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Linux Running on Apple M1

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Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#21

Post by varispeed »

jcstryker wrote: post #12

Love to see the competition between the projects trying to get linux running on the m1. Though I think they will hit a wall trying to enable GPU support. I think opening up just enough to enable this effort also serves as some good nerd marketing for Apple. This race keeps the m1 in the news regularly, giving hope to those who want a low-power and performant ARM machine that wouldn't otherwise consider an apple machi…

Does it actually require any serious development or it is just mostly tweaking and changing things here and there? I am sorry if that sounds ignorant, but I thought these are just low hanging fruits to harvest. Also why Apple wouldn't do that themselves? To me it is an opposite to "nerd marketing", a big middle finger to Linux users - essentially "you are on your own".

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#22

Post by JosephRedfern »

coldtea wrote: post #15
JosephRedfern wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why's that? If I netboot Linux on my desktop PC, is it not running "on" my desktop PC? Is the CPU/SoC not the thing on which then operating system is running?

Technically yes. But people want to have an M1 laptop on which they can run Linux. Not a laptop + external disk + other baggage.

I agree with that. But given the context -- an experimental build targetting a new SoC, I wouldn't personally dispute the claim that it's running on an M1 machine.

If the tweet was claiming that it was ready to go for general use and that everyone should install it and use it as their daily driver, then I could see that the external boot disk caveat would be more significant... but it seems kind of irrelevant in the context of what they've achieved so far.

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#23

Post by cecja »

thomasfl wrote: post #10

A Raspberry Pi powered by something similar to the M1 or A14 bionic processor would be something. The Broadcom 1.5 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 that powers the latest raspberry pi, is nothing compared to the new processor beasts from Apple.

You are comparing apples and raspberries the one thing costs 1k the other thing costs 50 bucks.

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#24

Post by saagarjha »

varispeed wrote: post #21
jcstryker wrote: post #12

Love to see the competition between the projects trying to get linux running on the m1. Though I think they will hit a wall trying to enable GPU support. I think opening up just enough to enable this effort also serves as some good nerd marketing for Apple. This race keeps the m1 in the news regularly, giving hope to those who want a low-power and performant ARM machine that wouldn't otherwise consider an apple machi…

Does it actually require any serious development or it is just mostly tweaking and changing things here and there? I am sorry if that sounds ignorant, but I thought these are just low hanging fruits to harvest. Also why Apple wouldn't do that themselves? To me it is an opposite to "nerd marketing", a big middle finger to Linux users - essentially "you are on your own".

A middle finger from Apple would be locking the bootloader–keeping it open, plus providing minimal tooling and telling people to figure it out, is about as close to "we'd love to see what you'll do with it" as Apple could possibly give.

(Dealing with the GPU is going to be the majority of the work, I'd think.)

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#25

Post by Jonnax »

ficklepickle wrote: post #14
mprev wrote: post #5

I hadn't thought about Yellow Dog Linux in years until seeing this. Discontinued in 2012, which is understandable after Apple's switch to Intel.

For some reason it was the distro that ran best on the ps3, I seem to recall.

The reason is that Apple used PPC CPUs in their Mac's before Intel

And this was a distro geared towards PowerPC hardware.

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#26

Post by saagarjha »

kzrdude wrote: post #19
rvz wrote: post #2

Great progress already thanks to Corellium for the M1 linux projects [0][1], the PongoOS project and to all others involved. Getting GPU acceleration is now the real challenge. [0] https://github.com/corellium/preloader-m1 [1] https://github.com/corellium/linux-m1

Can someone explain what a .dts file is?

It's a device tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_tree

Re: Linux Running on Apple M1

#30

Post by flyinghamster »

thomasfl wrote: post #10

A Raspberry Pi powered by something similar to the M1 or A14 bionic processor would be something. The Broadcom 1.5 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 that powers the latest raspberry pi, is nothing compared to the new processor beasts from Apple.

We already have the Mac Mini, but an A14-based SBC would be less of a stretch than an M1. A picoMac, so to speak? That would almost inevitably run MacOS by default rather than Linux, though.

The GPU is make or break for Linux. No GPU means it's just another server in a different form factor.

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