So a couple of weeks ago, I made this post asking for help from those who used Linux and Davinci Resolve, and their experience. To those who's response was effectively "I use arch btw", I hear you, but that wasn't the question I wanted to ask.
The TL:DR of the responses I got from my last post was
- Pick the Distro with the DE I wanted
- Installing Nvidia Drivers in Fedora is a "fun" experience
- Arch will work if all else fails, but Debain/Ubuntu has community projects to make Resolve work too.
So with a plan in hand, am because Windows is really annoying me with it's bugs. I decided to swap my 1TB Windows drive out, with a spare 512GB SSD to test Linux to see if I can actually use it.
My Hardware:
- Ryzen 5 1600x
- Nvidia RTX 3050 8GB
- 16GB DDR4
- 512GB Nvme
- 4TB HDD (Personal Storage)
- 8TB HDD (Work Storage)
My Linux Requirements
- Minimal Terminal usage outside of onetime installs
- The Ability to use and install Davinci Resolve Studio from my Work Storage
- The Ability to install and run Steam and Wine (Lutris/Bottles)
- Cinnamon Desktop (best of Gnome with the Window layout I desire)
- Minimal configuration to use, should be good to go out of the box with minor tweaking
The OS's I tested (in-order of installation)
- Linux Mint DE
- OpenSuse
- Fedora
- ~~Debain~~ Debian
- Linux Mint
The results
----- Linux Mint DE -----
Installing Linux Mint DE was straight forward and easy. The system looked and ran nicely, though the installation of the Nvidia Drivers did require some work, but wasn't too difficult.
Davinci Resolve Studio install and ran fine (though I installed it without the deb tool). It alerted me that I didn't have the nvidia_driver installed. But once it was installed, oh boy was it a fun learning experience. Good News, the "Studio" license means I get access to H.264, yay. Bad News, the "Studio" license doesn't include a license for AAC Audio, and by default all *.mp4 containers are muted. Uggh. MainConcept has a plugin that might work, but I've yet to test it.
What I did test was the FFMPEG script floating around to copy the h.264 to a mov file and convert/strip the audio to pcm16. I played around and found that H.264 in a MKV container with MP3 audio both worked and resulted in more compressed video files. I like this so I made a script, called it a day and installed some games.
Currently I am playing Hogwarts Legacy, a pretty new(ish) game that requires beefy hardware. Good test by my books for this, since not only do I play these kinds of games on my desktop, but I remote play them on my TV with my Steam Link. Sadly I never made it far since after the install process ended and I tried to boot the game in Big Picture on my Steam Link, the display manager freaked out and the desktop started flickering in and out of Big Picture. Yikes I didn't sign up for this seizure inducing mess.
But this kind of bugginess was a given with Mint DE, as the goal of Mint DE was to "... deliver the same user experience if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. ". Thus the focus and resources weren't there for issues like this.
If I had the time and desire it might be worth experimenting with it more, but as this fails a requirement (3), onto the next Distro.
----- OpenSuse -----
I love the idea of enterprise Linux, and OpenSuse sound perfect for my use case. But the last time I used it, by DE of choice was plasma, and during my install I forgot that OpenSuse doesn't come with Cinnamon by default. No matter I can just choose the Generic desktop and add it in myself... right?
Well 30 min later and my desktop looked like a Picasso Painting. I don't know how I got here, and I fear if I was to try again, I wouldn't be able to recreate it. Sorry OpenSuse, I couldn't even give you fair shake down, but you fail my requirements (4&5) before I could check the rest.
----- Fedora -----
I had high hopes for Fedora. Not only is this the upstream of the recommended Distro for Resolve (Rocky Linux), but it's also the basis for many Steam OS like distros so gaming should be good on it. I was nervous about the Nvidia driver install, but it can't be that bad right?
Welp finding a Spin of Fedora with Cinnamon was easy enough, and the install is as painless as ever. I like DNF Dragon, but prefer a proper GUI, so Gnome Software here we go.
Man I forgot how agonizingly slow DNF is, and I wish they made DNF5 the standard now. Too bad I didn't find out about DNF5 until after this, but 1 set of updates and package installs later and it's time for the Nvidia driver install. Which, yikes, no "nividia_driver" package on the Gnome Software, nor DNF Dragon. Just an AKMod driver.
Fine, lets go onto google and find a script. Which I did easy enough., But when I installed it via DNF, it broke my entire distro. The driver install, but the kernel module isn't working and errors out. Thankfully I have access to a terminal, but yikes, nothing I do works, and on a machine without a TPM or secure boot, I don't think it's that Reddit.
KK that's fine, I can install the driver from Nvidia itself and install it that way. Lets re-install my distro and try again. Take 2 and the driver installation works, but now there is this ugly grey screen slowing down my boot, and when I install Resolve... it doesn't see my GPU. Fine lets make sure CUDA is install and.... still nothing, and the Nvidia driver is still broken...
IBM/Fedora Project, get your stupid heads out of your stupid buts and give us proper verified access to Proprietary drivers. Cuz your distro fails all of my requirements except (4), and I wasted a day. When people point to say that Linux is too difficult to use, this is the distro they are referring to. NEXT!
----- Debian -----
Ah back to familiar territory. Mint DE had issues, but Debian should be fine. It's upstream Ubuntu and everything supports it right?
Well after 3 install attempts to get GRUB to work. First was my fault and the second time I don't know what happened, I just kept pressing enter hoping that it'll work. I installed everything set Cinnamon as my DE, and OMG what did they do to you my sweet summer child.
Where's the theme control? Where's my ability to force apps to dark mode? Where's Papirus Icons? Are they safe?
It's OK, I can spend a bit of time styling as I install things, like steam... which isn't in Gnome Software. Uggh I need to enable "Non-free" in settings. At this point I'm just happy it's a toggle. But I'm starting to not like Gnome Software. It's slow unresponsive and very touchy.
But with everything install, it's time for the nvidia drivers. And a Debian guide and terminal later (points marked down), they are installed. And things seem to work. I even tried that MakeResolveDeb program, and while she takes a minute, it's worth the wait.
And Resolve does work, but my MKV MP3 clever work around doesn't work? Maybe Mint DE installs some extra codecs for me. Oh well updating the script back to pcm16 fixes it, but I really need to find a proper solution to that. Otherwise Resolve works well enough.
Steam though.... sadly does not. I don't know if it's because I am in Debian, or because it was the flatpak version. But I couldn't even boot into LEGO Star Wars. And with how Cinnamon is slowly turning into a Picasso Painting like Fedora, I feel it's time to bail. Good new I made my Mint installer with Etcher in my Debian install. It was nice.
----- Linux Mint -----
When I hear that modern linux has improved to the point anyone could use it. Mint is the experience I think of when I hear it. Not only was the install process painless. It may have killed my previous Manjaro install on my laptop with it's bootloader malarkey, but with my Windows Drive not plugged in, I had nothing to worry about.
Booting it up for the first time, not only was it nice and friendly, but the welcome guide was perfect to setup my machine, offering codecs I was missing. Setting up backups, themes (papirus I missed you), and even gasp, install my nvidia driver right on boot, with options for which version I can use.
This is what I am talking about for ease of installation. A+++ Mint team, please do this for DE as well when you have the chance... or just merge the projects, up to you.
Setting up Resolve on the other hand, yeah that wasn't so easy. Don't get me wrong the challenge before was getting Nvidia installed, but this time the MakeResolveDeb program ran like a asthmatic pickup truck, and took far too long. I actually timed it, 25 min in Debian, about 45-1hour in Mint. No clue why.
So as I waited, I played some games, and boy howdy can she game. Why do I know this. Well Mint is on my laptop and is my goto to try games to see if they work in a 13th gen mobile i5, before setting them up in Windows.
Hogwarts Legacy booted fine, though shader compilation was annoying especially with the double whammy when the game boots with it too. But hey I'd rather be complaining about game performance and load time than the OS, so this is a win here. And no issues with LEGO Star Wars as well.
Now onto Resolve and.... I've apparently used the maximum amount of authentications for my license and I need to wait week. Drat. But hey it should work on paper since it worked in both Mint DE and Debian.... I just really want to try it, especially since MainConcept has a codec plugin for davinci resolve which is suppose to support AAC. It's $100 but if it works, I'd take it.
----- Conclusion -----
At the end of my Test I had my answer, if I wanted to Game and do Work, I need Ubuntu/Linux Mint. Debian appears to just do Work, while Fedora can find a hole and die in it for the amount of wasted time with DNF and Nvidia installations.
I wish I could've given OpenSuse a bit more of a chance, but no Cinnamon by default no go. And I am sure Arch would've work, I am just happy I didn't need to go down that rabbit hole.
While I would like to say that I closed my desktop up and am riding in the sunset with Mint, sadly that's not the case. Windows 10 refuses to work as an external OS running from USB, and I have ongoing projects there. So one last swap and My desktop is back on Windows.
With that said, my Mint install will work as an external USB, which is excellent since this will be a perfect way to both do a long term test with Mint, and slowly Migrate over from Windows to Linux. In fact I am writing this on Mint right now. Sure it's load times are slow, but I can easily use my internal HDD for work and it won't impact my Windows. Win/Win for me.
Though in the long term I need to do some more testing. FreeCAD and Handbrake are running better, but I need to make sure Resolve doesn't miss behave and the games and accessories I have work well. But I need actual projects to test and right now that work can be done on my laptop.
I'm just happy everything works (for now), and hopeful this transition doesn't go too long. But you know what they say, there's no more permanent of a solution than a temporary fix.
TL:DR I tried many distros, OpenSuse didn't have cinnamon, Fedora broke twice installing nvidia driver, Debian/Mint DE worked but games were wonky, and Mint worked for everything, but I ran out of Resolve Activation so I presume if it worked on Debian it'll be fine here.