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Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

asahilinux.org

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Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#131

Post by rowanG077 »

e12e wrote: post #130
Lerc wrote: post #126

If one were to grab a second hand (is there much of an ex-lease market?) mac. What is the sweet spot for performance,battery life, and Asahi support?

The main thing that held me back from using Asahi on my M2 MacBook air - was missing external display. If I read TFA correctly - that should now work with a custom kernel. If that's true - I'd say MacBook air M2 is probably the new sweetspot - depending on how cheap you could get an M1. My impression is that until now, MacBook air M1 was the sweetspot.

yep it should work on M2 Macbook Air.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#132

Post by smith7018 »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #103

This is amazing work, and I certainly respect the talent of those involved. That said, my question to those interested is why? I've been a daily user of both Ubuntu since 2005 and Mac since 2012. There are some edge case differences but for the most part they are so similar that I nearly always run the same code on both without modification. Clearly I'm missing something important but I'm curious what it is. Thanks i…

Apple makes some of (if not) the best hardware around. It makes sense that some people would want to buy a Macbook Pro for its hardware and run their favorite OS on it.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#133

Post by Tuna-Fish »

testing22321 wrote: post #115
nanliu wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on chip for the m series and not soldered to the motherboard.

The ram is on chip, the ssd is soldered to the motherboard. There are tons of YT vids showing people upgrading them.

Neither the ram nor the ssd is on chip. The ram is on package, the ssd is on board.

On chip means literally on top of the silicon, like how AMD X3D cpus mount the SRAM chip. On modern Apple devices the ram is mounted on the organic package substrate. The difference is significant, and it's shitty that Apple outright lied about it.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#134

Post by wpm »

chippiewill wrote: post #28
sohrob wrote: post #2

I often wonder whether the folks at Apple have the Asahi team on their radar. Are they in awe of the reverse engineering marvels coming out of the Asahi project, or are they indifferent to it?

IIRC Marcan mentioned something he found that had been deliberately put into the Mac boot loader that made booting alternative operating systems easier and perhaps making it possible altogether.

Yes, because if they didn't, the fact that macOS doesn't lock you down in a sandbox means that is more like the entire boot chain would've been jailbroken. The boot chain shared for the most part with iOS devices, where Apple 100% does not want "jailbreaks" because it means App Stores that they don't get to take 15-30% from.

The happy path on the Mac was provided so the talent capable of booting Linux on it could take the happy path that hides all of the stuff Apple would rather not have a bunch of reverse engineers sniffing around.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#135

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

joe_mamba wrote: post #67
haunter wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just like the build quality and they are reaching the 200€ threshold on the used market. I bought one with 16GB RAM and a small black strip one the side of the screen (don’t bother me) for 230€ last week

>they are reaching the 200€ threshold on the used market. Where?! I just cheeked the used market in Austria and 2020 M1s go for at least 350 for the 8GB RAM models and 450 for the 16GB model. Your 230 for the 16gb one fells more like a rare exception but not them norm everywhere.

isn't this is just exchange rate? 1AUD is 0.6 Eur

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#136

Post by wtallis »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #133
testing22321 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ram is on chip, the ssd is soldered to the motherboard. There are tons of YT vids showing people upgrading them.

Neither the ram nor the ssd is on chip. The ram is on package, the ssd is on board. On chip means literally on top of the silicon, like how AMD X3D cpus mount the SRAM chip. On modern Apple devices the ram is mounted on the organic package substrate. The difference is significant, and it's shitty that Apple outright lied about it.

I think that particular definition of "on chip" is entirely your invention. I've usually seen it broadly used for anything on-package, whether it's on-die or on a separate die within the same package.

"On chip" definitely does not have much if any history of referring specifically to stacked dies with TSVs, because that has been a very niche packaging technique until recently, and "on chip" is a much more broadly used term.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#137

Post by karmajunkie »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #135
joe_mamba wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they are reaching the 200€ threshold on the used market. Where?! I just cheeked the used market in Austria and 2020 M1s go for at least 350 for the 8GB RAM models and 450 for the 16GB model. Your 230 for the 16gb one fells more like a rare exception but not them norm everywhere.

isn't this is just exchange rate? 1AUD is 0.6 Eur

Austria, not Australia.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#138

Post by [deleted] »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #135
joe_mamba wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they are reaching the 200€ threshold on the used market. Where?! I just cheeked the used market in Austria and 2020 M1s go for at least 350 for the 8GB RAM models and 450 for the 16GB model. Your 230 for the 16gb one fells more like a rare exception but not them norm everywhere.

isn't this is just exchange rate? 1AUD is 0.6 Eur

[deleted]

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#139

Post by array_key_first »

_ph_ wrote: post #70
WD-42 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we make excuses for apple because that’s how it used to be back in the bad old days? This is flawed logic. As for alternatives, there are many.

Like which, especially with an ARM processor?

You don't need an arm processor, many modern x86 chips match or outcompete m series on power efficiency and performance. Mainly lunar lake gen 1 and the new gen 3 (arrow lake not really).

The efficiency of arm chips was never arm, really, it was the manufacturing node and SOC design. Well, Intel and AMD can make SOCs, and they do.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

#140

Post by array_key_first »

cardanome wrote: post #94
WD-42 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are aware. They are also aware of the designs sitting in the cabinet right next to them in Cupertino that would make all the reverse engineering instantly unnecessary. Such a monumentally Sisyphean waste of effort in behalf of the Asahi devs in my opinion. If you care about personal computing or Linux, don’t buy a Mac.

The problem is that now one else is currently making hardware that is competitive with apple silicone. Apple is the only one offering both performance and battery time. I love my Thinkpads, I really do but they are bulky, loud and the battery doesn't last very long. They are not an option for many people.

Intel lunar lake gen 1 and 3 are competitive with the M series both in battery life and performance. Qualcomm makes arm chips that are somewhat competitive too, but you run into similar problems as M. x86 chips can most definitely reach the efficiency of M.
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