Ableton Live on Linux with recent Wine versions

[toupeira]

There used to be some pretty show-stopping problems with running Live on Linux with Wine, namely no rendering/freezing, and slow GUI performance (although that could be fixed with the unofficial DIB patch).

But recent development versions of Wine seem to have fixed all of these problems, and Live now finally runs remarkably well on my Linux desktop!

Here's a quick description of my setup:

- Live 8.2.7
- Wine 1.3.35 from http://dev.carbon-project.org/debian/wine-unstable/ (packages for Debian/Ubuntu)
- latest wineasio from the Git repository (see http://sourceforge.net/scm/?type=git&group_id=222369, the latest 0.9 release should also work)
- JACK 1.9.8 with synchronous mode enabled (-S)
- Quicktime installed with winetricks (see http://code.google.com/p/winetricks/)
- Windows version in Wine is set to XP, with Vista/7 the file dialogs seem to be broken and result in crashes when trying to open a project

I haven't worked with it for too long, but compared to earlier Wine versions it definitely looks a lot more promising! If I find any problems I'll update this post, and if you have any questions feel free to ask. If there's any interest I may even turn this into a proper HOWTO.

edit: Unfortunately Max for Live still isn't fully supported because the editor requires the PACE InterLok drivers for copy-protection, which don't work in Wine. The devices themselves seem to be mostly usable in Live though, but there are graphical glitches which make parts of the device interface invisible/flicker.

[ekwipt]

That great at least there's a cheaper way to get into live (no windows or osx) what's the latencies like with the audio drivers though?

[toupeira]

That great at least there's a cheaper way to get into live (no windows or osx) what's the latencies like with the audio drivers though?

The lowest setting I can go without getting severe dropouts/xruns is 256 samples, which results in a latency of 10.7ms on my M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 PCI soundcard. There are still infrequent and very short dropouts, especially when Wine is busy doing something else (like reading data from disk), so I still wouldn't trust this in a live situation.

[Negrobeat]

Oh, sweet. Might try this out! Only thing that's been holding me back from using linux 24/7 is this.

Let's pray it improves further (or for a native Ableton Live on Linux, which will never happen).

[friend_kami]

Oh, sweet. Might try this out! Only thing that's been holding me back from using linux 24/7 is this.

Let's pray it improves further (or for a native Ableton Live on Linux, which will never happen).

+1

[toupeira]

Unfortunately M4L doesn't quite work after all, see the edit in my original post.

[Negrobeat]

Too bad. I really hope that live is available for linux in a not so far future. I really hate Windows and buying a mac is not the best solution for My problem. (even though i prefer Mac over windows, it's far too expensive for My economy.)

[dusnd]

There has been a lot of progress in Wine's handling of Live. I really need M4L to work as well. Has anyone tested newer wine releases to see if M4L works yet?

I hope Ableton decides to give us a Linux native release of Live sometime soon.!

[haowangy]

very good post ...it would be very helpful for beginners who want to do this work!
------------------------------------------------
pp woven bag | sticky mat | China shipping company | air freight

[darkenedsoul]

Oh, sweet. Might try this out! Only thing that's been holding me back from using linux 24/7 is this.

But...but what you gonna use to play Guild Wars 2, Diablo III, WoW, Skyrim, et al!

[Negrobeat]

Oh, sweet. Might try this out! Only thing that's been holding me back from using linux 24/7 is this.

But...but what you gonna use to play Guild Wars 2, Diablo III, WoW, Skyrim, et al!

Xbox360. Besides that, a lot of games work with Wine rather good. Also, i don't play games very often.

[darkenedsoul]

Hmm, it'd be interesting to see it run Cryo* whatever that heavy duty gfx game is. I haven't played it. I have more than enough games to even get through (PS3/Wii/PC) not to mention not gotten Skyrim yet (never finished previous ones either) or other games sitting around (Quake 4, Lost Planet (came with video card), Oblivion, et al. No wonders I ain't got no music done, spending too much time in PWI, Guild Wars 2/Diablo III/my ass planted on couch with one of my cats watching tv! And that's when not at work lolz.