Several Questions about Blenders files and Linux Mint. I'm a Linux noob.

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#1

Okay I essentially want to run Blender on LInuxMint. And I also want to run other programs like Photoshop/Daz/CrazyBump on Wine. I’ll be moving from Windows 8 to LinuxMint 17 Cinnamon. But I have some questions:

1)Where on Linux is the Blender program files located?
2)Where are the addons/scripts folders located for blender?
3)What is the best way to get the latest version of Blender on linux? And keep it updated?
4)What is the best way to do that? Using the Terminal or downloading from blender.org?
5)When bringing over my blender textures/models/HDR/ etc. Whats the best way to maintain my folder Hierarchy setup/locations when switching from Win8.1 to Linux Mint 17?
6)With that in mind, will I have to reapply my textures in my .blend files in the new OS?
7)When downloading a program into LinuxMint where is the recommended place to extract the files contents? So that everything works? (I’m aware of the software store, but I’d still like to know how to Manuel download properly.)
8)Is it possible to to configure Wine to reliably run several windows programs like: Photoshop CS5, DAZ Studio, Crazy Bump, Unity, iTunes etc?
9)When I bring over my other files from Windows 8, I want a similar folder hierarchy for Linux. Any tips with that?

I’m not interested in dual booting, I want to make the switch from Win8 to LinuxMint. But I want to ensure a smooth stable transition to the new operating system.

  1. I can say that Blender starts WAAAY faster in Linux then it dose on Win8. A lot of people say Blender cycles renders faster in Linux to. Other then 3D work, This will be my main OS so that includes, web browsing, word docs and normal computing type things. SO what are recommended optimizations I can do to have blender and these other programs, including Wine run smoothly and stable?

  2. Any other tips would be appreciated too!!! :slight_smile:

  3. BONUS QUESTION!!! - How can I get the electricsheep screensaver to work properly???

Computer Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 Processor 4770 @3.40GHz
64bit
12GB DDR3 Memory
1TB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 1.5GB

#2

Welcome to Linux! :slight_smile: Lots of questions, where to start. I use LInux Mint as well so here is what I do:

I download the tarball (.tar.bz2) from http://www.blender.org/download/ for the 64bit Linux.

I have a subdirectory I created under my home directory called graphics, but you can call it anything you wish.

I move the tarball into the graphics directory and extract it’s contents. This creates a new directory called something like 'blender-2.71-linux-glibc211-x86_64".

That basically is what installs Blender on your computer, you can put it anywhere and it will not matter. Just remember where you put it so you can access it later.

The next step is all in how you like to start up blender. You can, for example, simply open up a file browser and go to the spot where you installed Blender and double click on the “blender” file and it will run.

What I like to do, as I’m using Cinnamon, is to create a new launcher in the main panel called Blender. I then edit and point the launcher to the “blender” executable that I just installed. You can also add the icon to the launcher as Blender comes with a icon in the icons subdirectory in the install dir. Then when I need to run Blender I just click the launcher and it’s ready.

When a new version of Blender comes out, I repeat the first three steps and edit the launcher so it points at the new Blender. You can also at that time delete to old version’s directory. I like to keep the tarball around just incase I need to go back to an earlier version.

The scripts and addons for Blender, once they are installed, live in your home directory under .config/blender. This is a hidden directory so to see it in your file browser you need to right click to bring up the menu and select “Show Hidden Files”.

I have to go, but it’s a start. :slight_smile:

#3

Thank you. Im going to test this out. I may more questions later. :slight_smile:

#4

I’m running Linux Mint 17.1 Mate so my set-up appears to be slightly different to Cinnamon - scripts and addons are installed in a different location within my home folder so I won’t get into it too much as it will probably confuse the issue on installing Blender.

To be able to click on a .blend file and have Blender open it I navigated to a .blend file, right clicked on it, clicked Properties then on the Open With tab, clicked Add then Use A Custom Command. I then clicked on Browse and navigated to where the Blender Executable application is. I highlighted the Blender exe and clicked Open and then Add. After that I was able to double click on .blend files and they opened up in Blender.

Some useful tips on setting up Linux Mint. I always do this after a fresh install of Mint.

For GPU and installing Nividia drivers this might be worth a look.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=193371

I crashed my system installing the xorg-edgers drivers so the Marmaley PPA is probably well worth a look if you need up to date drivers. I haven’t tried it myself and am still using the driver from xorg, which is now working fine, but I did have a lot of problems with it to start with.