How To Install DaVinci Resolve 16 Or 16.1 Beta In Ubuntu, Linux Mint Or Debian (Generate DEB Package)

DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editing software which includes tools for editing, visual effects, motion graphics, color correction and audio post production. The non-studio version is free to use (but not free open source software) on Linux, Windows and Mac.

Starting with DaVinci Resolve 15, this cross-platform professional video editor supports native audio support on Linux.

Update: The script to create a DEB package to easily install DaVinci Resolve in Ubuntu, Linux Mint, elementary OS, Pop!_OS,  Debian, and so on, was updated to support the latest DaVinci Resolve 16 and DaVinci Resolve 16.1 beta versions. This article was initially about DaVinci Resolve 15/15.*.

On Linux, DaVinci Resolve officially supports CentOS only, and requires some tweaks to get it to work on other Linux distributions. Some guides out there mention using some quite ugly hacks to get the application to work on Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint / Pop!_OS, which modify system libraries. Furthermore, even on CentOS, the application can't be properly removed.

To avoid these hacks and make it easier to install on Debian-based Linux distributions, Daniel Tufvesson has created a script, called MakeResolveDeb, that generates a deb package which you can use to install or remove DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta like any other deb package. Instead of messing with system libraries, this script creates symbolic links to the libraries requires to run DaVinci Resolve, inside the application installation folder (/opt/resolve).

Obviously, it's not a good idea to run scripts found online, so you should check out the script code before running it!

Before trying to install the free professional video editing software DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta in Debian, Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Pop!_OS, please read the following notes / known issues:

• Both DaVinci Resolve 16 and 16.1 beta requires a recent Nvidia graphics card which supports CUDA 3.0; there are reports that AMD graphics may work now, but I can't try this myself as I don't have AMD graphics.
• Proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers are required.
• h26x is not supported in the free version Linux version (here's a guide for how to transcode videos on Linux for use with DaVinci Resolve, using ffmpeg). That's not the case on Windows and Mac.
• At least in Ubuntu, the application doesn't have any window borders. To move the DaVinci Resolve 16 or 15 window while it's not in full-screen you'll need to hold the Alt (or Super) key and drag the window while holding the left mouse button. You can also move the window using Alt + F7 or resize the window using Alt + middle click.
• The MakeResolveDeb script doesn't include the required dependencies in the generated deb package, that's why the first step below is to install missing dependencies.

Install professional video editing software DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta in Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint / Pop!_OS

The instructions below for installing the powerful video postproduction software DaVinci Resolve 16 and 16.1 beta were tested on Ubuntu 18.04 (on which Linux Mint 19.* is based on) and Ubuntu 19.04.

1. The first thing you'll need to do is install libssl1.0.0, ocl-icd-opencl-dev and fakeroot (the first two packages are needed for running DaVinci Resolve and the last package for generating the deb):

sudo apt install libssl1.0.0 ocl-icd-opencl-dev fakeroot xorriso

Update: I added the xorriso dependency, as some users pointed out that it's needed to generate the package.

2. Download the latest DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 for Linux and extract it in your home folder (scroll down to the end of the page for the download button).

3. Download The MakeResolveDeb script and extract it in the same folder where you extracted DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta.

Important notes:

• Make sure the DaVinci Resolve and the MakeResolveDeb script are the exact same version.
• Make sure both the DaVinci Resolve and the MakeResolveDeb scripts (the extracted .sh files) are in the same folder.

4. Run the MakeResolveDeb script to create the DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta deb package.

Assuming you've extracted DaVinci Resolve in your home folder and placed the MakeResolveDeb script in the same folder as DaVinci Resolve, you can create the deb by using these commands:

cd ~/DaVinci_Resolve*_Linux
./makeresolvedeb*.sh lite

The first command navigates to the DaVinci Resolve folder, and the second command runs the script that generates the deb package.

I used * in the commands because the version may change.

Also, the lite option after the script command is for the regular, free DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 beta. If you want to generate a deb for the Studio (paid) version, use studio instead (and of course, download and extract the Studio version instead of the free one).

The script will ask you if you accept the DaVinci Resolve license - type y and press Enter to accept it, and then the script will start building the DEB package.

5. Now you can install the DaVinci Resolve 16 or 16.1 deb on Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS and other Debian/Ubuntu based Linux distributions using Ubuntu Software, Gdebi or the command line:

sudo dpkg -i davinci-resolve*_amd64.deb