Install application from file and run it in Terminal

[danielkotzer]

I'm new to Ubuntu, and I want to install blender on Linux from *.tar.xz file I have downloaded from the blender.org, but I just can't make it work. If I install blender from the Repository, it works but it is an older version - 3.6.2. I have noticed that when you install the blender package from the repository, the main files are copied to /usr/shared/blender, the shortcut file - blender.desktop is placed in /usr/shared/applications and the file the execution file is placed in /usr/bin/ so it seems you can't just uncompressed the *.tar.xz to /usr/local/blender and double click the shortcut file, yet the instruction for installing on Linux, on Blender.org are to uncompressed it to usr/local/.
I have 2 questions but they might be interrelated:

1. What should I do to make version 4 installed from the downloaded file it work by clicking on the shortcut file, like it works when I install blender from the repository?
2. Even the version I installed from the repository will not run from the Terminal with ./blender, or /usr/bin/blender, even though it does run by double clicking /usr/bin/blender file, or the blender.desktop file, so it is not missing dependencies, so if I want to run it from Terminal with command line, what should I do?

[Dennis N]

/usr/bin is a location automatically searched for applications, so you just type blender in the terminal and it should start.

[danielkotzer]

Hi,
I open a Terminal window and try all these commands:
blender
./blender
./usr/bin/blender
/usr/bin/blender

all I get is: "no such file or directory"
though a file by the name blender is in /usr/bin/ and if I double click it with the mouse not in Terminal it runs the blender app fine.

so I open a Terminal window from within the folder /usr/bin/ where the file is located, and run ./blender, I get this message:
error while loading shared libraries: libdl.so cannot open shared object no such file or directory.

so you might think a library is missing -- a dependency is missing, but then why does the app run if I double click the shortcut, or the execution file in usr/bin/ ?? it is the same system, with the same libraries installed, and the installation was from the Repository, so it was done automatically the way it should be, why would anything be missing?

[coffeecat]

Support, not chat. Thread moved to New to Ubuntu sub-forum.

[ActionParsnip]

What is in the newer version that you need over the 3.6.2 version?

[Impavidus]

For most software, the version is frozen when the corresponding version of Ubuntu is released. So Ubuntu 23.10 has Blender 3.6 and Ubuntu 24.04 will have Blender 4.0. It's expected to be released this month; you can install it already, but it's not guaranteed to be entirely stable.

Blender 4.0, as distributed directly from the website, may have different dependencies than version 3.6 as distributed from the Ubuntu repos. It depends on how it was compiled. I don't see a libdl.so in the repos for 23.10 or 24.04.

/usr/local/ is the proper place to install things manually.

[Dennis N]

The archive is blender-4.1.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
probably sitting in Downloads.

What I would try:

I would first extract the contents of the archive (to Downloads).

The result should be a folder named blender-4.1.0-linux-x64

Copy that folder to /usr/local/bin. Steps:
In terminal cd to Downloads, then

sudo cp -r blender-4.1.0-linux-x64 /usr/local/bin

Then open /usr/local/bin/blender-4.1.0-linux-x64 in Files (the file manager), double click on blender and see if it starts.

[danielkotzer]

4.0.2
but the point is not the new version as much as it is the fact that I can only install from the repository, I want to be able to install from file.

[danielkotzer]

The archive is blender-4.1.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
probably sitting in Downloads.

What I would try:

I would first extract the contents of the archive (to Downloads).

The result should be a folder named blender-4.1.0-linux-x64

Copy that folder to /usr/local/bin. Steps:
In terminal cd to Downloads, then

sudo cp -r blender-4.1.0-linux-x64 /usr/local/bin

Then open /usr/local/bin/blender-4.1.0-linux-x64 in Files (the file manager), double click on blender and see if it starts.

I did it but still getting the error when double clicking the blender executable file, or the shortcut, file or directory not found, after it asks me if I want to make it executable and I say yes but then comes the error again.

[danielkotzer]

For most software, the version is frozen when the corresponding version of Ubuntu is released. So Ubuntu 23.10 has Blender 3.6 and Ubuntu 24.04 will have Blender 4.0. It's expected to be released this month; you can install it already, but it's not guaranteed to be entirely stable.

Blender 4.0, as distributed directly from the website, may have different dependencies than version 3.6 as distributed from the Ubuntu repos. It depends on how it was compiled. I don't see a libdl.so in the repos for 23.10 or 24.04.

/usr/local/ is the proper place to install things manually.

OK I can wait for the new version of ubuntu, but I would like to be able to install from file, also I would like to be able to run applications from Terminal. I am slowly moving from windows, and want to know how to work with Ubuntu just as I was working with Windows.