Unleash Apple Silicon... with LINUX!

Asahi Linux is here! It's a Linux distro custom built for M1 Apple Silicon.

I'll install it on my M1 Mac mini and find out how it compares to trusty old macOS running on the same hardware!

#Apple #Asahi #Linux

Mentioned in this video:

Contents:

00:00 - Linux on a Mac?
01:22 - Asahi's installer
03:07 - First boot - Internet browsing
04:00 - 10G Ethernet testing
04:52 - Is Asahi faster than macOS?
05:43 - Sometimes it is!
06:59 - Missing features
07:59 - Headless Linux server?
09:12 - Install tips
10:01 - Looking forward

[meddlin]

Linux on the M1 is happening a LOT faster than I assumed it would when I got the M1 Macbook Air. Super excited for what this project could be in a short while.

[martinrocket]

If even Jeff Geerling uses an Apple M1 to have ARM-Linux at hand, then the Raspberry Pi shortage seems to be serious.

[benjaminshropshire]

Side note to software vendors considering (not) porting to ARM: getting software running on a new arch is a great way to tease out hidden bugs with already supported arches. In particular, places where the existing code is depending on either undefined or implementation defined behaviors and only works by luck rather then by design.

[GSBarlev]

What I'm hearing from this video is that at $999, and with the efficiency of ARM chips, the MacBook Air might just be the cheapest and most power-friendly Linux ultrabook out right now.

[keithmiller]

Very interesting. A comment you made at the end has got me thinking. I have an old Intel mac mini that has just been sitting in a drawer. Repurposing it as a Ubuntu server would bring it back to life as I could use it as a media server. Oh well that is this weekend gone already on another Linux project. Thanks Jeff!

[johnmackay]

From day 1 Craig Federighi has stated that they're open to dual booting, even going as far as tossing the ball on Microsoft to license a version of Windows for ARM, saying that the M1 is capable of running Windows. Not a surprise to me they're not locking the bootloader, and it's likely to prepare for the possibility of Windows on ARM becoming a licensed product.

[kode]

Incidentally, in case you never heard, the security settings you change after the first reboot only affect the Asahi partition, not your macOS partition.

[nichijoufan]

It's amazing how far ARM is going. The only problems left right now is cross-OS and x86 compatibility.
8:35 ARM has already entered the enterprise compute sector long ago, even Oracle in its always-free plan offers a 4-core 24GB of ram VM running on Ampere ARM processors. I also had this problem with Bitwarden and SRCDS (Source Dedicated Server). I used Vaultwarden instead but for SRCDS I'm trying to run it via Box86...

[duke_ferdinand]

Dang this is going to be huge in a few years when the M1 macs reach the end of their update support. I already run k3s on a pi4 cluster, now I'm imagining a super powerful cluster of used M1 mac minis in not much bigger of a footprint! :)

[Toxicity]

Asahi Linux is the lovechild of marcan, a you could say legendary hacker who also was involved in the Hacking of the PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U and Switch.

[BWGPEI]

Man, you had a very good day and thanks for sharing that with us. A giggle for you - after a couple of years of using Linux desktops, I repaired a MS Windows 10 laptop. Windows 10 had me frothing-at-the-mouth frustrated! Guess that confirms me being a Linux person now.

[joeg]

I previously installed Linux on Mac. It ran better in most circumstances except in a very few instances. However, since I don’t have to do it anymore, I stopped OS hopping. However, I always try new things with my Pi setups; it’s fun. Thank you for the video!

[ST-rylr]

Apple has never said they had locked down the M1. In fact, they said at launch that if Microsoft wanted to move Windows to the M1, there's nothing they would do to stop it.

[SomeTechGuy]

I love your interest in ARM. I can't wait for GPU support. I agree that the M1s have a ton of potential with Linux.

[zero.the.prototype]

You have been popping onto my feed lately and I have casually dipped in and been enjoying. This one got me to sub. Got me dredging up YellowDog memories too ♡

[joecan]

Jeff, you hit it right on the nose with the last bit in this vid. My 2009 iMac lives on its useful life with Linux mint XFCE. In 4 or 5 years when Apple deems these 1st gen M1 no longer useful or supported, they'll live on with a modern, current OS.

[raygoble]

I've had an old iMac sitting in the corner for years. So old that it doesn't get updates, and is just unusable. After watching this, I decided to try Linux on it. I had the latest Mint on a bootable thumb drive, so why not. It works great! The only issue was that Linux couldn't deal with the WiFi adapter. I had a tiny USB WiFi that I'd never used and as soon as I plugged it in, I got the pop up "WiFi networks available." Linux runs just fine on it, and now I have another perfectly useful desktop at no cost. I didn't even bother with trying it via dual boot first. I just wiped it clean.

Jeff: "Linux is faster on Apple silicon? That can't be right?!"
Me: Why the surprise? It's exactly what I expected...

[digitalspecter]

It's great seeing this progress. PC parts cost a lot now and they're still announcing ever more power-hungry parts (like a 600W GPU!!!) and I don't need extra heating elements in my apartment.. I'm really considering something like Mac Studio for my next upgrade.. GPU drivers can be a tough nut to crack but the M1 GPUs ditched a lot of old baggage and are much simpler than legacy GPUs... so I'm hopeful they're going to deliver usable GPU drivers for Linux say within a year..

[JMacalinao]

8:52 Missed opportunity for a Sosumi joke right there. 😝