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ARM64 Linux Workstation

jasoneckert.github.io

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Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#51

Post by nicce »

inconceivable wrote: post #15
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?

when i run across this issue i just use their web apps in a separate browser. slack's 'native' app is just a sequestered browser instance. not sure about spotify.

You can make your ”own” slack app with few lines of code by using some WebView library, like Tauri and Rust, for fun :-D

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#52

Post by poolopolopolo »

nicce wrote: post #31
hillcrestenigma wrote: post #19

Does anyone know how cost effective a base M1 Mac Studio would be compared to a PC build with comparable cost? There's also the obvious set of trade offs, such as being quiet, compact, but being unrepairable, while the PCs having nearly the opposite qualities. Is the power efficiency of Apple Silicon still a major advantage in a desktop system?

I save 20€ per month by using my Macbook instead of desktop PC in electricity. At least 720 euros from three years.

I dont think this mac consumes much less than a amd 7950x capped at 65W.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#53

Post by Mike_12345 »

runjake wrote: post #12
gbN025tt2Z1E2E4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that hard to believe when you consider the hardware specs for Apple machines are so heavily locked down to a very specific set of mobo, cpu, and only variability in core count, ram amount, hard drive size, etc. It's not like PC world of mix and match everything.

It's hard to believe because virtually none of the proprietary Apple Silicon platform (except the CPU instruction set itself) is documented and involved a tremendous amount of reverse-engineering effort by some very bright volunteers .

That's typically been the case since Linux started in 1991. Reverse-engineering undocumented proprietary hardware has been the norm.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#54

Post by detrites »

usr1106 wrote: post #5

Depending on the country you live earth overshoot day is pretty soon. 128GB of RAM and other specs for a workstation certainly sound like overshoot. I'd wish smart people would use their brains and saving resources instead of wasting them.

Until you're living in a tree and sending this message with a carrier pigeon there's some criticisms anyone could level at you also. And, what if our future energy saviour just so happened to need 128GB of RAM to prove their model in time?

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#56

Post by nicce »

tombert wrote: post #49

Forgive a bit of ignorance on my end; does Asahi have x86_64 emulation? It would be cool to play Linux Steam games on Arm.

Performance will be terrible as you virtualise instructions. You can try it with QEMU for example.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#57

Post by tombert »

zozbot234 wrote: post #55
tombert wrote: post #49

Forgive a bit of ignorance on my end; does Asahi have x86_64 emulation? It would be cool to play Linux Steam games on Arm.

qemu-user can emulate x86_64 hardware, but it's not going to be as fast as Apple's Rosetta.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of; honestly the reason I haven't seriously attempted moving to Arm Linux full time is because I suspect that it would be great for 99% of stuff, but that 1% of ~30 years of x86 legacy junk would be some huge blocker that forces me to change to something else.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#58

Post by nicce »

dicknuckle wrote: post #48
nicce wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran all my stuff inside non-root non-volume container so prebuilt binary it is not really a problem. I used QEMU through Podman machine in the end, but the performance is terrible. Even on MacOS side QEMU does not support Rosetta 2. Docker for Desktop supports and gives significant boost, but I don’t want to use it.

Did you try Lima on Mac? I never did compare apples to apples, ran an x86 Podman VM and then switched to an arm64 Lima VM and had drastically improved performance.

Lima uses QEMU as well. Performance is not an issue from ARM-to-ARM virtualisation.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#60

Post by sliken »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #44
silisili wrote: post #11

That's really impressive! That said, I really wish someone other than Apple would release something like an ARM64 NUC, with good Linux compat. Even something on par with the SD Gen 2 should be plenty to run a desktop day to day.

I'm not trying to invalidate your specific use case, but in general, there's not really any practical difference between ARM64 and x86 for desktop use. ARM is generally perceived as being more power efficient, but the latest x86 mobile processors from AMD (and probably also Intel) are very efficient. The Apple M series does have very tightly coupled RAM and onboard ML & video encode accelerators, but when it comes to…

Dunno, M1 max (400GB/sec twice a threadripper) fits in a thin laptop, performance well, and has a decent iGPU. That's more bandwidth than a threadripper, better iGPU then anything Intel/AMD ships, and still sips on the power.

M1 Ultra doubles the bandwidth again to 800GB/sec, and fits in a small and quite desktop. What CPU+iGPU (or GPU) do you think is comparable to M1 Ultra and competes on performance and power?

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