The crowdfunding Asahi Linux project published the first progress report outlining its efforts to transfer Linux to the Apple Silicon platform with the M1 Macs. Apple’s new processing architecture creates problems …
In the blog post (via The Register), core hacker and Asahi Linux co-founder Hector Martin, describes the challenges the project faces in understanding how this new Apple chip works.
The project report gives an overview of Apple’s unique startup process and the challenges of running another operating system on the M1 Mac mini, the first Apple Silicon product that Martin tries to make Linux work.
Apple Silicon Macs start out in a very different way than computers. The way they work is more related to built-in platforms (like Android phones, or of course iOS devices), but with quite a few customization mechanisms thrown in. However, Apple has taken a few steps to make this startup process bird closer to that of an Intel Mac, so there was a lot of confusion about how things actually work.
The project started in January. For the time being, Martin was able to write a custom bootloader called m1n1, which aims to take care of as many ‘Apple isms’ as possible.
The m1n1 looks like the first part to run more than Linux on the M1, but to do so while streaming its work to the mainline Linux kernel.
In the future, we will continue to add features to m1n1 to make it an even more powerful research tool. A particularly exciting goal is to turn it into a very thin VM hypervisor that can upload MacOS, and intercept access to the M1 hardware. This allows us to examine how Apple’s drivers work without disassembling them.
The Asahi Linux project is not the only attempt to bring Linux to the Apple M1. Thanks to Ubuntu’s new Corellium port, you can already use Linux on the M1 Mac mini.
However, the current port still has some limitations, as you will probably need a USB-C dongle for internet connection when booting into Linux.
If you want to know all the details about the Asahi Linux project now, click here to read the full blog post.
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