Asahi Linux now has a Mac installer that works with Apple Silicon, but there are some serious limitations that make it more suitable for developers.
Mac computers come with macOS, of course, but Apple has allowed other operating systems to be installed in the past, including Linux and even Windows. While the M1 processor made changes that eliminated the easiest option, developers worked on workarounds and a Linux installer is now available that works with Apple’s latest Macs and MacBooks. This is an early release and most users shouldn’t worry about it, although it’s still interesting to see how far it’s come.
In 2006, Apple introduced a surprising new feature for Mac computers. Known as Boot Camp, this utility has the ability to create a separate partition on the primary or external drive, formatted and ready to install Windows and other operating systems. Apple has also included Windows drivers to interface with Mac hardware. It ran at full speed on the Mac’s Intel processor and behaved like Windows would on a PC. The only downside is that the user had to choose which operating system to load on startup, and it required a full reboot to switch over. Modern computers are ready quickly, but it took several minutes to restart a Mac in 2006. With newer Apple Silicon Macs and MacBooks, Boot Camp is no longer available.
While some developers managed to get Linux running on a Mac M1 in late 2021, no suitable installer was available to the general public before. This involved laborious manual installation of various drivers and components needed for Linux, with plenty of ways for things to go wrong. The good news is that an installer for Asahi Linux now exists in alpha form, making it much easier for adventurous Mac owners to explore this option. Asahi Linux is a variant of Arch Linux for ARM processors and although it is a full Linux install, this alpha release does not support GPU which can be quite limiting. Andrew Tsai demonstrated Asahi Linux on a Mac M1 in a recent YouTube video.
Asahi Linux for Mac M1
The Asahi Linux installer allows setting up a separate partition to boot directly into Linux on an Apple Silicon Mac and works well with some limitations. The GPU card is not enabled and will admittedly take some time to work. That means the game won’t work and it can’t even handle video streaming. On the other hand, standard applications such as the Firebox browser work as expected, within these limits.
The Asahi Linux team has done a fantastic job of reverse engineering the drivers with little to do. Most Mac and MacBook hardware is supported, including Wi-Fi, USB 2, display, NVMe, lid switch, power button, keyboard, touchpad, battery information, load control, Ethernet, SD card reader and processor frequency switching. Notable features missing include DisplayPort, HDMI, Bluetooth, Thunderbolt, and as mentioned, GPU support to speed up graphics and video processing. This means Asahi Linux for M1 mac Computers is currently best left to developers who would like to contribute to the open-source project.
Source: Asahi Linux, Andrew Tsai/YouTube
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