Install DaVinci Resolve 18 On Debian 11

In this quick-and-dirty how-to we’re installing DaVinci Resolve 18 on Debian 11. This might work on other Debian-based Linux distributions (Ubuntu / Pop!_OS) but no promises.

Software:
DaVinci Resolve 18
MakeResolveDeb

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0. Enable contrib and non-free in sources.list

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

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1. Install xorriso and fakeroot

sudo apt install fakeroot xorriso

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2. Install NVIDIA proprietary drivers and CUDA

sudo apt install nvidia-driver nvidia-opencl-icd libcuda1 libnvidia-encode1

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3. Create the *.deb package

./makeresolvedeb_1.6.0_multi.sh DaVinci_Resolve_Studio_18.0_Linux.run

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4. Install DaVinci Resolve 18 Debian package

sudo apt install ./davinci-resolve-studio_18.0-mrd1.6.0_amd64.deb

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5. UI scaling

Using Resolve on a HiDPI screen requires the use of a magnifying glass. Let’s do something about that.

The easiest way is to add QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO=2 QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=true to your Desktop shortcut or menu entry.

Editing the menu entry

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/davinci-resolve-studio.desktop

Editing the desktop shortcut

nano ~/Desktop/davinci-resolve-studio.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=env QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO=2 QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=true /opt/resolve/bin/resolve
Icon=/opt/resolve/graphics/DV_Resolve.png
Name=DaVinci
Terminal=false
MimeType=application/x-resolveproj;
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Categories=AudioVideo

Example

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Final bits:
Davinci Resolve runs best with the Latest New Feature Branch NVIDIA drivers and CUDA 11. You can find the thread about running Davinci Resolve on AMD GPUs here.