NTKDaemon-without-Rosetta.md

Installing NTKDaemon without Rosetta

Problem description

Installer still requires Rosetta, while Native Access and NTKDaemon work on Apple Silicon.

Solution

Patch installer package, adding <options hostArchitectures="x86_64,arm64"/> and removing check in installation script.

Steps

• Mount Native-Access_2_Mac_M1.dmg
• Drag and drop the Native Access icon to your Applications folder
• Open Terminal
• Copy NTKDaemon package from installed Native Access app to current folder:

cp /Applications/Native\ Access.app/Contents/Resources/daemon/mac/NTKDaemon\ Installer\ Mac.pkg .

• Expand the flat package to dir X:

pkgutil --expand NTKDaemon\ Installer\ Mac.pkg X

• Modify Distribution file using text editor, e.g. nano ./X/Distribution:
  • Add attribute hostArchitectures="x86_64,arm64" to tag options. It should look like:

  <options customize="always" allow-external-scripts="yes" rootVolumeOnly="true" hostArchitectures="x86_64,arm64"/>

  • Remove lines of check for IntelMac inside script element's content:

  if(!(system.gestalt('sysa') == '10')) {
      my.result.title = 'Failure';
      my.result.message = 'Installation cannot proceed, as not all requirements were met. This product requires IntelMac hardware.';
      my.result.type = 'Fatal';
      return false;
  }

• Flatten the files at dir X to new package NTKDaemon.pkg:

pkgutil --flatten X NTKDaemon.pkg

• Open Finder and install new NTKDaemon.pkg without Rosetta alert message
• Launch Native Access
• Enjoy making music! 🎶

Like I said, this process doe snot work anymore. i keep repeatign all the steps you listed here. but step 10. fails with error message "to open Native Access you need to install Rosetta".

This process used to work for me just a few months ago. But today it's failing.

Did you install the patched version of NTKDaemon? It sounds like the unmodified installer may have been used instead.
For reference, I tested this on Tahoe 26.5.1.

Yes, I installed everything as per your steps above.

Thank you so much for documenting this work around. Just worked perfectly for me today (2026-07-04) on macOS 26.5.1, with no Rosetta 2 prompt when running the patched "NTKDaemon.pkg" package, out of the most recent Native Access 2 version (3.25.1) also downloaded today.

Particularly since Rosetta 2 is going away soon (next macOS major release from memory), it's surprising that Native Instruments still keep doing things that prompt for its install (and entirely unnecessarily at this point it seems).

For klaut, note that you need to run the NTKDaemon.pkg (patched installer) you create by itself first (to install NTKDaemon) before running Native Access.app again. If you run the Native Access.app it'll try to run the unpatched (needs Rosetta) installer built into it. But so long as it finds NTKDaemon is already installed, it skips that step.

ETA: Also obviously you need to use the "Apple Silicon" version of Native Access 2 for this process to work. If you use the Intel versin of Native Access 2, on an Apple Silicon system, it'll need Rosetta 2 even to open Native Access.app let alone install NTKDaemon.app. (Why Native Instruments didn't make a Universal 2 application/installer is beyond me.)

ETA: Also if you happen to want to install Reaktor 6 (which has a similarly old installer as NTKDaemon that wants to run Rosetta 2), you need to download its separate installer image (from https://www.native-instruments.com/en/account/downloads/) and grab out the .pkg file and modify it in an equivalent manner. Then run the modified installer to install, and then run Native Access 2 to install the license files by using Native Access 2 to open Reaktor 6 standalone. After that Reaktor 6 seems to load in a DAW as a Plugin, with a full license, without having Rosetta 2 installed.

I made some minor updates to my comment above as Native Access just updated to 3.25.1 so I had to repeat the process over again.

Absolutely perfect - thanks very very much. Working now on M4 Max. Can't believe the vendor still hasn't fixed this.
Nice work!!!!