BrainVoyager 23.0 for Linux

BrainVoyager is our flagship product that provides a comprehensive, fast and elegant way to perform advanced neuroimaging data analysis and to create stunning visualizations. For more information, read the BrainVoyager release blog posts.

BrainVoyager EDU version.
If you are new to BrainVoyager and want to check it out, we recommend to use the EDU version of BrainVoyager. The EDU version does not require a license and is fully functional. It is, however, limited to specific datasets that are used to teach BrainVoyager and (f)MRI data analysis more generally. Installing and running the EDU version is also useful to test compatibility of your computer hardware with BrainVoyager. For more details, follow the link to the EDU version.

Installation
. BrainVoyager uses a software-based licensing system and will not run without a valid single computer or floating network license. If you use a floating network license, your license server needs to be running version 2.0 or newer in order to work with BrainVoyager 23. In order to install BrainVoyager, please download the software using the link below:
bv_v23.0_lnx64-u20.04_installer.run (520 MB)

The Ubuntu 20.04 version should run on most modern 64-bit x86_64/amd64 Linux distributions; the installer has been, for example tested on Ubuntu 22.04, as well as modern Debian and Fedora versions (see also section "System Requirements" below.
If you do not yet have a license, you can use the free EDU version or ask for a time-limited trial license to evaluate BrainVoyager with your own data. A trial license unlocks most features of a full license lacking only some optional components (no scripting and plugins). You need to accept the license agreement during installation.
Make sure that the downloaded installer file has read and executable permissions. On most modern Linux systems, this can be done by right clicking the file, selecting "Properties" (or similar) and then setting the appropriate permissions. Alternatively you can issue the following shell command (“[distro]” must be replaced with the downloaded version, e.g. “u20.04”):

> chmod 755 bv_v23.0_lnx64-[distro]_installer.run
You can now start the installation by clicking (or double-clicking) on the ".run" file from your Desktop environment or by launching the installer directly from the terminal prompt:

> ./bv_v23.0_lnx64-[distro]_installer.run
After launching the installer, follow the instructions of the installation wizard (see image sequence on the right). In case you have an older version of BrainVoyager, close any running instance prior to installation. We also strongly recommend to deinstall any older version of BrainVoyager by running the "uninstall" executable, which is located in the "BrainVoyager" folder. It is recommended to run the installer as a regular user (not as "root" or superuser) since this will install the program in your home directory (default: "/home/[user]/BrainVoyager" as suggested by the installer; also notebooks, PDF guides, and extensions (plugins and scripts) will be installed in “Documents/BrainVoyager/" within your home directory, which is also the location of the "SampleData" and "Projects" folders. The installer usually places a BrainVoyager icon on the desktop (on GNOME and KDE). In order to let a (double-) click on the icon launch BrainVoyager, you might need once to right-click the icon on the Desktop and select "Allow Launching" (or "Trust program" or similar).

Licensing. If you have already a valid software license, you can continue using BrainVoyager as before after installation and enjoy its new features. If you do not have a license, you will see a licensing screen after starting the software. To activate (unlock) a time-limited trial version, you need to send an email to “licensing [at] brainvoyager [dot] com” containing the displayed “Hardware-ID” and additional information for registration (name, institute/lab, mail address). Such an email is prepared automatically by clicking the “Prepare Email” button in the displayed "License Activation" dialog. Usually within a few days you will receive a license key and a license name/ID (e.g. TSKF307BC88-PETER-SUGAR). After entering this information in the licensing dialog, the software will be activated and it is ready to use for 30 days. More details about the licensing and activation process can be found on the page BrainVoyager Software Licensing.
In order to get the full version of BrainVoyager (after evaluating the EDU or trial version), please send an email to “sales [at] brainvoyager [dot] com” to purchase a (subscription) license. If you purchase the full version of BrainVoyager, you will get a key that unlocks all licensed features and the software can be used as long as requested in the purchased license. There is also a floating network license available allowing to use a licensed maximum number of computers concurrently from computers in a local (e.g. lab) network. For details, send an email to licensing [at] brainvoyager [dot] com.
System requirements
Version 22.4 of BrainVoyager is compatible with most 64 bit Linux distributions using a 3.x or newer kernel running on recent Intel/AMD machines. The provided download version has been compiled on 64 bit Ubuntu 20.04 but it also works on newer Ubuntu versions (tested e.g. on 22.04) as well as most other modern distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora, and Debian. In case you get a "Untrusted application launcher" (or similar) dialog box when launching BrainVoyager the first time from its desktop icon on Ubuntu, right-click the icon and select the "Allow Launching" or "Mark as Trusted" item in the context menu. If the program does not run on your x86-64 Linux distribution, send an email to "support [at] BrainVoyager [dot] com". Note, however, that we do not support Linux distributions that are older than 3 years.
Note. Since the ALT key is assigned to move windows on several Linux desktop environments, use the CTRL and SHIFT keys together when the User's Guide describes an ALT key related function (e.g. when selecting regions for the "Zoom View" panel); for more details, see Platform-Specific Tips.

While many operations of BrainVoyager run with modest working memory demands, a minimum of 4 GB is required and 6 or more GB are recommended. If you are using an NVIDIA or ATI graphics board, make sure that you install the latest accelerated OpenGL driver using the software installation tool of your distribution or by downloading the driver directly from the NVIDIA or ATI web site. Since version 20.4, BrainVoyager supports OpenCL acceleration on Linux. Downloading the latest OpenGL/OpenCL graphic card drivers will ensure best performance for hardware accelerated volume and surface rendering as well as GPU acceleration for several compute-intensive operations.
Note. OpenCL acceleration is turned off as default in the "Settings" dialog and should be turned on, if supported on your system (see topic "Exploiting the Power of GP-GPUs" in chapter "Additional Documentation" of the User's Guide).

Python Support
Since version 20, BrainVoyager supports an embedded Python interpreter that can be used from BV notebooks and a a Python editor. Importantly, BrainVoyager extends the Python interpreter with methods and properties that gain access to BrainVoyager functionality enabling scripting and batch programming. While Linux usually comes with Python preinstalled, it may not provide a 3.8 or 3.10 version of Python that are supported by BrainVoyager 23.0. Even if a distribution, such as Ubuntu 20.04, comes pre-installed with a matching system Python, we recommend to install the Miniconda distribution, which has the advantage that one can easily create multiple environments with different Python versions and modules. If you define a Python 3.10 Miniconda3 environment with the name "env_bv_py310", it will be automatically picked up by BrainVoyager as the default Python version. Note: If you update from version 22, you need to install PySide6 in an existing Python 3.8 / 3.10 environment before it can be used with BrainVoyager 23. For more details, follow the instructions to install and enable Python.

After installing Python 3.10 (or 3.8) as described, BrainVoyager will enable Python automatically in most cases when used the first time, e.g. when evaluating code in a notebook or in the Python code editor. In case another 3.8/3.10 distribution (or environment name) is used, you can use the "Select Python on Disk" item in the "Python" menu to point BrainVoyager to the respective version. It is recommended to run the code cells of the 'Test Python' notebook to check access to a specific Python version and installed modules.

The provided BV Notebook window can be launched from the respective icon in the toolbar or from the "Notebooks" menu. Several example notebooks are available in the "Documents/BrainVoyager/Notebooks" directory; this directory is also the default location when using the "Open" command in the "BV Notebook" window. When clicking the Python icon on the right side of the main toolbar, BrainVoyager presents a (docked or floating) interactive python console and a python development window that can be used to load, edit and save Python files. To learn how to use Python in notebooks and code editors to script processing routines or to add new functionality, consult the Python Developer Guide that is available from the "Python" menu. You will also find several example Python files in the "PythonScripts" and "PythonPlugins" sub-directories of the “Documents/BrainVoyager/Extensions" folder; these folders are displayed also as default in the "Files" panel on the left side of the Python development window.
Documentation
The User's Guide (available locally as well as online) provides basic and advanced information about BrainVoyager and can be easily invoked by clicking the "User's Guide" icon in the main toolbar or by clicking the "User's Guide" item (or "User’s Guide (Web)" item) in the "Help" menu. The BrainVoyager 23.0 User's Guide is also available as an eBook.
Several PDF files introducing various topics are also placed in the "Documents/BrainVoyager/GettingStartedGuides" directory after installation, including the BrainVoyager Getting Started Guide that is highly recommended for beginners. If you are upgrading BrainVoyager, you may want to check out the "News" section of the User's Guide. We highly recommend to read the release notes (see "Help" menu) to learn about new features, enhancements and bug fixes. Release notes are available for the current as well as previous releases. Documentation is also available on this web page, including a PDF and eBook version of the User's Guide. If you have any questions, suggestions or bug reports, please send an email to support [at] BrainVoyager [dot] com.
Sample data
If you want to learn basic and advanced features of BrainVoyager (EDU), it may be useful to start with example data sets, which are also used in our BrainVoyager training courses. The installers available on this page for download do not install sample data (except the small "NB_GSGData" dataset used by the "Introduction" notebook). To download example data sets, click the "Sample Data Web Page" item in the "Help" menu of BrainVoyager or visit the example data sets page with your Browser. The analysis of the "Faces, Houses, Visual Fields" dataset is described in detail in the BrainVoyager Getting Started Guide.