GitHub - shibco/ableton-linux: Run Ableton 12 and Push on Linux

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 GmbH and respects the Ableton terms of service.

Download the latest installer

Features

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
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

Installation

Requirements

You need an x86-64 Linux system that meets Ableton Live's hardware requirements.

Additionally, you need:

glibc 2.35 or newer
PipeWire 0.3.56 or newer (we recommend 1.6 or newer for audio performance)
GStreamer with its base and good plugin sets (for mp3 and video import)
tar and zstd
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.

Getting started

Download the Ableton Live installation ZIP from Ableton.com.
Download the latest version of our installer.
Put both files in the same directory (such as ~/Downloads).

From a terminal, run the installer:

sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run

That's it!

The installer also sets up Ableton Link and may ask for sudo to enable local-network discovery. Pass --no-link if you do not use Link; the installer remembers this choice, and --link turns Link setup back on.

Running Live

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:

You 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.

First launch

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.

Updates

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 --update

This 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.

Running the installer without --update offers the same compatibility update when it finds an existing installation.

Uninstalling

To remove this project's runtime and desktop integration while keeping Live and its authorization:

sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run --uninstall

To remove Live and its authorization too:

sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run --uninstall --prefix

The second command asks for confirmation. Neither command touches your Live Sets.

Running different versions of Ableton Live on the same computer

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.

Live 12

When you run the installer normally, we assume you are installing Live 12. The directions above will complete that installation for you.

Live 11

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:

In your terminal window, tell the installer you want to install Live 11:
```
ABLETON_LIVE_VERSION=11 sh ~/Downloads/install-ableton-latest.run
```
The first setup downloads extra Live 11 support files, so it needs internet access.
After the first launch, complete the one-time Max for Live repair.
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 ABLETON_LIVE_VERSION=11 ableton-live to select Live 11. If you install multiple editions of the same major version, follow the launcher troubleshooting.

Instruments and Effects

We are working on ensuring compatibility with as many VSTs as possible.

There are two common ways to install Windows plugins:

If you have a Windows installer

Download your VST's installer.

Open a terminal window and run:

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine-ableton" \
  "$HOME/.local/opt/wine-d2d1-nspa-11.13/bin/wine" \
  "/path/to/PluginInstaller.exe"

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.

If you have a VST3 file

You can install Windows .vst3 bundles by copying them directly into:

~/.wine-ableton/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/

If you have a Linux VST or CLAP instrument or effect

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.

Hardware

This project supports Ableton Push alongside common audio interfaces and MIDI controllers.

Ableton Push 1 and 2 setup

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.

Ableton Link

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.

Getting help

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.

Development and contributing

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.

Credits

Maintained by Cade 'shibco' Diehm and Lucas 'ClickSentinel' Gillingham, with help from 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

AI Disclosure

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.