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Installing Autodesk Maya 2025.3 on Arch Linux with Wayland (NVIDIA) using Distrobox

2026-01-06

It seems that installing Autodesk Maya using Distrobox fixes all XWayland-related issues (based on my testing).

This guide is written for Arch Linux with Wayland and NVIDIA GPUs. It may work with other distributions, but that has not been personally tested. Arnold has not been tested.

0. Gather the Maya Installer

Download the .rpm installation files for Autodesk Maya 2025.3.

1. Install Distrobox and Docker

sudo pacman -S distrobox docker

2. Docker Post-Install Configuration

Configure Docker for non-root usage and enable it on boot.

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo systemctl enable containerd.service

You may need to reboot for the non-root configuration to take effect.

3. Create a Rocky Linux 9.3 Distrobox Container

distrobox-create Maya -i rockylinux:9.3
distrobox enter Maya

4. Install Autodesk Maya 2025.3

Navigate to the directory containing the Maya RPM packages and install them:

sudo rpm -i adskflexnetclient-11.18.3-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -i adsklicensing14.4.0.11537-0-0.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -i Maya2025_64-2025.3-2178.x86_64.rpm

Package names may vary slightly depending on the version you downloaded.

5. Install Required Dependencies

Autodesk does not provide a complete dependency list. For a detailed breakdown, see this excellent guide by Oscar Domingo:

https://www.oscardomingo.com/blog/installing-maya-on-a-rocky-linux-9-container/

sudo dnf install \
libpng libjpeg libtiff freetype libXpm libXi fontconfig \
libXinerama alsa-lib libXcomposite libXdamage libXrandr \
libXrender libXtst libxcrypt-compat libxkbcommon nspr nss \
nss-util pciutils-libs libnsl xcb-util-wm xcb-util-image \
xcb-util-renderutil libxkbcommon-x11 libmng libXcursor

6. Initial Launch

At this point, Maya should launch, but only without hardware acceleration.

7. Install NVIDIA Drivers Inside the Container

Follow the official Rocky Linux documentation:

https://docs.rockylinux.org/9/desktop/display/installing_nvidia_gpu_drivers/

8. Run Maya with Mesa GLX

Run Maya using the following environment variable (thanks to Donnie Alex):

__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa maya

9. Create a Desktop Entry

Create a .desktop file with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Autodesk Maya 2025
Type=Application
Comment=Run Autodesk Maya 2025
Categories=Application;Graphics;
Icon=/usr/autodesk/maya2025/desktop/Maya.png
Exec=/usr/autodesk/maya2025/bin/maya2025
Encoding=UTF-8