The crowdfunding project Asahi Linux published the first progress report detailing its effort to port Linux to the Apple Silicon platform with M1 Macs. Apple’s new processor architecture is creating some difficulties …
In the blog post (via The register), the kernel hacker and co-founder of Asahi Linux Hector Martin describes the challenges facing the project to understand how this new Apple chip works.
The project report gives an idea of Apple’s unique boot process and the challenges of getting another operating system to run on the M1 Mac mini, the first Apple Silicon product that Martin is trying to get Linux to run.
Apple Silicon Macs boot completely differently than PCs. The way they work is more similar to built-in platforms (like Android phones or, of course, iOS devices), but with some custom mechanisms included. However, Apple has taken some steps to do this startup process to feel closer to an Intel Mac, so there’s been a lot of confusion about how things really work.
The project started in January. For now, Martin was able to write a custom bootloader called m1n1, which aims to take care of as many “Apple-isms” as possible.
M1n1 appears to be the first part to have more than Linux running on M1, but doing so while upstreaming its work to the main Linux kernel.
In the future, we will continue to add features to m1n1 to make it an even more powerful research tool. A particularly interesting goal is to turn it into a very thin VM hypervisor that can boot macOS and intercept your accesses to the M1 hardware. This will allow us to investigate how Apple drivers work without having to disassemble them.
The Asahi Linux project is not the only effort to bring Linux to the Apple M1. Thanks to Ubuntu’s new Corellium port, you can now run Linux on the M1 Mac mini.
However, the current port still has some limitations, as you will likely need a USB-C dongle for Internet connectivity when booting on Linux.
For now, if you want to know all the details about the Asahi Linux project, click here to read the full blog post.
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