Compose, perform, and produce with Ableton Live on a self-sovereign, open-source stack. This project aims to make this popular Berlin-based DAW and its ecosystem of products a first-class Linux citizen, with zero compromises.
It is also absolutely not affiliated with or endorsed in any way by Ableton AG and respects the Ableton terms of service.
- Live 12 Intro, Standard, Suite, Lite, Trial, and beta support
- Experimental Live 11, Max for Live, and Max 9 support
- Push 1 and Push 2 support (Push 3 and Move support coming soon!)
- Local-network Ableton Link support
- Experimental support for Ableton's forthcoming Extensions SDK
- Compatibility with Ableton's Splice integration
- Automatic recovery when in-use audio hardware or startup-detected MIDI controllers briefly disconnect
- Low-latency PipeASIO audio for live performance
- Linux desktop integration with native file types and dialogs
- Automatic light and dark desktop theme detection
- No-fuss support for desktop resolutions, HiDPI displays, and fractional scaling
- Fixes for VST-specific display, audio, and stability problems
- Dozens of nice-to-haves, quality-of-life fixes, and other polish
- Auditable builds with pinned inputs, checksum verification, and public documentation
You need an x86-64 Linux system that meets Ableton Live's hardware requirements.
Additionally, you need:
- glibc 2.35 or newer
- PipeWire (1.4.2 or newer recommended; older versions run with standard buffer sizes only)
- GStreamer with its base and good plugin sets
- GNU coreutils,
tar,zstd, andflock - your installation files and activation details from Ableton
For most people, a modern and up-to-date Linux distribution, such as SteamOS, Ubuntu, CachyOS, Pop!_OS, Debian, or Arch, will already fulfil these requirements.
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Download the Ableton Live installation ZIP from Ableton.com.
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Download the latest version of our installer.
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From a terminal, pass the Ableton download to the installer explicitly:
sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run install \ --live-installer "$HOME/Downloads/Ableton Live 12 Installer.zip" \ --link=session
Replace the example ZIP name with the file you downloaded. When you run the
installer interactively, it can still find one Ableton installer beside the
.run file. Scripts must name the installer file.
--link=session enables Link while Live or Max is in use. The installer may
ask for sudo to allow Link through an active firewall. Use --link=off if
you do not use Link. This installs or starts nothing for Link. During an
update, it removes only Link files and settings that this project added. The
installer remembers your choice. --link=always keeps Link running after
login.
This installer will add the necessary files to integrate Ableton Live into your OS. You can start Live from the applications menu or via the command line:
ableton-liveYou can also specify a Live Set to quickly open on launch:
ableton-live "/path/to/Your Set.als"For Live 11, follow the Live 11 instructions.
When you first start Live, you'll need to set up your audio. Go to Settings > Audio, set Driver Type to ASIO, and set Audio Device to PipeASIO.
Ableton Live handles its own application updates.
This project does not update itself by choice. We only connect to the internet when absolutely necessary.
To update this project's Wine runtime, launchers, and compatibility fixes, download the latest release and run:
sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run updateThis will bring the new fixes and features listed in the release notes to your Live Linux environment. Your Live installation, authorization, and projects are preserved. Compatibility-related Wine and Live settings may be updated.
An update preserves the current Link policy unless you explicitly pass
--link=off, --link=session, or --link=always.
To remove this project's runtime and desktop integration while keeping Live and its authorization:
sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run uninstall --keep-prefixTo remove Live and its authorization too:
sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run uninstall --delete-prefixThe second command asks for confirmation. Neither command touches your Live Sets.
See all installer commands for Link controls, repairs, plans, and other setup choices.
This installer brings Linux compatibility to every edition of Live 11 and 12. We worked hard on this! You can install one Live 11 edition and one Live 12 edition together.
The installer detects Live 12 from the named Ableton installer file. If it
cannot identify a renamed file, pass --live-major 12 explicitly.
We support Live 11, but with limited resources, we are choosing to focus on Live 12 for now. Live 11 works well in most cases, but has seen less testing than Live 12.
To install Live 11:
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In your terminal window, tell the installer you want to install Live 11:
sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run install \ --live-installer "$HOME/Downloads/Ableton Live 11 Installer.zip" \ --live-major 11 --link=session
The first setup downloads extra Live 11 support files, so it needs internet access.
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After the first launch, complete the one-time Max for Live repair.
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Before importing WMA or video files, read the Live 11 media limitation.
When you run Live from the command line, the launcher will automatically detect Live 11 if it is the only version installed. If Live 11 and Live 12 are both installed, the launcher defaults to the newest major version.
Use env ABLETON_LIVE_VERSION=11 ableton-live to select Live 11. If you install
multiple editions of the same major version, follow the
launcher troubleshooting.
We are working on ensuring compatibility with as many VSTs as possible.
There are two common ways to install Windows plugins:
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Download your VST's installer.
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Open a terminal window and run:
env WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine-ableton" \ "$HOME/.local/opt/wine-d2d1-nspa-11.13/bin/wine" \ "/path/to/PluginInstaller.exe"
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Your installer should install directly into your Ableton environment. By default, this is
~/.wine-ableton.
You can also use the command in step 2 to run patches, software updaters, and copy-protection tools.
You can install Windows .vst3 bundles by copying them directly into:
~/.wine-ableton/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/
We are working on proper Linux VST and CLAP support, but it is not implemented in this project yet. For now, an experimental Carla workflow can route Linux-native plugins through PipeWire.
This project supports Ableton Push alongside common audio interfaces and MIDI controllers.
- Connect your Ableton Push.
- Launch Ableton Live.
Live detects Push 1 automatically.
For Push 2, configure exactly one control-surface row under Settings/Preferences > Link, Tempo & MIDI:
- Control Surface: Push2
- Input: Ableton Push 2 Live Port
- Output: Ableton Push 2 Live Port
Enable the input and output Remote switches. See Push troubleshooting if its display does not start.
The installer sets up Ableton Link for you. In Live, enable Show Link Toggle under Settings/Preferences > Link, Tempo & MIDI, then enable Link in the control bar. Devices on the same local network should appear automatically.
See Link troubleshooting if no peers appear.
Start with the common troubleshooting steps.
If you're still stuck, file an issue on GitHub
or in the #issues forum in the
Ableton on Linux Discord. A bot syncs Discord
reports to GitHub, so you can report a problem there without a GitHub account.
We welcome all kinds of contributions. If you've found a fix for a niche VST or a workaround for a particular environment, please tell us!
Start with:
Contributors must follow the Code of Conduct.
Maintained by Cade 'shibco' Diehm and Lucas 'ClickSentinel' Gillingham, with help from trendwhore, jackson-57, jttdev, astrazds, Version33, and 0tanh. yioannides made the application and MIME icons.
This project is based off the d2d1-dcomp stack from
giang17/wine, specifically, we forked
from branch d2d1-dcomp-11.13 and 5c23dd1c to continue building our work
from these solid foundations. Thank you! <3
ENCORE by wowitsjack informed some early patches.
Questions: cade@parare.al
This project uses open-source local models Qwen 3.5, Qwen 3.6, and Gemma 4 and Kimi K3 to assist with diagnosis, research, QA, documentation review, and build scripts. We will not accept fully-vibecoded contributions as the risk of regression is too high.