Native Instruments products natively on Linux

John6455

Just to keep this thread alive, I'd like to add my interest to having native instruments supported on Linux. I've used NI products on windows and mac for over 10 years now. At this point I have ceased interest in using windows both personally and professionally, leaving my music production to be entirely MacOS based, but that leaves a lot of issues long term. Apple as a company has a lot of issues in terms of cost and a locked down hardware ecosystem. At the moment I'm looking at any options other than buying a new Mac computer, so whether the software works on Linux could very well be a deal maker or deal breaker for me in future.

Linux in many ways is a perfect platform for creating a focused operating system, with the RAM and CPU devoted to only what's needed, rather than bloatware, spyware and tracking (looking at you windows). As mentioned above, there's established cross-distribution packaging formats like Flatpak.

Very interested to keep this discussion going!

Paranoidi

Native Instruments does not necessarily need to create native Linux distributions of their products or officially support Linux.

I've been testing bunch of windows VSTs and trials with bitwig under Linux Mint and I'd say 90% of them work without any issues. Wine is really good these days!

The problem is that the Native Access 2.x installer does NOT work under wine. The legacy one, which is still downloadable works just fine.

Any capable developer can set up testing environment in a hour or so in a VM. It should not be too much of an overhead to development / testing really. We are talking about few work days from the dev/qa team here and there. But NI needs to decide to make it part of the process.

indigomirage

I would very much like to see a decent driver for connecting to Maschine from Linux (so as to use the Maschine application - even under wine).

I'd gladly switch (back) to Linux if I could, but Maschine's holding me back. I used to run Linux exclusively several years ago, but constraints like this prevent me, in a practical sense.

John6455

Is there any progress on getting Native Access 2 working under wine? I'm using wine staging on arch, and I have managed to get as far as installing the NTKdaemon (not sure which version installed as I tried both 1.14? and 1.9).

This managed to allow NA2 to install and get to the login screen, but after entering my login, the loading icon just spins indefinitely.

I think everyone on Linux understands that you won't get 1:1 support compared to windows or mac, but throwing us a bone in looking into these last few steps would really go a long way to getting everything working. It's not asking for full support, it's asking to meet partway.

I'll hold off in investing in further komplete upgrades if we're essentially stuck with the legacy NI installer. Currently the legacy installer doesn't allow me to install updates to products I purchased.

DominikGX

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98841#Comment_98841

I was also looking for NA working with Wine, today. I'm sure, this will be fixed. It's only a matter of time.. This is the only reason, which holds me back from returning to Linux. I also thought about moving the files from Windows to Linux. But I don't know how to do that.

DominikGX

I noticed, there is no bug report on winehq.org

Added it. Maybe a developer will take a closer look into this.

bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55739

John6455

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98940#Comment_98940

Thanks, hopefully there's some progress there long term as eventually NA 1 will be retired. My post was spurred on from another thread where I've found an issue. Currently you can still download installers through Native Access 1, but some installers are older versions. For me these include (but maybe not limited to)

Native Access 1: Reaktor 6.4.3, Guitar Rig 6.3, Komplete Kontrol 2.8.1, Massive X 1.4.2

Native access 2: Reaktor 6.5, Guitar Rig 6.4, Komplete Kontrol 2.9.4, Massive X 1.4.3

At least for the time being a workaround I found is to run NA2 on a windows 11 virtual machine, press install on the needed package, but then kill the NA process in the task manager once it gets to the install stage. This will leave the install package in the public downloads folder. Somehow NA is able to continue the install once restarted even if the download package is moved. Maybe it's stored in RAM?

This installer can be copied to your desired linux machine to install. It worked for upgrading reaktor to 6.5 at least, and is recognised in NA 1.

DominikGX

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98950#Comment_98950

I tested Native Access 1.14, but I got a message to update NA 1.14. I was unable to login, and also unable to install the ISOs.

I also guess, the NA app is not working due to Node.js using wine?

At least some progress was done: A user reported a bug with workaround to get to login by patching sudo-prompt, but ultimately we are unable to get past the login screen for now.

I don't get why Native Instruments doesn't offer LV2 plugins for Linux. Maschine + is using Linux, afaik. It would be beneficial. There are many linux users out there, who are not limited to FLOSS Software. It is a minimal expense in programming. Probably it is all due to having to test the software on different OS.

GoaSkin

Has anybody managed to run Guitar Rig 6.4 with WINE successfully? I installed as shown above, but it does not open. Neither the standalone version, nor the VST2/VST3 plugins.

Psyearth5

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/35289#Comment_35289

I agree with you but what when Windows become Subscription and it is already announced that it will be, subscription for just using Windows. That's what is worries me.

CapNBeefhart

Instead of WINE, has anyone tried to see what happens when applications are run under PROTON?

nobadmojo

I had a dual boot system set up on my workstation win10/Ubuntu studio and was running Bitwig studio on it flawlessly and very fast a few months ago..I just couldn't get Native Access working on it back then..close but no cigar trying various means, so no Native Instruments stuff...cant see how that would be better now since new New Native Instruments Native Access and Kontakt are having lots of problems just with their Windows/Mac customers...Linux does seem to handle things like audio interfaces much better these days..The only thing I need windows for is music and I would love to bail on Windows if I could

There does seem to be some traction for Linux DAWS..Studio One is in beta test. I wouldn't hold my breath on anything from NI

dexl

Couldn't NI products be made into a Flatpak or similar decentralized package like Snap or AppImage? Then a distro wouldn't be a problem.

nobadmojo

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/109101#Comment_109101

sure on Flatpak. I use Bitwig and that can be installed via Flatpak or by the usual means. It really flies in Linux. My audio interface works fine in Linux now...I assume my keyboards would through Bitwig as well since Driven by Moss has a Linux script for my devices. Linux seems to be gaining traction these days, but then I read otherwise. In the meantime, w. all the NI issues and win10 being ******, i;m just happy that all my stuff seems to work pretty quickly these days, so i;m not touching anything..lots of people are having probs w. NI it seems

dr_infantil

Same here! Linux is the better OS and I would be happy if wouldn't need to boot into Wintendo! So go for it, NI!

I have managed to run native access in Linux under wine. I installed Kontakt7 and other stuff, but what comes next? Maybe someone can give a hint how to proceed from that point. I would like to use reaper as DAW.

Thx!