Im planning to mirate from windows to linux. I do have a active linux mint installation and it works pretty fine. Drivers for the nvidia card and my printer are installed automatically, my wacom tablet is registered and there is an onboard solution for all the settings of the tablet. Blender and Gimp are native linux programms i allready use, krita works fine and i recendly discovert darktable for organizing my pictures. But, and there is a big but here, there is no alternative to poser in the linux world. I do have wine and Playonlinux installed but i don't get anything positve out of this. Poser Pro 2014 should work, i tryed but failed. So, i guess, my question is, is there a linux user with any experience in this matter?

Poser will definitely not work with a current Linux installation.

I've been using Linux for decades and Poser for a long time. The latter only works under Virtualbox with a Windows7 installation (without any problems for years). But without internet access for Windows (I trust Windows only as far as I can throw it). That's why I don't have a current P11 anymore since Poser now requires permanent internet access. Means for me: increasingly faster farewell from Poser to Blender.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Any chance you speak german?

One of the reasons it will not work is that, when installed in Windows it creates an additional file which I believe might be to do with licensing. There is no way this can be generated in Linux. Despite the fact that Linux is not supported SM tech support did try very hard to get it to work for me a couple of years ago but it was really a non starter.

hornet3d posted at 4:33PM Sun, 15 December 2019 - #4373405

One of the reasons it will not work is that, when installed in Windows it creates an additional file which I believe might be to do with licensing. There is no way this can be generated in Linux. Despite the fact that Linux is not supported SM tech support did try very hard to get it to work for me a couple of years ago but it was really a non starter.

Wait... what? This is categorically untrue. You can have a binary write temp files all day long, you can have one write temp files which are encrypted as license files, and there's dozens of ways to do so, using a huge variety of algorithms and encryption schemata. Totally not buying that excuse...

Penguinisto posted at 2:14AM Mon, 16 December 2019 - #4373456

hornet3d posted at 4:33PM Sun, 15 December 2019 - #4373405

One of the reasons it will not work is that, when installed in Windows it creates an additional file which I believe might be to do with licensing. There is no way this can be generated in Linux. Despite the fact that Linux is not supported SM tech support did try very hard to get it to work for me a couple of years ago but it was really a non starter.

Wait... what? This is categorically untrue. You can have a binary write temp files all day long, you can have one write temp files which are encrypted as license files, and there's dozens of ways to do so, using a huge variety of algorithms and encryption schemata. Totally not buying that excuse...

Totally your right not to buy the excuse, it was one explanation that was given to me by SM tech support at the time and I do not know Linux well enough to be able to argue the point. What I do know a fact is that I had, and still have an installation of Linux Mint and I tried Wine and PlayonLinuxz and sometime ago I tried to get Poser Pro 2014 to work. I tried for about a week and did raise a ticket with SM tech support and, although they said Poser did not support Linux they did make a number of suggestions and I tried each one with no success. There then followed a series of emails between us and the explanation I suggested for it not working was in one of the final emails from SM. It did not say that Linux could not write binary files just that during the installation of Poser in Windows there is a file written that is referenced when Poser Pro 2014 was launched. It went on to say that looking at the way that the installation was written they could not see how the installation program could be successful in Linux. Bottom line is I could not get it to work but I did manage to install Poser Pro 2012 but in use it could hardly be described as stable.

Since then I have purchased a higher spec machine and reluctantly went to Windows 10 which I now use with Poser 11.2. Since this works for me I have not tried further with Linux although I do still use Linux on a daily basis just never to run Poser.

I''ve been running Poser in linux for over a decade. The newest Poser 11.2 worked right out of the box with a current stable wine. I have no Windows installations and have not had any for quite a while. My current system is Ubuntu 16.04 but it worked in a newer 18 series as well when I tried it. The only things so far that I have had faced are that I can not select my NVidia for GPU rendering (it's grayed out) and FireFly rendering (although FireFly rendering works ok with my Poser Pro 2014 in wine). Neither is of no consequence to me since I vastly prefer Superfly anyway. Just my two cents.

And I've had no issues with licensing server communication. I've used P11.2 daily since the day it was released.

12rounds posted at 10:04AM Mon, 16 December 2019 - #4373479

I''ve been running Poser in linux for over a decade. The newest Poser 11.2 worked right out of the box with a current stable wine. I have no Windows installations and have not had any for quite a while. My current system is Ubuntu 16.04 but it worked in a newer 18 series as well when I tried it. The only things so far that I have had faced are that I can not select my NVidia for GPU rendering (it's grayed out) and FireFly rendering (although FireFly rendering works ok with my Poser Pro 2014 in wine). Neither is of no consequence to me since I vastly prefer Superfly anyway. Just my two cents.

Now that is interesting, I gave up trying when I ran out of ideas and I really wanted it to work as I did not want to go down the Windows 10 route. If I find the time I might have another go but as far as Windows 10 is concerned that boat has sailed as I could not get Poser working in Linux before the time when a new machine was ordered.

Well, that is interesting. I have installed the latest version of linux mint and I was able to install poser 2014, Daz Studio, both running but with some issues., I trying to fix this evening. Poser 11.2 is also installed, but it freezes right after the start. The UI is open, LaFemme is in the view port, but I can't do anything else. Would you care to explain your installation steps, maybe I have done something wrong. 12rounds posted at 6:12AM Mon, 16 December 2019 - #4373479

I''ve been running Poser in linux for over a decade. The newest Poser 11.2 worked right out of the box with a current stable wine. I have no Windows installations and have not had any for quite a while. My current system is Ubuntu 16.04 but it worked in a newer 18 series as well when I tried it. The only things so far that I have had faced are that I can not select my NVidia for GPU rendering (it's grayed out) and FireFly rendering (although FireFly rendering works ok with my Poser Pro 2014 in wine). Neither is of no consequence to me since I vastly prefer Superfly anyway. Just my two cents.

I seem to recall I had that too (which directly contradicts to my previous statement about "out of the box" but hey I should have made sure to use a current wine version to launch it in the first place). It went away after upgrading wine. You should get the newest stable wine version if you do not already have it. Ubuntu and Mint are distributed by default with too old versions so you should override the default wine version by following these instructions from WineHQ (https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu). Stable release branch should be enough. I have version of 3.something; I can double check my version later today. Oh and you should launch Poser from the command line; it will output relevant information of what happens when Poser freezes. It may or may not help depending on your understanding of the output; the most easiest to fix would be complaints about missing or incorrect versions of .NET libraries or dlls that are required.

You said you had issues with Poser Pro 2014. The only (and really really annoying) I had was that library did not function. It was because of the idiotic choice to use Adobe's old Flex/Air/Flash technology to make it. I ended up shutting it down altogether and used an external library manager (I use Shaderworks' Library Manager; unfortunately no longer available. It worked beautifully for me but I do believe there are other external library managers out there). I was never able to satisfyingly solve the PP2014 library issue although I was able to run the library in an IE Expolorer instance which allowed drag'n'drop to Poser but it was frustating because of my limited desktop space.

I, on the other hand, have never been able to run DS. I gave up a year ago. It did install and all but crashes constantly in my system and without any predictable pattern. No matter since I prefer Poser anyway.

Oh and one other practical advise: make s symbolic link from the Poser installation's Runtime folder to somewhere else in your system. Much easier to access the Runtime(s) when adding new stuff than getting deep into the .wine folder each and every time. Personally I also have Nautilus scripts accessible from right mouse button that automatically zips newly installed cr2, hr2, pp2 and pz2 files to their zipped equivalents to save enormous chunks of SSD space.

Thanks a lot. That helps I think. PP2014 runs but has exact the Adobe Air issue. I fund a side with some Comman lines I will check out later this day. DS runs fine, the problem is the cmo connection to the DS database. This problem disables smart content and the login. I also found a workaround tutorial for this I will give a try later. If someone is interested, I will post my progress in this matter here The most amazing part of this is, that there are linux/poser user at all. Never thought it was a thing. Thanks so far, I'll come back later.

My memory ain't what it used to be. As seen from this screen capture, Wine version is 4.0.2 (and not 3.something) is what I have. Everything in my gallery here in Renderosity (which represents about 1/50 of my output) since perhaps 2008 have been entirely made using linux. I model with Wings3D, use Photoshop CS2 (which is the last PS version I have a license for because newer version don't run with Wine) for post work, texturing and drawing and Poser for rendering. PS CS2 despite it's age still blows a new shiny Gimp out of the water in my honest opinion. Granted, I don't do anything really complex with Poser but instead do pretty much only stills forming a basis for character illustrations and that's enough for me personally. I mainly use a Wacom tablet both for Poser and PS work and have no issues with that either. Poser Pro 2014 was extremely stable for me and so far I've only had a crash or two with P11.2 after some months of use. Quite happy. What I would like to have working is complex Python operations (like Wardrobe Wizard clothing analysis) using all of my 12 cores to the max but I don't know if that works with Windows even.

Bookmarking this thread for the future, as I'm planning to go Linux soon-ish. Thanks for the input here 12rounds!

Ok, the problem with the library in poser pro 2014 (missing Adobe Air) seems to be solved. I followed the instructions from this web page [https://www.noobslab.com/2015/05/adobeair-is-now-available-for-ubuntu.html] My wine version is 4.0 and i started Poser with the windows XP layer. My attemped to solve the issue with Daz Studio has failed, i will try again later. Poser 11.2 runs now! But i got an error message about the cefclient.exe. In result of this error, there is no library shown in the window. I will update wine soon, maybe it helps, stay tuned.

Poser 11.2 is running on Linux Mint with Wine 4.03 and a net frame installation via winetricks. This starts to be a fun experience.

Big Brother will not be happy with this rebellious behavior. I gave up trying to fight the wind a long time ago. Why even use Linux when every computer ships with Windows 10 and any computer with Windows 7 still can upgrade freely to Windows 10. I'm not some Windows guru. I used to be quite the rebel with my Timex Sinclair until the dang thing caught fire.

So what are your advantages?

Nice going blackbonner!

quietrob posted at 11:25PM Mon, 16 December 2019 - #4373589

Big Brother will not be happy with this rebellious behavior. I gave up trying to fight the wind a long time ago. Why even use Linux when every computer ships with Windows 10 and any computer with Windows 7 still can upgrade freely to Windows 10. I'm not some Windows guru. I used to be quite the rebel with my Timex Sinclair until the dang thing caught fire.

So what are your advantages? Hm, i was curious if it would work. And I don't take a No for an answer, if i didn't have to. The advantages of linux are, it's free, open, fast and secure. I have a main Runtime with over 90 GB of data. If i copy this chunk of data with windows 10, it would take hours to finish the job. Under linux it was done in 45 minutes. On windows 10 and pp11.2 this Runtime loads into the library window with a time delay of several minutes. And to open a specific folder additional time. The same task is done like so under linux. Linux doesn't boot trying to install the newest version of candy crush and I have to wait until this urgent job is finished. But there are reasons to stay in the windows world. It's a lot easier to do things. Just clicking an exe file and install a program right from a web page is one of this advantages. In linux you have several options to install programs but the most efficient way to do things is the terminal. And it's the complicated way. One has to learn command lines and read manuals. But it's fun, I like it. And now, with my favorite program ported into linux, it's even more fun.

quietrob posted at 8:22AM Tue, 17 December 2019 - #4373589

Big Brother will not be happy with this rebellious behavior. I gave up trying to fight the wind a long time ago. Why even use Linux when every computer ships with Windows 10 and any computer with Windows 7 still can upgrade freely to Windows 10. I'm not some Windows guru. I used to be quite the rebel with my Timex Sinclair until the dang thing caught fire.

So what are your advantages?

Rebellious? Maybe it had that aspect when I first got into linux during my Computer Science studies back in mid-nineties with Slackware's very first distro. But after 25 years ... I'm forced to use Windows 10 at work and I most definately do not want one at home having a comfortable and well working environment provided by linux.

Advantages? I don't really want to get into comparing operating systems; there are much better suited forums to do that should one wish to do so.

All computers shipped with Windows 10? shrugs Where I live, I luckily have the freedom to order my rigs without operating systems from specialist stores. I do not settle for the setups that are being offered cheaply at my local supermarket. Linux is funny in that way that you can change the entire hardware, connect your old boot drive and see how it boots; no need to install everything from scratch just because your rig just changed.

The entire point of this discussion and why I replied in the first place is to counter the first posts that adamantly and quite erroneously say that Poser does not work in linux. Poser does work quite well in linux with a current stable Wine layer and it doesn't require hours of work and tinkering to get it to work any more (it used to back in the Poser 7 days).

Blackbonner's issue seem resolved and usually these threads quickly turn into ugly flamewars so I bow out at this juncture.

Possible candidate for a pinned thread on running Poser under Linux?

Thank you 12rounds for pushing me in the right direction. I was not sure if it works or not, glad it worked. This thread was not meant to start a war between different OS, it was simple meant to prove a point, do poser funktions on linux mint. Like i said, there are pros and cons for eatch OS, but this was not the point.

@12rounds and blackbonner

A flame war is the last thing on my mind. I was being cute when I said the rebellious. Even if I weren't poking fun, I like rebellious. I envy Mac users for that very reason. I admire individualists for my own Ayn Randian reasons. I'm also thinking that Linux doesn't have to worry about virus's and Malware and ransomware and any other nasty type of ware designed to hurt people for no other reason than they can.

Flame wars are started because people get personal and directly or indirectly insult someone. In my own Comic Fun thread, I was flamed. It can feel awful and I want no part of it. What I do want is fresh knowledge. One answer given to my query is using a different operating system is FUN. That's reason enough. Windows keeps security to ridiculous levels that even an admin can find himself unable copy a file or change a file name that has no part of the OS. That is silly. That would be another reason to use Linux. If anyone here feels slighted because of my rebellious remark, I apologize. It was meant as a compliment.

Has no one read, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?" Has no one listened to Pink Floyd's, "A Brick in the Wall"? I have a feeling some or all you have.

I'll just lurk if you don't mind. Enjoy the bump. I find this thread to be very interesting.

@quiterop No offense taken. I think you made it clear and I'm able to recognize satire. I'm a longtime windows user, started with ME. From time to time I was looking over the fence fo Mac and Linux just out of curiosity. I'm a huge fan of the idea that one can have the best of two worlds, so to speak. It's the same when it comes to Poser and DS. I work with both, primarily with Poser, but there is much to like in DS also. Sometimes i think, why not have this feature in Poser, or the other way around. Because of this mindset i created a head lamp for the main camera in poser. I found the idea great. Likewise i copied the render behavior from DS, that means the figure and the scene are rendered, but the dome/construct will not. This cuts render time significant. I digress, i think you get the idea. Thats my motivation to try out things like bringing Poser to Linux. And as we learned, I was not the first one who tryed this.

ironsoul posted at 10:00AM Thu, 19 December 2019 - #4373598

Possible candidate for a pinned thread on running Poser under Linux?

Done.

I've been following this thread as I'm not keen on taking the Win 10 path. As I only have a quad core CPU I normally render Superfly CPU so I'm disappointed the option is greyed out. I had this when I first started with P11 and was told it wouldn't run under a 32 bit OS- I assume you're running 64bit. The other thing to check is that CUDA is installed and enabled- you didn't mention this.

Looking forward to seeing more in this thread

@ypvs: I didn't mention it because prior to your post I had absolutely no knowledge at all about CUDA. I installed it to my Ubuntu 16.04 successfully using NVidia's instructions and a deb-package. In theory it should instantly be available to Wine. Options in render settings were still greyed out. There is probably some setting I don't know about. I also tried with a wine-staging version 5.0.2-cr2 but was not able to launch Poser and don't currently have any interest to iron it out. Back to running with a working stable 4.0.2 version (no GPU rendering but it's not really that big a deal to me).

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at this. I did have a quick search and saw Wine Staging as a possible fix, as well as Play On Linux and Winetricks. Time for a look around all my spare PC stuff and put together a spare machine to dive into the Linux learning curve

ypvs posted at 8:57PM Fri, 27 December 2019 - #4374129

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at this. I did have a quick search and saw Wine Staging as a possible fix, as well as Play On Linux and Winetricks. Time for a look around all my spare PC stuff and put together a spare machine to dive into the Linux learning curve

Why a spare machine? Linux is easy to set up as dual boot, or you can even run as portable off a USB flash drive.

It's great to see Poser running on these Linux distros, I intend to try it on Ubuntu MATE once I get my computer sorted, and will update you all on how it goes.

Regards the Adobe requirement, you might be pleased to know that Baggins once posted a method that actually removes the need for it, and forces Poser to go back to using the original code that does not require it. Works perfect, I'll post it when I find it.

One other thing I wanted to mention is a distro called ZorinOS. I have no idea if Poser will run on it, but it is also Ubuntu based, has a built-in Wine system, and if I recall, a control in the settings panel allowing you to switch on/off proprietary graphics drivers at will. It does have a name reminiscent of a James Bond movie villain, and it's a few years back since I tried it, but ZORIN was a very clean and lean Linux distro even back then, so might be worth checking out: ZORIN

Further to the post above, here's how to remove the Air requirement, as written by Baggins himself:

OK I think I found the setting - it was introduced in Poser 10 and then rescinded - probably because it doesn't work right somehow.

Exit Poser if it's running.

Find your poser.ini - the path may differ for you - mine is in

c:/Users//AppData/Roaming/Poser Pro/10

In your poser.ini look for 

LIBRARY_EMBEDDED_TYPE 0

and change the 0 to a 1.

In Poser 10, this is (I think) all you would do. For Pro 2014, you'd need to choose the embedded library as well with this line:

LIBRARY_IS_AIR 0