How to Run Blender and BlenderKit on ARM64 Based Linux Systems 🔗

Running Blender and BlenderKit on aarch64/ARM64 based Linux systems can be challenging due to compatibility issues. This tutorial guides you through the process, ensuring a smooth installation and operation of BlenderKit in Blender on aarch64/ARM64 Linux OS.

How to Install Blender on ARM64 Linux

Blender Foundation does not provide standard builds for aarch64/ARM64. Builds are only available for architecture x64_48 on blender.org. Instead of using standard builds, you'll need to use those coming via your OS's package manager.

Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

sudo apt install blender

Fedora
sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install blender

After installation, verify it by running `blender -v`, or start Blender to check.

Ensure pip3 Can Build Modules on ARM64 Linux

Blender installed through package managers relies on the system's Python interpreter, which may vary in version. For example, Fedora currently uses Python 3.12, differing from the standard Python 3.10 in Blender 4.0.2 (as of 16 January 2024). This discrepancy can cause issues with add-ons requiring third-party Python modules, especially those dependent on the Requests module normally pre-installed in Blender's standard build (like BlenderKit).

BlenderKit attempts to install necessary modules at Blender's startup automatically. However, some modules might not have wheels for the latest Python version (e.g., multidict for Python 3.12 as of 16 January 2024). Local pip build of these modules can fail when gcc and python-devel packages are missing. So let's install them to be safe.

Ubuntu/Debian
pip3 install --upgrade pip
sudo apt install gcc python3-dev

Fedora
pip install --upgrade pip
sudo dnf install gcc python-devel

With these prerequisites, Blender should function correctly with the system's Python interpreter, pip should be ready to install modules when needed.

Install BlenderKit on ARM64 Linux

Now let's install python modules, on which BlenderKit add-on is dependent:

1. Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora: pip3 install requests aiohttp
2. Launch Blender and install BlenderKit as usual.
3. The add-on should now operate as expected.

Debugging Existing Installation

If you have followed the steps in the manual above, your installation should run smoothly. Anyway, if you still run into problems, or are on an existing BlenderKit installation, below are common errors and ways to fix them without having to follow all the steps in the manual above.

Missing gcc

If you encounter an error indicating a missing gcc compiler (e.g., error: command 'gcc' failed: No such file or directory), install the gcc package. On Debian/Ubuntu run: sudo apt install gcc, on Fedora: sudo dnf install gcc.

Missing python.h

A fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory suggests missing Python.h headers. Install them by getting the python-devel package. On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install python-devel , or on Fedora: sudo dnf install python-devel.