a much lower specs MacBook Pro, but with the original H265 footage, Resolve works great.

What is going on here?

Is your issue specifically rendering related or viewing on the timeline?

If it's rendering, what are the specs you're outputting to?

It's most likely using CPU only for rendering with minimal (if any) GPU acceleration.

RikshaDriver wrote:Is your issue specifically rendering related or viewing on the timeline?

If it's rendering, what are the specs you're outputting to?

It's most likely using CPU only for rendering with minimal (if any) GPU acceleration.

My problem is viewing the timeline during edit, not rendering final video.
Here's what I have:
Footage is encoded DNxHR 3840x2160, 29.97 fps - VLC plays it smooth on my system
Timeline is set to 1920x1080, 30 fps (If I set it to UltraHD is even worse).
No effects on the timeline, only plain cuts.

Does Blackmagic Design Fairlight PCIE Audio Accelerator Card Work in Linux now? I t shows up in Windows, but kept asking me to update something and would update it and then ask me to reboot and then do the same request for updating again. I had to click ignore. But the Blackmagic Design Fairlight PCIE Audio Accelerator Card did not even show up at all in mint Linux. Going to see if it shows up in elementary. but just asking if it shows up in Linux in Resolve 17?

I think I SOLVED my problem:
Apparently, on Linux, Resolve decodes DNxHR on CPU and it's not very efficient.
Converting H264 footage to MPEG4 instead (aka divx, xvid), maintaining original 4K res, allows Resolve to use the NVidia GPU for decoding and solves the speed problem. I can do speed effects with keyframes, blends and color curves with the timeline playing realtime, no hiccups. The timeline is set to 4K 30fps too.
Not only it plays smooth, but CPU is not used and the usage of the GPU is light, at about 30%.

Hurray! Resolve free is actually usable on Linux without the need for an expensive machine!
I expect the Studio version to be just as good while using the original H264 footage.

Here's how I converted the footage:

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ffmpeg -hwaccel cuda -i dji-footage.mp4 -c:v mpeg4 -b:v 100M dji-footage-mpeg4.mov


To be able to use hw acceleration with ffmpeg (-hwaccel cuda), one needs to install it from snap, as the apt version is not compiled with NVidia libraries.

On Windows DNxHR in Resolve is extremely efficient and scales really well over multiple CPU cores. I don't expect it to be different on Linux. Intermediate codecs aren't usually GPU-accelerated. They're fast without it.

RikshaDriver wrote:Yes i'm on Resolve 17 now.

you don't NEED the deb package installer, unless of course it doesn't work on your flavor of Debian Linux.

In Elementary, it just works without the deb package and Resolve even has an uninstaller icon under the Apps list

Okay got elementary installed but for some reason can't get the stupid AMD rocm to install. and I need those to have the openCL drivers or resolve does not open. Followed the same instructions from the same tutorial the other day on mint and it installed but now can't find the room installer -

I get to here step 3 on unbent installation here - https://rocmdocs.amd.com/en/latest/Inst ... tml#ubuntu

I get to the point here I past into terminal "sudo apt install rocm-dkms" and I get "Unable to locate package rocm"

Again I did this same procedure 2 days ago on mint and it installed fine

roger.magnusson wrote:On Windows DNxHR in Resolve is extremely efficient and scales really well over multiple CPU cores. I don't expect it to be different on Linux. Intermediate codecs aren't usually GPU-accelerated. They're fast without it.

I can confirm that on my MacBook Pro (Core i5, 16G RAM, integrated graphics), the same DNxHR files render fast, no issues. For some reason, on my Linux box they don't work. I can confirm that the conversion is multithreaded on Linux too, based on the CPU activity, but performance is abysmal.

I wonder what's causing this. It can only be one of:
- Resolve for Linux is not optimised for DNxHR
- Some software dependency on my system is bad (OS, libs)
- There is some limitation with my hardware

To me, the first one looks the most plausible, considering how well MPEG4/divx works. It's seamless at 4k. And The CPU on the Linux box is much faster than that on the MacBook.

Maybe they use DNxHR in FFmpeg if there isn't an official library for Linux. DNxHR is slow in VLC as well as I recall.

Clayton Von Isaacs wrote:Okay got elementary installed but for some reason can't get the stupid AMD rocm to install. and I need those to have the openCL drivers or resolve does not open. Followed the same instructions from the same tutorial the other day on mint and it installed but now can't find the room installer -

I get to here step 3 on unbent installation here - https://rocmdocs.amd.com/en/latest/Inst ... tml#ubuntu

I get to the point here I past into terminal "sudo apt install rocm-dkms" and I get "Unable to locate package rocm"

Again I did this same procedure 2 days ago on mint and it installed fine

Have you checked that it got added to the apt sources list?

RikshaDriver wrote:

Clayton Von Isaacs wrote:Okay got elementary installed but for some reason can't get the stupid AMD rocm to install. and I need those to have the openCL drivers or resolve does not open. Followed the same instructions from the same tutorial the other day on mint and it installed but now can't find the room installer -

I get to here step 3 on unbent installation here - https://rocmdocs.amd.com/en/latest/Inst ... tml#ubuntu

I get to the point here I past into terminal "sudo apt install rocm-dkms" and I get "Unable to locate package rocm"

Again I did this same procedure 2 days ago on mint and it installed fine

Have you checked that it got added to the apt sources list?

No. I had installed it and resolve on another drive last night. Resolve would not open without the ope cl from rock m