Linux on a mac mini drivers#

Rockchip ARM64 machinesВ withВ hardware acceleration. вЂњ With these drivers, M1 Macs are actually usable as desktop Linux machines! While there is no GPU acceleration yet, the M1вЂ™s CPUs are so powerful that a software-rendered desktop is actuallyВ fasterВ on them than on e.g.

Linux on a mac mini drivers#

This is a very exciting opportunity in the ARM64 world.вЂњДЄccording to the blog post, the team will still need to wait for the M1X/M2 chips launch to make sure if they succeed in making enough drivers forwards-compatible to boot Linux on newer chips.ДЄs for now, Linux on the M1 Macs keeps looking promising as the operating system gets faster in these machines, thanks to the new drivers: However, Apple is unique in putting emphasis inВ keeping hardware interfaces compatibleВ across SoC generations вЂ“ the UART hardware in the M1 dates back to the original iPhone! This means we are in a unique position to be able to try writing drivers that will not only work for the M1, but may work вЂ“unchangedвЂ“ on future chips as well. This is effectively a requirement for most SoCs, because hardware tends to vary quite a bit from generation to generation, so drivers always require changes to support newer hardware. вЂњOn typical SoCs, drivers have intimate knowledge of the underlying hardware, and they hard-code its precise layout: how many registers, how many pins, how things relate to each other, etc. Princtrl drive, I2C driver, ASC mailbox driver, IOMMU 4K patches, and Device Power Management are still in review. The team was able to merge some drivers such as PCIe bindings, PCIe drive, and USB-C PD drive.

By the end of June, Linux Kernel was available to Macs with AppleвЂ™s proprietary processor, and now the creators of the project are saying Linux is now вЂњusable as a basic desktop.вЂќДЄccording to the progress report of September, Asahi Linux is running better than ever, although it still lacks GPU acceleration on M1 Macs as the team approached version 5.16 of the software. After almost a year of a project to port Linux to the M1 Macs, news looked better than worse.