1. Boris FX
  2. SynthEyes
  3. Installation and Licensing

Linux Installation and Troubleshooting

Updated

The many distributions of Linux result in more attention being required during installation.

Installation

Troubleshooting

Linux Release Notes

Installation

  1. Download the .gz file. Chrome has mishandled .gz files in the past; if the file is corrupted,  use Firefox or some other browser.
  2. Unpack the .gz file into any convenient folder. The details may vary with your browser and system; for example, you might double-click the .gz file, then drag the whole SynthEyes folder inside it onto your desktop. While it's possible to run from there for quick testing, the following installation steps are necessary for SynthEyes to appear on the menus, have file icons, be available to other users, etc.
  3. Open the Terminal window.
  4. Use "cd" to go to the unpacked folder.
  5. If you are using Kubuntu or Ubuntu 14.04, edit SynthEyes.sh to uncomment the UBUNTU_MENU_PROXY line. You can also do this if you don't want to use Unity's global menu for SynthEyes. (Required if you disable the global menu on Ubuntu 14.04 via the System Settings... Appearance/Behavior panel.)
  6. Type "sudo ./install.sh" and hit enter. You'll need to type in your password before the script will run. If you aren't on your system's sudoer list, you'll need someone is who is, or you'll need the superuser password. If your system does not use sudo, type "su" and hit enter to become superuser instead.
  7. If you have a suitable NVidia GPU and will use SynthEyes's neural net features, you may want to install the GPU overlay at this time to improve performance on neural-net tracking, if you use that. (You can install this later instead.)
  8. On Redhat/CentOS/Kubuntu/Mint systems, you'll find SynthEyes in the Graphics submenu of the main Applications menu.
  9. On Ubuntu Unity systems, click on "Dash Home" then type SynthEyes into the search field; click the SynthEyes Pro icon. Once you've started SynthEyes, you can right-click its icon in the Dash bar and select "Lock to Launcher" if you like.
  10. If SynthEyes does not start or has other issues, see the Troubleshooting section for further adjustments that may be necessary for your Linux distribution.
  11. Read and accept the license agreement that will pop up.
  12. If you have an activation code, click Help/Activate License. Or, install an RLM license file. (See separate Licensing directions.) Existing SSONTech licensing will be used if present, or click Help/Register. Without any license, SynthEyes will operate in demo mode.
  13. Start tracking!
  14. Existing SynthEyes ".sni" files may not open (by double-clicking them) in the file browser until you have restarted your window manager.
  15. See "High-DPI Monitors" in the manual for how to configure SynthEyes to double everything's size, to adapt for tiny print etc in high-dots-per-inch monitors.
  16. After consulting "High-DPI Monitors", you may want to adjust the user interface font name, size, and leading on SynthEyes's Preferences panel, due to variations in fonts between distributions.

Troubleshooting

  1. If SynthEyes does not start: open a terminal window, type "cd /opt/BorisFX/SynthEyes2024" and hit enter. Type "./SynthEyes.sh" and hit enter. Look at the error messages. If it says it can't find libgtk2.0.so, use your package manager to install "libgtk2.0-0". If ncurses is missing, get ncurses aka ncurses-compat-lib aka ncurses5-compat-libs. Etc.
  2. Ubuntu (and ?): LIBJPEGTURBO may be reported as missing. SynthEyes calls for libjpeg, not libjpegturbo, but perhaps CentOS7's libjpeg is really a secretly renamed libjpegturbo, whereas Ubuntu's is a “non-turbo” version. In any case, you can put this CentOS7 libjpeg from our reference machine into the /opt/BorisFX/SynthEyes2024 directory and you should be good.
  3. Ubuntu and Rocky Linux (and ?): Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”. Ubuntu: do “sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module”. Rocky: do “ sudo yum install libcanberra-gtk2”. On other distros, you need to locate a (GTK2-based) version of libcanberra.
  4. If you see a crash when you try to open SynthEyes manuals from the help menu, or other functionality requiring a different app to be opened, read on. SynthEyes uses “/usr/bin/gio” to open files in other apps; gio does not exist in some distros. Determine what your distro does use, then create your own /usr/bin/gio script, something like this: 
      • #/bin/bash
xdg-open $2
  5. For further insight, type "./SynthEyes.ldd" and hit enter. Then type "./SynthEyes.sh >&/tmp/report.txt" and hit enter. Include the files /tmp/lddout.txt and /tmp/report.txt files in a support case.
  6. If you don't see the SynthEyes main menus, you are using a hybrid configuration, ie Ubuntu with KDE. SynthEyes is incorrectly told that the menu has been moved to a (nonexistant) global application menu. Edit /opt/orisFX/SynthEyes2024/SynthEyes.sh to uncomment the UBUNTU_MENU_PROXY line.
  7. If you encounter any problems running SynthEyes, please try starting it from the command line. Open the terminal, "cd /opt/BorisFX/SynthEyes2024" and hit enter, then type "./SynthEyes.sh >&/tmp/report.txt" and type enter. Perform the problematic action, close SynthEyes, then email the /tmp/report.txt file along with a description of the problem to us at support@...
  8. If there is a segmentation fault or other problem producing a core dump, open a terminal window, cd /opt/BorisFX/SynthEyes2024, then type "gdb SynthEyes". After the startup messages, type run to start SynthEyes. Reproduce the action causing the fault, which will return control to you inside gdb. Type "backtrace". Include the entire contents of the terminal window (with a description of what you did) in a support case for analysis.

Linux Release Notes

  • AVI and arbitrary Quicktime movies can not be opened in Linux. SynthEyes CAN open Apple ProRes™ .mov files, ARRIRAW, Blackmagic BRAW, and RED R3D's and all normally-supported image sequence types, as support is integrated in SynthEyes. SynthEyes can also write ProRes movies.
  • The keyboard accelerator map is interpreted using a US layout. While this interferes with your ability to remember a few keys, many of the accelerators are based on the positions of the keys, and it would be undesirable if they moved.
  • SynthEyes offers Maya-style 3D navigation in the perspective view using the Alt key. Depending on your linux window manager, you may need to adjust its use of the Alt key for window-dragging functionality, just as you do for Maya itself. Search online for Maya configuration details for your linux distribution.
  • Due to differing window manager conventions regarding docks, menubars, etc, the Linux version doesn't have a good way to be able to determine what the usable portion of the monitor is, which is necessary for placing windows properly and saving and opening files for interchange with other systems. Instead, there's a magic environment variable, SynMargin, that contains a comma-separated list of four numbers: a left, top, right, and bottom margin. SynthEyes will show the correct settings for this environment variable on the status line if you start SynthEyes unmaximized then maximize the SynthEyes window. (It's sticky, so you can unmaximize, close, then reopen SynthEyes.) The value is also logged into the syntheyes_error_log.txt file in your user data folder. You can uncomment and set this variable in your SynthEyes.sh wrapper. These margins are applied for all monitors on the system.
  • See "High-DPI Monitors" in the manual for information about how to use SynthEyes with them.
  • Using NVidia drivers? SynthEyes.sh contains __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0 so that playback performance doesn't degrade due to driver vertical frame syncs when there are multiple OpenGL windows onscreen. This setting does create a small chance of tearing (most likely on lower-end graphics cards), so take your choice. May not be needed on some compositing window managers. If you see objectionable tearing, you might try the x-config option "TripleBuffer" --- see the NVidia README/Installation guides. For non-NVidia systems, you should look for similar options in your system's documentation.
  • Additional NVidia note: you can try the __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS setting to see if it increases perspective-view redraw performance on your machine, though in our experience it does not.
  • Ubuntu: Floating OpenGL-based windows may temporarily go blank (until the next redraw) when you click to a different window.
  • SynthEyes requires US-style number formatting. If SynthEyes doesn't start and complains about layouts, add export LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8" to SynthEyes.sh. This is included already when you start SynthEyes via the icon or SynthEyes.sh.
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