Blender - 3D modeller (Xenial & newer)

Blender 4.5.3 (plus 4.2.11, 3.6.23, and 3.3.21 LTS) for Xenial & newer.

*** Blender builds here depend upon the private PPA for installation! ***

*** Please always see https://launchpad.net/~savoury1 for general updates about this Launchpad site before contacting me or reporting any bugs! ***

*** Big thanks to all those who have donated to support this project, you are very directly helping to keep it alive! To all who have not donated: please do so if you can afford it, this project depends on donations. ***

If software at this site is useful to you then please consider a donation:

*** Donations: https://paypal.me/Savoury1 & https://ko-fi.com/Savoury1 ***
*** Also https://patreon.com/Savoury1 & https://liberapay.com/Savoury1 ***

Update (7 Apr 2025): Significant updates at this PPA (after some time) now available include latest Blender 4.4.0 as well as all LTS versions (4.2.8, 3.6.21, 3.3.21, and 2.93.18) and even Blender 4.5.0 Alpha from git source. Blender < 4.4.0 here is built with older components known to work well for older Blender versions (ie. OCIO 2.2.1, OIIO 2.5.18.0, OSL 1.12.14.0, and USD 23.11) whereas Blender >= 4.4.0 is built with latest versions of these components (ie. OCIO 2.4.2, OIIO 3.0.5.0, OSL 1.14.5.0, and USD 25.02a).

*** For older updates about builds see "Updates" after "Install" below ***

* Note: The blender-{293,3-3,3-6,lts} packages can install on the same system, as some blender* files are packaged as blender-{293,3-3,3-6,lts}* to ensure no file conflicts between the packages. Plus they have unique config paths ~/.config/blender/{2.93,3.3,3.6,4.2} for 293, 3-3, 3-6, lts.

These are fresh builds with as many features enabled as possible. Making use of work by Irie Shinsuke [1], Thomas Schiex [2] & Debian's multimedia packaging team (thank you all!) and developing that work further this is a fairly complete and up-to-date Blender build. Packages found here that are not in default Debian/Ubuntu repos include: Alembic, Open Image Denoise, Open Shading Language, and Universal Scene Description (USD) from Pixar.

==========================================================================
                  Blender - fresh builds (Xenial & newer)
==========================================================================

alembic-io (1.8.8), armadillo (10.8.2), arpack (3.8.0), blender (4.5.3), blender-293 (2.93.18 LTS), blender-3-3 (3.3.21 LTS), blender-3-6 (3.6.23 LTS), blender-git (5.0.0 Alpha), blender-lts (4.2.11), boost1.74 (1.74.0 with Py 3.8 & 3.9 libs), c-blosc (1.21.1), cfitsio (4.0.0), charls (2.4.2), coin3 (4.0.0), collada-dom (2.5.0), dcmtk (3.6.7), embree (4.3.3), embree3 (3.13.5), expat (2.6.1), fonts-roboto-mono (3.000), freeglut (3.4.0), freeimage (3.18.0), freexl (1.0.6), gdal (3.4.1), gdcm (3.0.14), geos (3.10.2), gmp (6.3.0), hwloc (2.10.0), ilmbase/imath (3.1.12), jasper (4.2.4), jemalloc (5.2.1), json-c (0.18), kvazaar (2.3.2), lerc (4.0.0), libcrypto++ (8.9.0), libde265 (1.0.16), libdeflate (1.23), libevent (2.1.12-stable), libgeotiff (1.7.4), libheif (1.19.8), libjsoncpp (1.9.6), libraw (0.21.3), libwebp (1.5.0), libzstd (1.5.7), llvm-toolchain-15 (15.0.7), lua (5.4.8), mpdecimal (2.5.1), nanovdb (32.3-3), netcdf (4.8.1), numpy (1.19.5 with Py 3.8 & 3.9 libs), ogdi-dfsg (4.1.0), onetbb (2022.0.0), opencollada (1.6.68), opencolorio (2.4.2), opencolorio1 (1.1.1), opencolorio2.2 (2.2.1), opencv (imath builds), openexr (3.2.4), openimagedenoise (2.3.3), openimagedenoise2 (2.3.3 TBB 2020 build), openimageio (3.0.9.0), openimageio2.5 (2.5.18.0), openjpeg2 (2.5.0), openscenegraph (3.6.5), openshadinglaguage (1.14.7.0), openshadinglanguage1.12 (1.12.14.0), opensubdiv (3.6.0), openvdb (10.1.0), openvdb9 (9.1.0), openxr-sdk-source (1.0.34), poppler (22.02.0), poppler-data (0.4.11), proj (9.3.0), pugixml (1.14.0), python3.10 (3.10.18), python3.12 (3.12.11), python3.9 (3.9.23), qhull (2020.2), robin-map (1.3.0), snappy (1.2.2), spatialite (5.0.1), superlu (5.3.0), tbb (2020.3), tiff (4.7.0), uriparser (0.9.7), usd (25.02a), usd23.11 (23.11), yaml-cpp (0.8.0), zlib (1.3.1)

Noble only: openshadinglanguage1.13 (1.13.12.0)

Focal only: libdbi-perl (1.23 = libdeflate / renamed source for i386), numpy (1.19.5 with both Python 3.8 & 3.9 modules), pyside2 (5.14.0+really5.13.2 downgrade, due various use cases being broken by pyside2 5.14 with Qt 5.12 as in default Focal repositories, eg. missing pyside2-uic binary)

Xenial & Bionic: curl, collada2gltf, fftw3, fontconfig, freetype, hdf5 (1.10.0-patch1 libopenmpi3 rebuilds), icu (66.1), icu-le-hb (1.0.3+git180724), json-c4, libdap, libidn2, libpng1.6, libpsl (0.21.0), librttopo (1.1.0), mpich (3.3.2), openmpi (4.0.3), openssl, potrace (1.16), pyside2-py3.8 (5.15.2 Py3.8 build), pysimplesoap, python-{boto,httplib2,imaplib2} (compat with new openssl), tesseract, xerces-c (3.2.2), xz-utils

Xenial only: icu60, icu-le-hb, infinipath-psm, lcms2, libfabric, libharu, libkml, libsquish, nghttp2, openmpi2 (2.1.1), rdma-core, sqlite3 (3.22.0)

==========================================================================

*** Install ***

Note for all: Blender builds here require the private PPA in addition to other PPAs (dependent on Ubuntu series in use). Anyone who has donated can contact me to request access to the private PPA. After the private PPA is added to your system then do the following steps for successful install of Blender >= 3.3.0 (built with FFmpeg 6.1, only 2.93.18 is with FFmpeg 4.4):

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg6
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/blender
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
  sudo apt-get install blender

Note for Ubuntu < 24.04: The public FFmpeg 4 PPA must also be added for installation, so first run the following command before all of the above:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4

Notes for Ubuntu < 22.04: Blender >= 3.5.0 requires GCC >= 11 for both building and installation. Only 22.04 has this GCC available in "official" repos, so pre-22.04 systems will need to add one of two GCC 11 PPAs for a successful installation. Either GCC 11 binaries or GCC 11 defaults can be added (the second will make GCC 11 the system default GCC version). So add either of the following commands to the top of the above for installation:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/gcc-11

OR

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-11

Notes for Ubuntu < 20.04: Blender is demanding software and newer versions require many newer system libraries than shipped with these older series. Packages here are built with a number of other PPAs at this Launchpad site (see "Build" heading below) and various newer packages from other PPAs are then required for successful install. This includes requiring GCC >= 9.3.0 (default GCC for 20.04) for building & installing Blender < 3.5 versions.

Firstly the display PPA must be added (add this to the top of above list):

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/display

Then either a PPA with GCC 9 binaries only, or a PPA setting GCC 9 as the system default can be added (similar to GCC 11 for Blender >= 3.5.0). Note that only a GCC 11 PPA is needed if also running Blender >= 3.5.0, whereas a GCC 9 PPA can be used if only running Blender < 3.5.0 (3.3.21 or 2.93.18 LTS). So add one of the following commands to the top of the above list if only installing older Blender < 3.5.0 LTS that does not need newer GCC 11:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/gcc-9

OR

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-9

If running nVidia hardware see the display PPA for more information about nVidia drivers: https://launchpad.net/~savoury1/+archive/ubuntu/display

Note for Xenial: CUDA 11.1+ requires Linux kernel >= 4.5 for bug-free functionality, just as a newer kernel is best for numerous post-Xenial release (2016 onwards) display drivers and graphics programs. See here:

https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/archive/11.1.0/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html

See the same display PPA above re: kernel >= 4.5 for new display drivers.

* Notes about Numpy: Due Blender 4.1+ needing Python 3.11+ (default Xenial is 3.5, Bionic 3.6, Focal 3.8, Jammy 3.10) recent Blender here is built with 3.12 for all series. Numpy installed from APT (python3-numpy package) to /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages will therefore not work with Python 3.12 for Ubuntu 22.04 and earlier. A workaround is to install Numpy through pip then add a user site-packages path to sys.path in a Blender startup script (following steps outlined below).

All blender{,-lts}-data here depend on the python3.12 package to ensure a Python 3.12 installation is available as required. The following commands using Python 3.12 will install pip first & then a compatible Python Numpy package (bootstrap.pypa.io is hosted by Python Packaging Authority or PyPA so it's a trusted site in terms of downloading get-pip.py to install pip):

  cd ~
  curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3.12 - --break-system-packages
  python3.12 -m pip install --target=.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages numpy

Note the single "-" (dash) in the first command above which is needed for the command to work. Additionally, note that since Python 3.11 and PEP 668 (https://peps.python.org/pep-0668/) the "--break-system-packages" option is necessary when installing packages via pip for Python >= 3.11 even when such Python is NOT the system default Python version (and even when one is very specifically installing packages via pip to "~/.local" which is under the user's home directory, and cannot therefore affect system packages).

Yet for numpy to work well with new Blender on older systems with default Python < 3.11 it is easiest to install numpy via pip to a user directory. As long as pip is being used to install packages to a user directory and for a Python version that is NOT the system default there is no real risk. However, the warning about using "--break-system-packages" is relevant if using pip to install packages on the system default Python and comments at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75608323 might be useful in that case.

After numpy is installed a Blender startup script can be added to the path for Blender user config files. Use "~/.config/blender/4.5/scripts/startup" for version 4.5 (or change 4.5 to whatever version required) and create a file such as usercustomize.py (modify "USER" in the below to the logged in username on your system) with contents such as these following two lines:

  import sys
  sys.path.insert(0, '/home/USER/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages')

The result of all this will be that "import numpy" works fine from within Blender >= 4.1 on Ubuntu <= 22.04 (making Numpy functionality available).

* Notes about OptiX: A report from a user of this PPA states that OptiX is unavailable with these Blender builds, even with OptiX kernels being built on my own local system and included in the Blender data packages. Due me having no nVidia hardware at present it is not possible for me to confirm.

Blender _cannot_ be built here on Launchpad with the OptiX headers due the combination of two reasons: highly restrictive nVidia licensing terms for OptiX headers (no redistribution of header source whatsoever allowed); and Launchpad (like Debian) disabling all network access during all builds for valid security reasons (meaning the headers cannot be directly accessed on nVidia's website during the build). Thus, if OptiX support is unavailable in these builds (even with pre-compiled ptx OptiX kernels) then you will either have to do your own Blender builds or use official Linux binaries.

*** Updates ***

Update (27 Aug 2023): All pre-compiled CUDA kernels from today are created with CUDA 11.8.0 (this version rather than CUDA >= 12 is currently being chosen for widest compatibility with all Blender versions offered here).

Update (12 Apr 2023): Blender 3.5.0 now available! Built with FFmpeg 6.0 & GCC 11, read notes below under "Install" for instructions on installation.

Update (10 Apr 2023): Blender builds from today require the private PPA to successfully install. Anyone who has donated can contact me about access.

Update (7 Oct 2022): A glitch upgrading to Blender 3.3.1 for 20.04 Focal users (LP: #1992110) has been fixed today. Upgrading should now work fine!

Update (12 Sep 2022): Latest Blender 3.3.0 & 3.4.0 Alpha have pre-compiled CUDA kernels built with CUDA Toolkit 11.7.1 (most recent release). Also, a glitch preventing glTF export with compression is now fixed via a complete redo of the relevant Draco patch to make it work on Debian/Ubuntu systems.

Update (31 Jul 2022): Blender 3.2.1 & 3.3.0 Beta versions are now building successfully for Focal! Achieved by building Boost 1.74.0 with Python 3.9 rather than Python 3.8 (Focal default). To use these new Blender builds on Focal _requires_ this custom Boost 1.74.0 build here. So if any Focal user already has Boost 1.74.0 installed (from a local build or another PPA) it must be removed to successfully install and run these Blender builds here!

Update (30 Apr 2022): Builds of all three Blender versions (main, LTS, and git) are now available for Jammy. Also an additional call for donations to support the work on this PPA as there have been very few donations in over a year and a half that have specifically been for these Blender builds. If more donations for Blender don't come then work on this PPA may well end.

Update (15 Apr 2022): Due a complex issue between Focal Python 3.8, Boost 1.71, and changes in Python 3.10 (deprecated C API functions), Blender 3.1 and higher (which requires Python 3.10) is not building for Focal. Blender LTS 2.93.8 is building successfully for Focal with Python 3.9 (best Python for Blender LTS, as running LTS version with Python 3.10 has some issues).

Update (4 Jan 2022): Blender LTS 2.93.x is now packaged as blender-lts and latest release Blender 3.0.x is now packaged as blender, with blender-git moving to newest 3.1.0 alpha source. This means blender-{lts,git} now both have data files installed in versioned paths (ie. /usr/share/blender/x.x).

Update (29 Sep 2021): Blender git builds now include cycles-x branch which has been merged into master upstream. Also see notes below about OptiX.

Update (26 Feb 2021): Blender 2.92.0+ supports building CUDA kernels with a combination of CUDA 10.2 and 11.3 for SM_30 through SM_8x architectures.

Update (29 Sep 2020): Blender 2.91.0 Alpha and newer builds now with USD (Universal Scene Description) support plus pre-compiled CUDA 11.1 kernels.

*** Build ***

This PPA has build dependencies on:

  ppa:savoury1/build-tools
  ppa:savoury1/llvm-defaults-15
  ppa:savoury1/boost-defaults1.74
  ppa:savoury1/backports
  ppa:savoury1/python
  ppa:savoury1/graphics
  ppa:savoury1/multimedia
  ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4
  ppa:savoury1/display

Additionally, for Blender >= 3.5.0 builds:

  ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg6

Additionally, for Xenial, Bionic & Focal:

  ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-11 (Blender >= 3.5.0 builds only)

Additionally, for Xenial & Bionic:

  ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-9
  ppa:savoury1/haskell-build
  ppa:savoury1/tex-2019

Note about i386: Blender is not a good match for i386 arch and 2.90+ fails to build on i386 even after carefully removing all amd64 only configs and deps. The Blender packages built here will thus always be amd64 only, as that is clearly the target architecture for all features. So bye bye i386!

*** Credits ***

- Creators of Blender: The Blender Foundation and Blender Institute
  https://www.blender.org/about/

- Package code for Blender: Debian Multimedia Maintainers
  https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/blender

- Python 3.10 packages: Now provided by backports from ppa:savoury1/python
  with packaging hints and ideas from Felix Krull & the "deadsnakes" team
  (https://launchpad.net/~deadsnakes) whose packages were used previously.

- Package code for Alembic and Open Image Denoise: Irie Shinsuke

- Package code for Open Shading Language: Irie Shinsuke & Thomas Schiex

[1] https://launchpad.net/~irie/+archive/ubuntu/blender-builddep

[2] https://launchpad.net/~thomas-schiex/+archive/ubuntu/blender