It's a bit early (obviously, hence Alpha) but if the pace and purpose of the project make you excited consider bumping a few dollars towards the donation links in the article to help these folks afford to get it done. Marcan is a wizard and Povik has been making great progress but these machines aren't cheap nor their time unlimited!
Backing as well, soon enough it will be impossible to find a better machine than a Macbook Air running Linux at this price point!
The processor is outstanding, so is battery life and the screen and touchpad are incredibly better than any Dell or Lenovo out there.
Give us the opportunity to get rid of the increasing number of "cruft" that is Photos, Messages, iCloud, and countless demons in macOS... are we are good to go!
Kudos to the people involved in this on their own time and the people donating to them supportive. Its not so nice that a trillion valued company needs charity to run an experiment which might prove useful to them technically.
I just installed this - the installation experience was easy and guided you through the tasks that were happening and why. I gave it 100GB of space on my 16GB Mac Mini, and Asahi runs incredibly fast and smooth. Very impressed!
that’s great! I’ve been a long time Fedora user but last year I decided to try NixOS and I couldn’t be more surprised, everything works well and it was easy to install and learn. I’m glad I can try it in my m1 macbook pro!
Probably won't happen, but it's interesting that all the things you would need for an "x-serve next-gen" to be successful have fallen into place now. Would make a pretty power packed and efficient 1U machine.
Server on the M1 Mac Mini is really already there unless you need thunderbolt accessories or GPU acceleration for your server use case. Even the 10G port is working fine now. I was actually just looking into some of the 1u 2x Mac Mini mount options prior to reading this wondering if it'd make sense to do.
The Mac Studio bring-up might be worth waiting for on this use case though, apart from more cores it crucially has more RAM options. While the SSD is comparatively fast to swap from what most are used to dealing with the 16 GB of RAM limit on the Mini can still be between a real downer to a non-starter for many server workloads.
I’ve been wanting to set up a couple of small home servers (something like some raspberry pis). They’ve been out of stock since forever and very hard to come across. It’s been months since this project is paused.
I’m considering just getting a Mac Mini and using that as a home server with everything in it.
Exciting news! While I am mainly a Mac user, Linux is the other operation system I use (usually via VM on the Mac) and the one alternative operating system I would use, if I would not have a Mac. Being able to boot into Linux directly adds a lot of value. While I don't have an ARM Mac yet, this gives even more incentive to order a Mac Studio :) (I assume support for that is coming soon).
I am wondering why Apple doesn't support this more directly. That would be just a tiny drop out of the marketing budget. But at least there seems to be some good will in the relevant OS department with recent changes from which Asahi Linux benefited.
On a side note, as long as the graphics are CPU rendered, is this rendering multi-threaded and would benefit from the beefier M chips?
I agree with you that it would be good if Apple supported Linux containers directly, like ChromeOS and Windows. I bought a $350 Lenovo Chromebook last year and in addition to touchscreen and included keyboard case and pencil, it also has seamless integration for using Linux containers. I don’t own a Windows machine, but I have heard good reports about their Linux container system.
All that said, I would be delighted if Apple supported an M1 version of VirtualBox.
A super interesting angle with all this is that since these machines are so homogenous and widely-used, once the ice is broken they could quickly become the best-supported modern Linux machines out there, just due to the sheer number of people who would have the exact same hardware (vs the rest of the landscape, which is much more spotty and varied), and the way that would reduce the support burden. Getting the audio drivers working on Apple Silicon machines could be much more impactful than getting them working on the MSI Delta 15 or whatever
I made a quick guide to install and configure Sway on the Macbook Air. Should be useful to solve some touchpad and scaling issues with the defaul sway settings.
https://github.com/jaime10a/SwayM1
It's probably better to swap the command and option keys via the swap_opt_cmd=1 parameter on the hid-apple kernel module that way they are globally swapped, not just in sway. fnmode=2 is another useful one which sets f1-f10 to be function keys by default so e.g. pressing f10 sends f10, not mute because you forgot to press fn+f10.
Wrote this reply from Asahi which I installed earlier this afternoon before the announcement. Works well and the installer was pretty good for alpha. :)
> At least 53GB of free disk space (Desktop install)
Wowsa. I know disk space is abundant but that is still shocking. I've never used MacOS, but why does it need at least 38 GB free for MacOS update?
> You need 15GB for Asahi Linux Desktop
Wowsa number 2. I'm used light installs using lightweight windows managers or desktops so that number was a bit shocking. Anyone else prefer a small base onto which you can add software rather than getting everything and having to uninstall a bunch of software?
Asahi Linux Desktop is a default install. A minimal Arch install is also available, as well as a UEFI-only implementation. There is a fixed ~3GB overhead per 'Other OS' install for OS-specific vendor firmware, but a UEFI install is managed as a single 'Other OS' and can freely boot UEFI payloads from both internal and external drives.
The macOS Software Updater is extremely inefficient with space - you want plenty free or it might get stuck.
As for the 15GB, 2.5GB must be used for the mandatory Recovery partition as well as leaving room for the recovery partition to have extra room if necessary, because it can’t be easily expanded later.
That leaves 12.5GB for your desktop Linux and any free space for your apps or files. You can use Expert Mode to go smaller with either macOS or Asahi but I’d say they are reasonable guidelines.
Excited about this. I like the Mac HW but hate MacOs. I can't delete iTunes, books, etc. Switched development to a Chromebook for a decent Linux experience.
Excited to try this out. Still missing a few crucial features for me to fully adopt it as a daily driver but the speed of this project has been incredibly impressive. Can't wait to see how it looks 1 or 2 years down the line.
I'm out of the loop on this one. Is M1 a new architecture, and if so does that mean any distro would have to recompile every package in the repo to target it? How long would that take for a typical distribution?
It’s ARM but with a unique boot process and other proprietary hardware component (gpu, ssd). Check the previous hnews posts and original kickoff document:
No, M1 is ARM64, so any existing ARM64 compatible packages will work. However, some packages may not be compatible with 16K pages, so you may need the 4K page version of the kernel. Linux (unlike macOS) does not support mixed page sizes (edit: at least with M1) so it will result in reduced performance for the whole system if you need 4K pages.
[+] [-] zamadatix|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hbbio|4 years ago|reply
The processor is outstanding, so is battery life and the screen and touchpad are incredibly better than any Dell or Lenovo out there.
Give us the opportunity to get rid of the increasing number of "cruft" that is Photos, Messages, iCloud, and countless demons in macOS... are we are good to go!
[+] [-] makapuf|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasoneckert|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] capableweb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] n42|4 years ago|reply
[1]: https://github.com/tpwrules/nixos-m1/blob/main/docs/uefi-sta...
[+] [-] loop0|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spindle|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zamadatix|4 years ago|reply
The Mac Studio bring-up might be worth waiting for on this use case though, apart from more cores it crucially has more RAM options. While the SSD is comparatively fast to swap from what most are used to dealing with the 16 GB of RAM limit on the Mini can still be between a real downer to a non-starter for many server workloads.
[+] [-] n42|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WhyNotHugo|4 years ago|reply
I’m considering just getting a Mac Mini and using that as a home server with everything in it.
[+] [-] _ph_|4 years ago|reply
I am wondering why Apple doesn't support this more directly. That would be just a tiny drop out of the marketing budget. But at least there seems to be some good will in the relevant OS department with recent changes from which Asahi Linux benefited.
On a side note, as long as the graphics are CPU rendered, is this rendering multi-threaded and would benefit from the beefier M chips?
[+] [-] mark_l_watson|4 years ago|reply
All that said, I would be delighted if Apple supported an M1 version of VirtualBox.
[+] [-] legodion|4 years ago|reply
If everything works reliably well, this could be a game changer for Linux.
[+] [-] brundolf|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|4 years ago|reply
Linux on an M1 Mac - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30717758 - March 2022 (136 comments)
AsahiLinux's Introduction to Apple Silicon - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30699794 - March 2022 (5 comments)
Asahi Linux Add Support for the Broadcom FullMAC WiFi Chips Used on Apple T2/M1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29694497 - Dec 2021 (9 comments)
Apple Helps Asahi Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29591578 - Dec 2021 (174 comments)
Asahi Linux for M1 Macs Progress October-November 2021 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29564384 - Dec 2021 (211 comments)
Asahi Linux for M1 Macs: progress report for September 2021 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28762744 - Oct 2021 (186 comments)
Asahi Linux for Apple M1 progress report, August 2021 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28180135 - Aug 2021 (183 comments)
Asahi Linux Progress Report: January/February 2021 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26421963 - March 2021 (65 comments)
Asahi Linux: Linux on Apple Silicon project - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25649719 - Jan 2021 (405 comments)
[+] [-] watmough|4 years ago|reply
Super slick. No issues.
[+] [-] jaime10|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zamadatix|4 years ago|reply
You can find some other options in https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/c5d9ae265b105d9a67575... as well
[+] [-] gjsman-1000|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DougMellon|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattl|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qiskit|4 years ago|reply
Wowsa. I know disk space is abundant but that is still shocking. I've never used MacOS, but why does it need at least 38 GB free for MacOS update?
> You need 15GB for Asahi Linux Desktop
Wowsa number 2. I'm used light installs using lightweight windows managers or desktops so that number was a bit shocking. Anyone else prefer a small base onto which you can add software rather than getting everything and having to uninstall a bunch of software?
[+] [-] zozbot234|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gjsman-1000|4 years ago|reply
As for the 15GB, 2.5GB must be used for the mandatory Recovery partition as well as leaving room for the recovery partition to have extra room if necessary, because it can’t be easily expanded later.
That leaves 12.5GB for your desktop Linux and any free space for your apps or files. You can use Expert Mode to go smaller with either macOS or Asahi but I’d say they are reasonable guidelines.
[+] [-] rvz|4 years ago|reply
Very surprised by this, but to be fair this is an alpha. So I expect them to drive that down drastically when it is stable anyway.
It may not be the friendliest of installers, but hey that Linux. Or perhaps someone can do a user-friendly AsahiInstaller.app as well?
[+] [-] cloudwizard|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Wowfunhappy|4 years ago|reply
You still can if you really, really want to, it has just become excessively annoying. (I don’t blame you at all for switching OS’s)
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] e40|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boris|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _ph_|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gundamdoubleO|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blindmute|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nanliu|4 years ago|reply
https://asahilinux.org/2021/03/progress-report-january-febru...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28180135
[+] [-] 58028641|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zamadatix|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beebeepka|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] xiaodai|4 years ago|reply