Build Ardour DAW on Linux from source without restrictions

Carla is first installed with various plugins and jackd.

This process sets up a GTK hack which is required by plugins on Debian13.

NB calf plugins are not directly compatible with Ardour, see this issue.

Install dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git build-essential pkg-config python3 python-is-python3
sudo apt build-dep -y ardour
sudo apt install -y libjack-jackd2-dev
sudo apt install -y libjpeg-dev

Checkout latest version

git clone https://github.com/Ardour/ardour.git
cd ardour
git checkout 9.7

Update process not needed for initial check out.

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout 9.X

Compile time on an AMD 4500U was just over 20 minutes.

./waf distclean
./waf configure --optimize --dist-target=native --prefix=/opt/ardour9
./waf build -j6

Install into /opt or wherever you chose

sudo ./waf install

Run the free version of ardour

/opt/ardour9/bin/ardour9