Asahi Linux team issues promising update on efforts to conquer Apple Silicon
(2024/01/16)
- Reference: 1705408215
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/16/asahi_linux_progress_update/
- Source link:
The Asahi Linux team has followed up the release of Fedora Asahi Remix with a post detailing the progress of the project to bring Linux to Apple silicon.
First up is HDMI support and the chore of supporting Apple's M1 and M2 chips, including the Pro, Max, and Ultra variants. Apple tends to reuse most of the hardware logic between SoCs, yet the M2-series desktop devices took a while to display output. Getting display support running for the M2 Pro and Max laptops did not present too much of a problem but the desktop hardware, such as the M2 Mac Mini and Mac Studio, was more of a challenge.
The developers [1]explained : "Unlike M1, HDMI output on M2+s is no longer managed by the DCP [Display Controller Processor] firmware, specifically DCP no longer handles the complete eDP -> DP2HDMI setup."
[2]
Although this introduces some flexibility, for example, in routing DCP on the M2 Mac Mini to the USB-C / Thunderbolt ports, the developers admitted it also added "quite a bit of complexity."
[3]
[4]
The good news is that it all works and even deals with HDMI output - but not Type-C DisplayPort output, which remains upcoming. It should support all chips, including the original M1 when released.
[5]Asahi's Fedora remix dazzles and baffles on Apple Silicon
[6]Asahi Linux goes from Apple Silicon port project to macOS bug hunters
[7]Fedora and Asahi Linux pals revamp installation process
[8]Asahi Linux project hooks up with Fedora: Remix that's not a remix coming soon
The Asahi Linux crew has also shipped a conformant OpenGL ES 3.1 implementation for M1 and M2-family graphics hardware, and has a work-in-progress OpenGL 3.3 implementation, "which unlocks more OpenGL applications and games to work on Asahi Linux."
It OS will not, however, run popular gaming platform Steam. At least not right now. Plans are afoot to get the requirements merged upstream and shipped in a future version of Fedora Asahi.
Speaker support is present and correct, and work continued to improve Wi-Fi support on newer M2 and M3 machines. "Apple Macs ship with Broadcom Wi-Fi hardware but Broadcom doesn't have the closest relationship with the open source community (to put it mildly.)" Challenges aside, newer Wi-Fi firmware is supported, and some of the longstanding issues have also been dealt with, notably an increase in throughput when connected to higher-speed access points.
[9]
Bluetooth support on newer hardware has also been tweaked, and a fix added for time-outs that the team said "took embarrassingly long to figure out, but the fix was trivial." And the fix? Increase the timeout.
The Asahi team is proud of their work to date. Installing and running the latest release build on Apple Silicon (in the case of this writer, a Mac Mini) is impressively straightforward. The choice of desktop might not be to everyone's taste, yet the support on offer makes this a viable alternative to MacOS on Apple silicon. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://asahilinux.org/2024/01/fedora-asahi-new/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/21/fed39_asahi_remix/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/asahi_linux_mac_black_screen/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/fedora_new_installers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/07/asahi_linux_partners_with_fedora/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
First up is HDMI support and the chore of supporting Apple's M1 and M2 chips, including the Pro, Max, and Ultra variants. Apple tends to reuse most of the hardware logic between SoCs, yet the M2-series desktop devices took a while to display output. Getting display support running for the M2 Pro and Max laptops did not present too much of a problem but the desktop hardware, such as the M2 Mac Mini and Mac Studio, was more of a challenge.
The developers [1]explained : "Unlike M1, HDMI output on M2+s is no longer managed by the DCP [Display Controller Processor] firmware, specifically DCP no longer handles the complete eDP -> DP2HDMI setup."
[2]
Although this introduces some flexibility, for example, in routing DCP on the M2 Mac Mini to the USB-C / Thunderbolt ports, the developers admitted it also added "quite a bit of complexity."
[3]
[4]
The good news is that it all works and even deals with HDMI output - but not Type-C DisplayPort output, which remains upcoming. It should support all chips, including the original M1 when released.
[5]Asahi's Fedora remix dazzles and baffles on Apple Silicon
[6]Asahi Linux goes from Apple Silicon port project to macOS bug hunters
[7]Fedora and Asahi Linux pals revamp installation process
[8]Asahi Linux project hooks up with Fedora: Remix that's not a remix coming soon
The Asahi Linux crew has also shipped a conformant OpenGL ES 3.1 implementation for M1 and M2-family graphics hardware, and has a work-in-progress OpenGL 3.3 implementation, "which unlocks more OpenGL applications and games to work on Asahi Linux."
It OS will not, however, run popular gaming platform Steam. At least not right now. Plans are afoot to get the requirements merged upstream and shipped in a future version of Fedora Asahi.
Speaker support is present and correct, and work continued to improve Wi-Fi support on newer M2 and M3 machines. "Apple Macs ship with Broadcom Wi-Fi hardware but Broadcom doesn't have the closest relationship with the open source community (to put it mildly.)" Challenges aside, newer Wi-Fi firmware is supported, and some of the longstanding issues have also been dealt with, notably an increase in throughput when connected to higher-speed access points.
[9]
Bluetooth support on newer hardware has also been tweaked, and a fix added for time-outs that the team said "took embarrassingly long to figure out, but the fix was trivial." And the fix? Increase the timeout.
The Asahi team is proud of their work to date. Installing and running the latest release build on Apple Silicon (in the case of this writer, a Mac Mini) is impressively straightforward. The choice of desktop might not be to everyone's taste, yet the support on offer makes this a viable alternative to MacOS on Apple silicon. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://asahilinux.org/2024/01/fedora-asahi-new/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/21/fed39_asahi_remix/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/asahi_linux_mac_black_screen/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/fedora_new_installers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/07/asahi_linux_partners_with_fedora/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zaa2Nk-sXZ8HhC9tuKDg4gAAAZI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Meanwhile at Apple...
Spazturtle
Meanwhile in reality Apple issued an update to make booting Linux easier.
Congratulations
Anonymous Coward
From a software engineering/tinkering point of view... bravo. That's quite an achievement to add support for quite radically different processors.
From a practical point of view... how many people are going to want to pay the apple hardware premium but not want the apple software stack?? It strikes me as having a real-world (i.e. not just for tinkering) market of 2, maybe 3 people. (and I use linux daily, on several devices, albeit relatively cheap devices)
Re: Congratulations
Ace2
It’s insurance against the end of full software support from Apple.
Re: Congratulations
F. Frederick Skitty
I have older Apple hardware running Linux, hand me downs from graphic designers and other users who need macOS to run certain apps. I expect at some point the ARM based stuff will start trickling down to me as well.
Being able to run Linux means I won't be stuck with out of support macOS versions as I suspect the OpenCore Legacy Patcher will struggle to adapt to the M* based stuff.
I know I'm not alone, as I see fellow developers running Linux on the x86 based Apple kit all the time at conferences, training courses, etc.
Meanwhile at Apple...
[CTO] OMG! Asahi Linux are reverse engineering our hardware!
[Chief Legal Counsel] Let's sue them!
[Tim Cook] What's Linux?