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Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

codyho.dev

221–230 of 293 posts

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yuzu also sold access to more recent builds which allowed people to play unreleased nintendo games early, afair

Which also isn't illegal

charging for it brings a whole lot more heat than not doing so

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#222
Would be fun to get this API working on it now: https://github.com/sebbbi/NoGraphicsAPI

You could code for it now directly, instead of having to wrap a driver API. (There's also a few API bits missing on Metal today, that are present on Vulkan—and the the hardware can do it.)

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#223

All this work is tainted since the poster is ex-Apple[1]. There is no way Linux will take that code, since people from Apple also contribute to Linux and this creates a major conflict. There's also ongoing issues around Codex for this sort of thing, given Apple is suing OpenAI over stolen trade secrets[2]. And nobody knows whether training data in other models is similarly tainted. [1]: https://codyho.dev/documents/c…

I don't know if that holds.

Neither OpenAI or Apple "owns" the Linux project. As long as there is enough evidence that code is real contribution and not stolen property (if you can even prove it), there is no reason to deny it.

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Especially since even a tainted GPU driver (tainted as in, used former Apple Engineer knowledge) is usefull as we just throw another LLM onto it and tell it "rewrite in rust" and get an untainted version of it (at least that is the current judicial state, and the bigtech argues in this direction).

An AI doesn't magically add copyright but it also doesn't magically remove copyright except via diffusion of training data. It does not remove copyright from its input. Malus was a parody. If you machine-translate something from one language to another, copyright is retained no matter how sophisticated the translator is.

How is that any different from a clean room?

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#225
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> concealing that he is a former Apple engineer with direct contacts to the people involved in Apple Silicon development This is false. I am a former Apple engineer. I did not conceal it (it's the top item of my resume and my LinkedIn and I made my PR from my public Github with my name attached, as opposed to a pseudonym which is expressly allowed by Asahi policy). I also had no exposure, at all, to any internal info…

I'm sure Omarchy will appreciate the effort, even if you're snubbed by Asahi -- being able to run Linux flawlessly on Apple Silicon is going to be awesome.

I'm sure they would: https://tbreak.com/omarchy-m-apple-silicon-linux/

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't give a flying fuck. Ignoring the idiocy of Imaginary Property is how China is winning. It's time we caught up and then leap ahead. Everything is a derivative work.

So, what do you do for a living?

I write software for a living and think we should abolish software copyright, and furthermore, source availability should be a basic consumer protection requirement. Basically the free software definition should be law.

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#227
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very sad. I really want to get Linux on newer Apple chips working flawlessly but I can understand the legal minefield about this particular work.

Nobody does. We're only about to start settling it in courts, likely the supreme ones.

If your business plan depends on the Roberts’ Court kneecapping AI, pivot.

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't using OpenAI break the cleanroom?

That is the debate. And it is hotly contested. The legal framework around all this is way too immature to make a definitive statement one way or the other. Anyone who says otherwise is speculating. The only way to clarity will be legislation or court cases, because it really could go either way.

Not hotly contested by impartial legal types. There is a -6543.21% chance the Roberts’ Court does anything to hold ai back.

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#230

Awesome to see that another project has started that does use LLM to build linux on top of apple silicon. Asahi linux was dead in the water for me once they made their extreme anti-LLM stance clear.

And others. FEX is a Linux x86 emu for ARM.

Codex ported it to MacOS as part of my project to port Wine to M4.

Unfortunately, FEX is no llm, so I’ll have to fork.

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