[Tutorial] How to install FL Studio on Linux.

Linux is a wonderful operating system and for a while (that is on FL versions earlier than 12) I couldn't really fully switch to it because of the incompatibility. However with the FL12 and the newest WINE versions, you are finally able to use pretty much everything in FL Studio with most of the plugins working flawlessly under Linux.

So here is a tutorial to install it. Quite frankly it's really simple and should work under any distro. I'm writing this while on Ubuntu 16.04, so your mileage may vary.

1. Download playonlinux.

   sudo apt install playonlinux

2. Run it and make sure it launches.

   playonlinux

3. Go to Tools -> Manage Wine Versions. In Wine versions (x86), install the version 1.9.15. Select the version in the left box and click '>'.

4. Click Install and then Install a non-listed program.

5. Click through the welcome screen.

6. Select 'Install a program in a new virtual drive'.

7. Pick a name for your virtual drive (like 'flstudio').

8. In the next window, don't check anything and click Next.

9. Select '32-bit Windows installation'. Then wait a minute while your drive is being created.

10. Next click Browse and look for your FL Studio installation .exe. One thing to note is that your main file system in Wine is always mapped under the disk letter Z:.

11. Click through the installation. Once you reach the 'Choose which features of FL Studio 12 you want to install', uncheck Desktop icons and Asio4All. Install everything in its default directories.

12. In the final screen, select 'FL' as your shortcut.

13. Once FL Studio is installed, try to run it and make sure it launches. You will most likely not see any text and the program will not be registered.

14. To fix the no text issue, select the FL in your playonlinux main window, go to Configure -> Install components and install the Microsoft Core Fonts and tahoma packages.

15. To register your copy of FL Studio, go to Configure -> Wine -> Registry Editor. Then go to Registry -> Import Registry File... and navigate to where your registration key is located. Then exit the registry editor.

16. Launch your FL Studio and verify that everything works (for instance, open newstuff.flp).

17. Open audio settings and set your sound driver to FL Studio ASIO.

1. Auto scrolling is permanently on - Enable your scroll lock key. In Windows, FL turns on scroll lock by default, however in Linux the system permissions do not allow it to do it automatically. Unfortunately the steps here are different for every distro, however I would suggest looking up 'how to enable scroll lock'.

2. When clicking, the mouse cursor jumps up unexpectedly - On some desktop environments the maximised window of FL Studio will sometimes cause the cursor to jump unexpectedly (particularly when editing automation clips or tweaking knobs). The solution is to either disable any status bars which might restrict FL Studio taking up the entire screen (Plank, polybar, XFCE panels), move the window to a monitor which doesn't have them enabled (if you use more than one monitor) or not use FL Studio in windowed.

Usually this is similar with every plugin out there. At the bottom of this post you can find specific installation instructions relating to each individual plugin.

1. Select FL in your playonlinux main window, go to Configure -> Miscellaneous -> Run a .exe file in this virtual drive.

2. Find your plugin .exe and install it. As your VST directory choose C:Program FilesVstplugins.

3. Refresh your plugin lists in FL as you would normally.

This list will be updated.

Sylenth1: Use a 3.x version, the 2.x doesn't produce any sound. /u/mrhudson2212
reFX Nexus: Go to Configure -> Install components and install vcrun6. /u/mrhudson2212
NI Massive: The official installer has been known to quit out with an unhelpful error message. There is a torrent version that works flawlessly however. /u/mrhudson2212
NI Kontakt 5 Player: Before installation go to Configure -> Wine -> Configure Wine and change Windows version to Windows 7. When you want to add additional libraries, go to Configure -> Miscellaneous -> Run a .exe in this virtual drive, open up the Kontakt 5 Player standalone and add libraries from there. /u/mrhudson2212

Xfer Serum There is no text or envelopes inside the program and the entire top section is obscured. A fix is unknown.
NeoPiano: Doesn't produce any sound. A fix is unknown. /u/mrhudson2212
Xpandl2 - Cannot be activated.
ZGameEditor Visualizer: Crash when you try to export videos. /u/mrhudson2212

PianoOne: Works out of the box.
Miroslav Philharmonik: Works out of the box.
ValhallaRoom:(and presumably other Valhalla plugins) Works out of the box.
Sleepy-Time Transient:(and presumably other Sleepy-Time plugins) Works out of the box.
Glitch 2(and presumably other Illformed plugins) Works out of the box.
Tone2 Gladiator Seems to work out of the box.
Reveal Spire Seems to work out of the box.