---
created: '2026-05-24'
path: Sources/Homelab
project: davinci-resolve-studio-install
tags:
- completed
type: project-plan
---

## Goal

Install DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.3.3 on the Endeavour tower without the post-update breakage pattern that plagues the standard AUR package.

## Locked Decisions

- **PKGBUILD source: `sheridans/davinci-resolve-arch`** (GitHub), not the AUR `davinci-resolve-studio` package. Keeps Resolve's bundled libs intact instead of patching to system libs — trades Arch-integration for survival across `pacman -Syu`.
- **Studio version, not free.** Separate installer zip (`DaVinci_Resolve_Studio_*.zip`), filename contains `_Studio_`. License key only activates the Studio binary.
- **Manual zip placement.** Since 19.1.3-2, Blackmagic's time-limited download protections prevent any AUR/PKGBUILD helper from auto-fetching. Always a manual download → drop in package dir step.

## Phases

- [x] Clone `https://github.com/sheridans/davinci-resolve-arch.git`
- [x] Download Studio zip from Blackmagic, drop in repo dir
- [x] Edit PKGBUILD: bump `pkgver` to match zip, replace `sha256sums[0]` with output of `sha256sum` on the zip
- [x] Install AUR dep: `yay -S libpng12` (only AUR dep; rest are repo-resolvable)
- [x] Build + install: `makepkg -si`
- [x] Launch via `davinci-resolve-studio` (launcher in `/usr/bin/`; actual binary at `/opt/resolve/bin/resolve`)
- [x] Enter activation key on first-launch prompt

## Open Items

- None — install completed, GUI loaded, license entered.

## Notes

### Key gotchas

- **License key recovery.** Blackmagic has no portal for retrieving keys — they live in the original purchase email only. Searching Gmail for `from:blackmagicdesign.com` or `"activation key"` is the recovery path. If the email is gone, support can reissue with purchase date + card last 4 + name.
- **Single-instance lock + silent fail.** Resolve's first launch can background or orphan a process. Subsequent launches see the lock and exit cleanly with code 0 — no error output, no GUI. Default debugging move on any "won't open" symptom:
  ```
  ps aux | grep resolve | grep -v grep
  nvidia-smi | grep resolve
  ```
  If a process is found, `kill -9 <pid>` and relaunch. Plain `kill` may not take.
- **Startup chatter is harmless.** The `ActCCMessage Already in Table` lines and `log4cxx: No appender could be found for logger (BtCommon)` warning always appear and mean nothing. Don't waste time on them.
- **PKGBUILD version drift.** The pinned `pkgver` in the repo lags Blackmagic releases. Always check before building:
  ```
  grep -E "^pkgver|sha256sums" PKGBUILD
  ```
  Two sed lines handle the bump cleanly.

### Future-failure mode

When this install breaks (it will, eventually, after some `pacman -Syu`), the cause is almost always system pango/glib drift, not Resolve itself. Workarounds in order:

1. `LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/libgio-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so" /opt/resolve/bin/resolve`
2. Remove the bundled libs Resolve is conflicting with: `/opt/resolve/libs/libglib-2.0.so*`, `libgio-2.0.so*`, `libgmodule-2.0.so*` — forces Resolve to fall back to system libs.

Arch wiki entry has the current canonical fixes: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/DaVinci_Resolve

### References

- PKGBUILD repo: https://github.com/sheridans/davinci-resolve-arch
- Blackmagic download: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion
- Arch wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/DaVinci_Resolve