---
created: '2026-05-24'
path: Sources/Homelab
project: davinci-resolve-install
tags:
- workstation
type: session-notes
---

## Outcome

DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.3.3 installed and running on `herbyeos` (Endeavour tower, RTX 3080 Ti). Used the sheridans GitHub PKGBUILD instead of the official AUR package for better resilience against rolling-release breakage.

## Topics Covered

- Picked install path: sheridans GitHub PKGBUILD over AUR `davinci-resolve-studio`. PKGBUILD keeps Resolve's bundled libraries instead of patching to system libs — trades Arch-native integration for survival across `pacman -Syu`.
- Manual zip placement still required (Blackmagic time-limited download links broke AUR auto-fetch as of v19.1.3-2).
- PKGBUILD pinned to 20.3.2; bumped `pkgver` and `sha256sums` to match downloaded 20.3.3 zip.
- Dependency dance: `libpng12` from AUR pre-install; `opencl-driver`, `fuse2`, `libxcrypt-compat` pulled in by `makepkg -s`.
- Launcher binary lives at `/usr/bin/davinci-resolve-studio` (wraps `/opt/resolve/bin/resolve`).
- First-launch hang: terminal output stopped at `log4cxx` warning with no GUI. Cause was an orphaned `/opt/resolve/bin/resolve` process holding the single-instance lock from an earlier silent fail. `nvidia-smi` showed the PID + GPU memory usage; `kill -9` cleared it.

## Key Learnings

- **Resolve's silent-fail + single-instance lock is a trap.** Exit code 0 with no GUI doesn't mean "crashed cleanly" — it means "another instance has the lock." Default diagnostic: `ps aux | grep resolve` and `nvidia-smi | grep resolve` before assuming a crash.
- **`ldd` is the wrong first check for Resolve startup failures.** All libs resolved fine here while the app was still failing to launch — the issue was process state, not linkage.
- **Bundled-libs PKGBUILD trade-off:** when something breaks after a system update, suspect glib/pango mismatches rather than Resolve itself. Arch wiki documents an `LD_PRELOAD` workaround.
- **Studio vs free is a separate download.** Filename contains `_Studio_`. Wrong zip + Studio license = silent demotion to free mode.

## Follow-ons

- [ ] Activate Studio license on first GUI launch
- [ ] Optional: install `davinci-ffmpeg-encoder-plugin` (AUR) for AV1/HEVC/AVC hardware encoders in the Deliver tab
- [ ] If app breaks after a future `pacman -Syu`, try `LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so" /opt/resolve/bin/resolve` before assuming a deeper issue