I’m back lol. wondering if anyone is or has attempted running ableton in a vm or more specifically in a docker container ? also what version if so ? issues and successes ? I know it’s possible in a vm, but I’m not sure in docker. I’ve been given 3 2008 macpro units with heaps of ram, beefy processors, etc. I work in the tech world so I can revamp these machines to run nicely. I already have one running live 9 on yosemite but I’m interested in live 10. tnx
Why do you need docker? It is possible to install newer macOS versions even on those machines if that’s the issue. There is a hack online for it. I ran Sierra on a maxed out 2008 mac pro.
Docker and other types of VMs will add a fair amount of latency, so do your best to stay as native as possible.
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no, 2008 machines max out at Yosemite. yeah I know people run hacks and recent osx on systems not rated for them but I’m not interested in the problems that brings especially when the machine is used for heavy cpu processing and not just a daily rider. I work in IT with lots of machines daily so I know my stuff but thank you. I’m asking if anyone has any experience with running Live inside of a VM. I know now it can’t be done in docker. Linux/VM/Live10 is what I’m getting at.
Yes, I do have around 10 years of experience from almost daily use of VMs as a software engineer (Fusion, ESXi, Parallells, Docker, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and other similar systems) mainly with macs as my main machines and in my experience it’s just not worth it for music production. I quit that job over a year ago when I went all into studio work and I know that there might have been progress in these systems since then. I still really think it’s much better to just patch it. I’ve actually use Ableton Live and a few other DAWs from Fusion and Parallells a bunch of times both for work and just for fun. It will work good if you are lucky with getting your drivers to work (if you want to use an external sound interface or whatever. Even if for example Fusion and Parallells will do a great job at redirecting selected USB ports directly to a VM it sometimes isn’t enough for some drivers)… and it will for sure become a problem with getting an iLok or similar keys to work (but it is possible to get it to work with an USB tunnel)… and then the added latency and overhead for running another system layer. If you plan to run Linux instead of OS X as the host system, then I guess you plan to use the Windows version of Ableton Live?
Anyways, if you don’t want to connect any external hardware and don’t need all the power of the machine, then sure, you can get it to work with for example VMware Workstation or VirtualBox from a Linux host!
And no, I really don’t think you will be able to run Ableton Live from your Docker environment on a Linux host since you will need a Windows or macOS container to run it. Docker is not a VM you know…
Another alternative may be to just run Ableton Live from Windows? Or if you really like Linux, then try getting Ableton Live to work through Wine. It should work.
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thanks for the input man. after digging a bit more it seems El Capitan will actually run on the macpro late 2008 machines, as will Live 10, or at least the specs make that claim. I’ll give it a go anyhow. I figure an ssd for the os, an ssd for the sample library, an ssd for current projects, with the 4th bay a standard sata drive for storing finished projects, along with 32 gb of ram on a the older 3.2 ghz processors would still be a beefy machine. I’ll give it a go and if not I can use the ssd’s and ram in other machines anyhow so no loss there, and these older machines make great music or file servers.