Linux Desktop for M1 Mac: First Alpha by Asahi

The Asahi Project has released the first alpha version of the Linux distribution for M1 Mac computers. Asahi Linux Works on all Macs with M1, M1 Pro, or M1 Max CPUs except for Mac Studio. Asahi installer setup dual boot system with Linux and macOS; To do this, the size of the macOS partition is reduced during installation. Installation requires macOS 12.3 and at least 53 GB of free memory.

M1-Linux is based on Arch Linux modified for ARM processors. The installer sets up a full plasma desktop or mini arc system. The desktop runs X.org and uses the framerate driver, which means there is no GPU support and no video acceleration either. Only Thunderbolt ports provide USB 2, and the Type A ports on the Mac Mini also provide USB 3. WLAN and Ethernet should work, as should NVME storage and SD cards.

What works – and what doesn’t

According to the developers, the HDMI output can only be used with the Mac Mini, but not with MacBooks. DisplayPort, Camera, Bluetooth, and Touch Bar are not supported yet. The power-saving mechanisms of the M1 CPU and Neural Engine cannot be used with Asahi either. Speakers and screen brightness control are supported according to Alpha Announcement In progress.

The Asahi Linux kernel is compiled with a memory page size of 16KB, which is suitable for an M1 CPU (on the x64 platform, Linux kernels use 4K memory pages), not all applications can handle this. The developers specifically mention Google’s open source Chomium browser and editor Emacs, although it is said that there is a fix for Emacs.

OpenBSD is also running

The Asahi installer also provides the option to set up a UEFI-only environment without Asahi Linux. From the ARM64 version of OpenBSD on M1 Mac Accommodation. Hardware support looks like Asahi Linux: all M1 Macs except Mac Studio and core components like monitor, keyboard, NVMe storage and networking, but no GPU and hanging support. [Danke an User crsc aus dem Heise-Forum]