There are many Linux distros, Mistika Workflows will work in some of them but it may fail in some others, specially if they are too old or too recent.
These are the basic installation guidelines on linux (this example was tested under CentOS 7.8):
GPU: Mistika Workflows requires a modern NVIDIA GPU (Pascal generation or later) with NVIDIA proprietary drivers installed:
* For physical machines install a modern NVIDIA proprietary driver ("Nouveau" drivers will not work), the more modern drivers the better.
* Mistika Workflows must be started in a graphics session (even if you only want to render), and it will stop working if that session is closed.
* In the case of VM instances on AWS or other cloud providers you will need to install the "NVIDIA Datacenter driver". (a cuda driver is not enough.
Mistika Workflows also requires an NVIDIA OpenCL / OpenGL active session. Basic "virtual" drivers or GPU emulation will not work. When running in a GPU partition (as most cloud services offer) Mistika Workflows requires the NVIDIA Datacenter driver installed.
In general you will also need to connect to the VM via a remote desktop or VNC server with GPU support, such as x11vnc.
Other hardware requisites explained in the Mistika Workflows supported configurations article.
OS: Curent Mistika Workflows versions are well tested on CentOS 7.8. Other distros should also work, but there is no warranty. Please contact SGO support in case of problems.
QT Version: QT 5. Linux distros based on other Qt versions could fail (they are simply untested)
Python Version and upgrades of Python code between versions:
Python needs to come preinstalled in the distro or either be installed by the user. The Mistika Workflows installer for Linux will NOT install Python (it only does so on Windows).
Current Mistika Workflows versions require at least Python 3.11. The installation procedure in CentOS 7.8 is documented in this document, please contact support if needed.
The Python code executed by Python based nodes is stored in the .mwf files. That means that it may fail to work after version upgrades. To upgrade the Python code of a node, just select it and click one time on:
Contextual menu -> Code update: Finder to node
Note: Very old versions of Mistika Workflows (Up to Workflows 10.6) were using Python 2.7, please note that you will need to install the new Python version before upgrading to modern versions, and also define the environment variables of the next point
Installation notes for Mistika Workflows on CentOS 7.8 (and similar distros):
Note: The instructions below were about the installation process since Mistika Workflows 10.6 version on linux.
1 - If not yet installed, install this extra packages BEFORE installing Mistika Workflows:
sudo yum install libcurl-devel
sudo yum install python-devel
sudo yum install openldap-devel
2 - Check if your linux distro comes with the required Python version installed, otherwise install it manually. The exact procedure depends on each distro.
A same linux system can have different Python versions coexisting and they can be in different locations. First step is to declare the environment variable MISTIKA_PYTHON to tell Mistika where it is. For the case of CentOS 7.8, a simple way is to include this line in the .bashrc file.
For python 2.7:
export MISTIKA_PYTHON="/usr/lib64/python2.7"
For python 3.11:
export MISTIKA_PYTHON="/usr/local/"
export MISTIKA_PYTHON_BIN_DIR="/usr/
2 - Install the NVIDIA proprietary driver, if not yet.
3 - Install Mistika Workflows. It needs to be installed as a normal user, NOT as root. Although it will ask for the root password during the process (it does so to install the license server, which is the only component that needs to run with root privileges).
Example installation session (after a "mistika" user downloads the software):
[mistika@mistika ~]$ cd Downloads
[mistika@mistika Downloads]$ chmod u+x MistikaWorkflows.10.5.1-20221011.Beta.Opt.linux-x64.run
[mistika@mistika Downloads]$ ./MistikaWorkflows.10.5.1-20221011.Beta.Opt.linux-x64.run
(a graphics installer will open at this point, asking for the root password. Enter the password and continue ...)
5 - Open the sgoActivationTool (its icon should have appeared in your desktop) and activate your activation code (or select your remote license server)
6 - Open Mistika Workflows, either with the icon or with the command line (recommended for getting more information about potential problems in the console):
"SGO Apps/Mistika Workflows/bin/workflows"
7 - If the application opens but some nodes do not work, check the Validation Panel (it shows user errors and missing actions), if the problem is more serious check the Window->Panels->Scrip Editor (among other things, it will show software errors and missing modules)
8 - Check that the preferences menu match your system. Specifically, if you are also using Mistika Ultima, make sure to select the same "shared" folder in the preferences menu, as it is where Workflows will look for display filters created in Mistika Ultima.