Linux Desktop on Apple Silicon in Practice (2022)

(gist.github.com)

35 points | by jakogut 14 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • Aurornis 13 hours ago ago

    Parts of this gist have been updated in May, but sections date back to 2022 and earlier. Some of the links I clicked are no longer relevant, such as the sections about upstreaming parts of code. Since they didn't link the actual patches (just a search query for their author name) I don't know exactly which patches they were referring to or what their status is.

    Does anyone have a more up to date resource?

  • porphyra 13 hours ago ago

    Asahi Linux totally has graphics acceleration on M1 and M2.

    • 2OEH8eoCRo0 12 hours ago ago

      What about Thunderbolt or DisplayPort alt mode?

      • eighthourblink 10 hours ago ago

        IIRC, those are not supported as of now.

        I have been running Asahi on my M2 MacBook Air for the last ~9 months or so and actually really enjoy it. Showed me the world of aarch64. Battery life could be better but normal low level power usage ranges in the 6 to 7 hour mark. But nothing close to official Apple battery usage.

  • bri3d 13 hours ago ago

    A gist is such a weird way to run a project like this!

    Basically what this seems to be about is adding full native acceleration support for Mac OS hosts to QEMU (audio, GL, etc.), to enable running a desktop Linux guest effectively, but it's so hard to follow what's going on that I'm not certain what to actually do to get the Best Possible QEMU on OSX Host.

  • William_BB 13 hours ago ago

    How does this compare to Asahi in 2025? In my experience, Asahi's been great

  • righthand 13 hours ago ago

    What does the Venn diagram look like for:

    “Linux is too much work so that’s why I use Apple products”

    AND

    “I’m putting in the work to install partially working Linux on my Apple Mx laptop and loving it”?

    Do they share members?

    • dbtc 13 hours ago ago

      More like, "Apple hardware is fantastic but I wish I had more control over the software."

    • airstrike 13 hours ago ago

      it's more like "Apple makes great hardware and I prefer Linux pain over macOS pain"

    • porphyra 13 hours ago ago

      Apple Macbooks are still class leading in efficiency and build quality, so some Linux tinkerers may still be drawn towards them.

      • righthand 13 hours ago ago

        I would expect that to be the entire case for the 2nd group. My only Apple laptop is a one for work, and my IT department can’t pick a password manager without contracting an agency, so I’m definitely not allowed to install Linux.

      • 13 hours ago ago
        [deleted]