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Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

git.kernel.org

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Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#111

Post by ylyn »

RantyDave wrote: post #96
ginko wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal I know, but I very recently got a macbook air after years of practically exclusively using Linux and the opinionated user interface drives me crazy. Here's a few pain points: - Scroll direction can only be set globally so either touchpad or mouse scrolling feels awkward for me - You need an extra click on another window before you can interact with it - No focus-follows-mouse (there used to be 3rd party plu…

There's a certain Zen to using Apple interfaces (IMHO): You have to relax and just accept that this is how it is, and it's best to get used to it. I fully understand if you find this to be not really good enough, but this is the only way to make them work for you.

Ah yes, but if you suggest that someone do this when using Linux, you get shit on.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#112

Post by ricardobayes »

strange_things wrote: post #20

This is very anecdotal but every single laptop I have bought in the last 10 years (4) worked perfectly out-of-the box with either Linux Mint or Ubuntu (which are the same on the inside). I only vaguely remember once I had to change some conf file for my trackpad to work after a dist update but that was it. Not sure why everyone in this thread is so hesitant about Linux on a laptop? It literally just works (tm) for me…

At this point I just want my equipment to 'work'. In order for me to have mental capacity to spend elsewhere and debugging my equipment.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#113

Post by shaan7 »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #37
dhekir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single laptop my company bought me in the last 10 years (3+) had kernel/driver issues, especially with Ubuntu, since the kernel version was usually lower than that from other distros, like Fedora. This includes mostly graphics driver issues (either simply Nvidia, or hybrids, or some exotic protocols such as DisplayLink), but also touchpad, power/suspend issues (e.g. wake-up failure), lack of fingerprint or smar…

I can live without the fingerprint reader. It’s the lack of hibernate that really sucks. I got my 2013 MBA battery replaced. Leave it unplugged for 10 hours. 1% battery drop. XPS 17 on Pop OS LTS with kernel 5.8. I have to shut down if I want battery left.

On XPS 13 (2017) I watched this break due to a firmware update from Dell (something to do with sleep states)

Before the update: Windows sleep was strange, it would sleep but drain battery like crazy. Linux sleep was perfect, I could have the laptop sleeping for days.

After the update: Linux sleep started showing the exact problem as Windows now.

I did not dive much further because I switched jobs and got a ThinkPad at the new one which works perfect.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#114

Post by fulafel »

globular-toast wrote: post #73
weikju wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With that attitude, no one would have ever started trying to write and run their own kernel called Freax on a PC...

The PC has always been an open platform. Documentation is readily available and the intention is for users to run whatever they want on the hardware. Completely different.

Intel and Microsoft control Secure Boot. If Linux hadn't already been so popular on servers when SB came about, it's very possible that PC platform would today be locked down to run MS-only operating systems.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#115

Post by saagarjha »

jari_mustonen wrote: post #36

Would someone familiar with the porting effort tell what where the major obstacles and breakthroughs. It would also be interesting to hear what methods were used in the process and who are the people behind the effort. Thank you in advance. You will find appreciative audience here in HN for such engineering porn.

https://asahilinux.org/2021/03/progress-report-january-febru...

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#116

Post by techrat »

oarsinsync wrote: post #100
peteretep wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the pattern is that when you start to dig into people talking about their great experience with Linux on a laptop, you end up eventually getting them to admit that there are a lot of annoyances they’ve just resigned to living with

> there are a lot of annoyances they’ve just resigned to living with I feel like this is true of every computing platform in general.

I feel the same way. It was the annoyances with Windows that I couldn't resign myself to just live with that pushed me to Linux on my desktop full time. For those unable to make the switch due to some critical application in their workflow, it's easy to see how they'd feel they have resigned themselves to dealing with Windows' annoyances.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#117

Post by marcan_42 »

Hi HN! I wrote an article about this initial support series and what it took to make things work properly on this machine:

https://asahilinux.org/2021/03/progress-report-january-febru...

It still applies to what got merged; the past month was spent on clean-ups, fixes, and review feedback, but there are no major changes to the approach. This initial merge was quite complex as it has to touch a number of subsystems and core kernel code in order to support the M1's quirks, and it was CCed to ~20 people. Now that it's done we can more efficiently work on individual drivers and subsystems, so I expect the pace to pick up.

If you would like to support my work on this project, I do have a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/marcan

I also streamed initial development on YouTube and will be resuming streams next week (patch feedback and git rebasing and munging doesn't make for very interesting streams, but now I'm back to coding). Coming up I have some driver support other people have been working on, and then I'll be writing a minimal hypervisor that can run macOS as a guest, to help reverse engineer the hardware - this will be important for reverse engineering more complex drivers cleanly, especially the GPU kernel side.

Until now we've used a serial cable to debug/load kernels (needs a DIY arduino thing, an proper design I'm working on which is still vapourware, or another M1 box), but Sven added support for the USB device controller and I'll merge it into our bootloader soon, so from this point on anyone will be able to do quick kernel iteration, debugging, and hardware exploration with just a standard USB cable and any other host machine.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#118

Post by philwelch »

fxtentacle wrote: post #42

I sincerely hope that one day, Linux GUI land will receive similar amounts of work as the kernel. While it's great that we can boot it on pretty much every device out there, I would much prefer if it was a viable Windows alternative on a few devices instead. Just yesterday, I plugged an external screen into my Ubuntu laptop. And then I had to duck-duck for like an hour to figure out how to make the fonts large enough…

I sincerely hope that one day, MacOS or Windows can provide a GUI that provides as smooth an experience as the i3 tiling window manager.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#119

Post by midrus »

strange_things wrote: post #20

This is very anecdotal but every single laptop I have bought in the last 10 years (4) worked perfectly out-of-the box with either Linux Mint or Ubuntu (which are the same on the inside). I only vaguely remember once I had to change some conf file for my trackpad to work after a dist update but that was it. Not sure why everyone in this thread is so hesitant about Linux on a laptop? It literally just works (tm) for me…

Not my experience at all. Thinkpads are the one with the best support, but there are always problems with high DPI screens, plugging external monitors, suspending some times works some times doesn't, battery drains really quick, the trackpad just barely works (gestures, hardly work).

I feel the only people that say Linux works great on a laptop is because A) it manages to boot it and 2) Never used a MacBook Pro or similar so they don't know what something working well means.

I'd love to use a linux laptop and I've used it many years in the past, but not going back this year. It is not ready yet for my expectations.

Re: Initial M1 support merged into Linux SoC tree

#120

Post by crossroadsguy »

533474 wrote: post #70

Why do we still buy macs? Apple can pull the plug anytime. Kudos yo the huge undertaking but I personally think we wouldn't need this type of gargatuan effort if we just refused to buy macs without linux support. Why support such a closed system?, enlighten me...

Because if you ignore the high prices those are really good machines. Unlike anything else out there. Durable as well.

I wish there were sleek, metal body lightweight laptops with Linux (w/o Windows hence minus some cost) which just worked out of the box (one that didn’t require hunting around forums to have basic functionalities), but there isn’t. And no I don’t mean that one or two exotic OEM/model. But a general availability.

So people for whom cost isn’t a concern they buy Macs.

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