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LMMS on Mac OS X via Wineskin

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:01 am
by dnlferguson
After a crazy amount of fiddling with different versions of LMMS, Wine, and Wineskin, as well as different audio configurations, I was able to get the Windows version of Linux Multi-Media Studio to run on Mac OS X. Ironic, right? At the time I first installed it, there were no tutorials available that worked, so I thought I would write one up.


How To Install:

A few notes:
**Important** The most recent version of the “old” LMMS that works with Wineskin is 0.4.10. Everything from that up to the recent betas and 1.0.0 either crashes or the audio doesn’t work correctly. And, while the “new” versions of LMMS work, there are some audio artifacts/glitches during playback. 0.4.10 does not seem to have these issues. However, it may be the Wrapper and/or Engine version of Wineskin rather than the LMMS version that is the issue. Experiment with different versions if you can’t get it working at first. When I first installed LMMS, I started with the latest version at the time (0.4.13) and worked my way backwards until I found a version that would work. I can confirm that the 32-bit 0.4.10 version of LMMS runs near-perfectly with Wineskin Wrapper 2.5.9 and Engine WS9Wine1.5.27 on Mac OS X version 10.6.8.** I can also confirm that LMMS 1.0.0 runs just as good, save for the aforementioned audio artifacts/glitches with Wineskin Wrapper 2.6.0 and Engine WS9Wine1.7.17, also on OS X 10.6.8. I haven’t tested any other versions of OS X, so I can’t say whether it will work on them or not. It might, I just don’t know cause I haven’t tried it.
Only 32-bit programs work with Wine, so make sure to download the 32-bit version of LMMS.
This guide assumes you have Wineskin already installed. If you don’t, you can download it at http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/.
Yes, I know you can install it via Macports. However, every time I tried that, I couldn’t get the audio working. Also, until recently the latest version available was 0.4.4 (or maybe it was 0.4.8—point is, it was old).

1. Open ‘Wineskin Winery’ and download the latest wrapper and engine(s).
2. Create a New Blank Wrapper using that engine and title it “LMMS.” It will ask if you want to install Mono and Gecko. I do not believe that LMMS needs these programs, but I’m not 100% sure.
3. Whether you install them or not, when Wineskin finishes doing its thing go to the Wrapper in the Finder (~/Applications/Wineskin/LMMS.app). Drag your newly installed LMMS.app to your “Applications” folder. Right click the app and select “Show Package Contents.”
4. In the folder that opens, there will be a “Wineskin” application. Open it and click “Install Software” and then, “Choose Setup Executable.” In the window that pops up, locate your LMMS .exe and open it.
5. Follow the LMMS setup wizard like you normally would if installing on Windows. When it is finished installing, a window will appear asking you to choose the startup executable. Choose LMMS.exe from the drop down menu.
6. Back in LMMS’s internal Wineskin application, open the Advanced Settings and change the version number from “My Program Version” to the version of LMMS that was installed. Also, associate the .mmpz file extension with LMMS if you want (this lets you open LMMS project files from the Finder).
7. In order to set up the app’s icon, go to /Applications/LMMS.app/Contents/Resources/drive_c/Program Files/LMMS/data/themes/default/icon.png and open it in Preview. Save it as a .ICNS file (with alpha enabled) in a different folder—say, the desktop—and then return to the internal LMMS Wineskin app. Back in Advanced Settings, click “Browse” under where it says “Icon” and select your icon.ICNS file. For older versions with low quality icons, follow the above instructions, but use /Applications/LMMS.app/Contents/Resources/drive_c/Program Files/LMMS/data/themes/default/splash.png
8. Start LMMS. The LMMS Setup window should appear. Under “Paths,” you may want to change the LMMS Working Directory to a custom LMMS folder in your user “Music” folder (LMMS/Wine should see the path as Z:/Users/[Username]/Music/LMMS), so that you can easily reinstall or upgrade without having to dig through your LMMS Wrapper to find your projects, samples, and presets. Just point it to the directory again after upgrading to a new version. Under “Audio settings,” select “PortAudio” as the Audio Interface, then select “Windows DirectSound” as the Backend and “Built-in Output” as the Device.
9. Now that you’re done setup, close LMMS so that the settings changes take effect and reopen it. You should be able to use LMMS just like you would on a Windows machine, though certain parts might not work correctly, like VSTs, which are specifically for Windows. It might be possible for you to get them working, but it would probably take a lot of effort.

**Apparently, I upgraded the Wrapper and Engine since first installing LMMS 0.4.10, so I can also confirm that Wineskin 2.5.5 & Wine Engine WS9 1.5.6 work as well, though probably not as smoothly as the newer versions.

I'm gonna test 1.0.0 some more and update this if I find out what's causing the audio glitches. I'm also gonna try updating my 0.4.10 install to the latest Wrappers and Engines.

Re: LMMS on Mac OS X via Wineskin

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:59 am
by diiz
There's a native OS X build of LMMS 1.0 available...

http://qzindustries.com/files/lmms_1.0.0.dmg

Re: LMMS on Mac OS X via Wineskin

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 8:05 am
by dnlferguson
...seriously? Well, I guess writing that up was pointless.

Er, actually in the process of responding to this, I downloaded it to try it out and it crashed as soon as I opened it. So, maybe it wasn't so pointless.

Does the native Mac build not support Snow Leopard? Not that it needs to—I know I'm running an older version of OS X. I'm just curious if that's why it crashed rather than an error with the program itself.

Re: LMMS on Mac OS X via Wineskin

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:42 am
by diiz
I'm not sure, the guy building the package would know better...

Re: LMMS on Mac OS X via Wineskin

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 2:47 pm
by tresf
If you are accustomed to running LMMS via Wine, 1.0.0 should behave the same.

If you would like to help test our beta native packages, then I would ask you join us over at GitHub and open a new bug report.

https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/new

The current dmg for 1.0.0 was never tested on anything older than Mavericks, so to answer this question, yes I would expect your crashes to be related to the version of OS X. You are running.

Edit: I'm running audio through CoreAudio.

Edit2: I understand Snow Leopard is only 4.5 years old, but you must have MANY other compatibility issues with 3rd party software packages if you are still on Snow Leopard. Apple's backwards compatibility is much of a shorter time frame than the rest of the OSs out there.

Edit3: Yes, Apple makes this a colossal pain in the ass to back-port. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1198 ... -for-xcode If you have a Snow Leopard machine are willing to build on, feel free to give this tutorial a try: https://github.com/tresf/lmms/wiki/Compiling-lmms-OSX

Edit4: 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 are now built against 10.7 (Lion). 1.2.0 will be built against 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Best regards.

Thanks @diiz for linking me this thread.

-Tres