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ARM64 Linux Workstation

jasoneckert.github.io

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Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#141

Post by zamalek »

doubled112 wrote: post #36
emilsedgh wrote: post #14

Asahi Linux is amazing and pretty usable at this point. However, last I tried I couldn't get stuff like Slack and Spotify to work on it because there are no Arm packages for those. Has anyone found a way around that?

Electron and apps built with it are missing from most ARM64 Linux distributions. Once you've built Electron (or downloaded their binaries), many of the builds fail because they download something that requires x86_64, and then you get to troubleshoot that. Flathub doesn't have aarch64 builds of most of these apps either, so I'm assuming it is not just me having issues. So much for cross platform. It is doable for the…

You could have a look at box86 and box64:

https://box86.org/ | https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64

I haven't tried them myself, but I've read consistent testimony that the performance (and compatibility) is great.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#142

Post by rkunde »

> In some cases, it is too fast. When I installed K3s, all of the containers in the kube-system namespace kept entering the dreaded CrashLoopBackOff state [..] After some investigation, I found out that the Mac Studio was just too fast for the Kubernetes resource timing

I’d like to understand what the issue here is. Sounds counterintuitive to me.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#143

Post by spwhitton »

jlarocco wrote: post #125

It's cool that Arm64 chips are catching up in speed, but the software support has been there for a long time. When I bought my Raspberry Pi several years back, I was able to comfortably develop using Emacs, gcc, and SBCL Common Lisp - the same software I use on my AMD desktop. Everything I needed "just worked"; compiling just wasn't very fast.

Ha, Emacs, sbcl and gcc are exactly what I've been using for development for the past few months on my Raspberry Pi 4 desktop replacement.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#144

Post by bolangi »

rarafael wrote: post #4
bolangi wrote: post #3

All sounds good to me. What I don't get is how running on arm64 would speed up i3. I3 is already fast enough to be unnoticeable, hardly performs any expensive operations.

I believe they're commenting on the fact that the sway Wayland compositor seems faster than i3. Might be due to how Wayland handles frame rendering, but switching between the two I tend to notice a more "snappy" effect from sway

So more likely they are comparing wayland and X.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#145

Post by galangalalgol »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #136
psanford wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got an M2 Air. It is very usable, but its far from everything working perfectly. Builtin speaker support is still a work in progress. It works if you know what you are doing and are not afraid to damage your speakers if you make a mistake. There's been progress on this though, so I expect this to be resolved sooner than later. There's no builtin speakers in the author's mac studio though, so I'll give them a pas…

OP's requirements pretty much uniquely match what Asahi on a desktop M2 provides -- heavy compute, not heavy graphics, no onboard speakers, one big display, no webcam/touch-id, etc. It sounds like if you're developing services hosted in a cloud, Asahi Linux is a great fit for a desktop Mac.

Do they ever sell old graviton machines as salvage? Arenithey on revision 3 now? I'd like one of those.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#146

Post by nicce »

highwaylights wrote: post #128
nicce wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything will work. Once upon time I tried to make CTF with M2 Pro, and I seriously wished that I had x86_64 Linux instead. Many of the penetration testing tools are not mainstream and they include pre-build x86_64 binaries, or are configured just to not compile with ARM, for reason unknown. And there is no time to figure out what is wrong. I know this might be a niche scenario, but still...

“Once upon a time I tried to make CTF with M2 Pro” Wasn’t the M2 Pro released like a month ago? Am I that old that a few weeks now counts as once upon a time?

World changes fast these days!

But yeah, it was like week after the release I took that laptop to CTF.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#147

Post by satysin »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #65
andrewstuart wrote: post #41

I'd be curious to see properly done benchmarks against top of the line Intel or AMD machines. I'd be surprised if the Mac was faster. I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed.

> I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed. I find LG Gram laptops to be of higher build quality than Mac laptops. They may be pricier too depending on which LG Gram and which Mac you buy though. Mac laptops feel and are incredibly brittle. They may look shiny and the screen may look gorgeous, but they're simply brittle. People here and there like to make fun of…

I agree with what you're saying but feel the issue is more durability than build quality.

Apple's MacBook Pro has very good build quality but that doesn't mean it isn't fragile. The screen and trackpad are glass for example so going to be far more brittle than most plastic options.

That isn't a build quality issue though, at least not to how I define build quality which is fit and finish and excellent quality assurance. I've had expensive Dell, Lenovo and HP laptops with "Premium" displays that arrive with stuck pixels. Hinges not properly aligned. Squeaky keyboards and trackpads. Speakers that pop, etc. That is poor build quality and crap QC.

The Mac's have near perfect build and QC but they sure are less durable than many other laptops.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#148

Post by gorbypark »

doubled112 wrote: post #36
emilsedgh wrote: post #14

Asahi Linux is amazing and pretty usable at this point. However, last I tried I couldn't get stuff like Slack and Spotify to work on it because there are no Arm packages for those. Has anyone found a way around that?

Electron and apps built with it are missing from most ARM64 Linux distributions. Once you've built Electron (or downloaded their binaries), many of the builds fail because they download something that requires x86_64, and then you get to troubleshoot that. Flathub doesn't have aarch64 builds of most of these apps either, so I'm assuming it is not just me having issues. So much for cross platform. It is doable for the…

Apple released Rosetta 2 for Linux. It's for running x86_64 binaries inside of a arm64 VMs. I've heard rumours people have it running on Graviton instances and other arm64 devices..I'm guessing it would work with Asahi, although it might be against some ToS.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#149

Post by tbrock »

eatonphil wrote: post #124
tbrock wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance isn’t there. Why spend 3k+ on this?

What's wrong with the performance?

A comparable m1 is twice as fast in the above benchmarks?

And that’s Apple’s chip from 2 years ago!

Core for core this is a dog.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#150

Post by loeg »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #93
loeg wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be somewhat careful what USB audio device you buy. I've had multiple of these and some of them have tons of EM noise, which is very obnoxious.

> I've had multiple of these and some of them have tons of EM noise, which is very obnoxious. Ah darn yup! If there's one thing I'd expect from these is to not be noisy! FWIW I'm using a CambridgeAudio DAC and, well, CambridgeAudio is supposed to be a good brand when it comes to audio stuff (amp is CambridgeAudio too).

> CambridgeAudio DAC

It looks like these start at $250? I'd expect them to work well. I'm more wary of this pricepoint:

> Apple sells $10 USB-C-to-3.5mmjack DAC

I've gotten a lot less EM noise with builtin soundcards than cheap USB DACs, but YMMV.

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