[HN Gopher] Linux 6.2: The first mainstream Linux kernel for App...
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Linux 6.2: The first mainstream Linux kernel for Apple M1 chips
arrives
Author : CrankyBear
Score : 135 points
Date : 2023-02-20 21:43 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.zdnet.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.zdnet.com)
| POiNTx wrote:
| Not too familiar with this but does this mean that eventually
| Asahi Linux will be obsolete? Is Asahi a forked Linux kernel and
| the work will eventually be merged right into the main Linux
| Kernel?
| ccouzens wrote:
| Yes, check out the second entry in the FAQ
|
| https://asahilinux.org/about/
|
| Their work goes beyond the kernel. For example Mesa (the user
| space part of the Linux GPU stack), boot tooling and
| installation tooling.
|
| And of course the incredible amount of reverse engineering.
| uncletaco wrote:
| That's the end goal.
| viraptor wrote:
| And the original plan, but recently Hector is getting more
| and more annoyed with the process of upstreaming the patches.
| I really hope the situation improves so we don't get another
| PaX situation :( (different reasons of course, but similar
| result)
| raybb wrote:
| What is the PaX situation? I tried googling but didn't find
| it
| zozbot234 wrote:
| Note that Linux 6.2 does not include anything like a full
| upstreaming of Apple Silicon support. You'll still want to run
| the downstream Asahi kernel for a while.
| davidw wrote:
| I remember the 'bad old days' in the 90ies when all the big
| companies had their own chips. SGI Mips, DEC Alpha, HPUX on PA-
| RISC, Sun SPARC, etc...
|
| I really hope we don't go back to that. Especially with a company
| that defaults to 'proprietary' for so many things like Apple.
| treve wrote:
| Is anyone else besides Apple doing this?
| quux wrote:
| I could be wrong but I think a lot of the M1 support being
| added to linux is around what used to be called the "chipset"
| of the system and not the CPU itself, which is running a
| typical ARM64 ISA.
|
| Getting the device tree set up, initializing graphics and all
| the peripherals, and the boot process is where Ashai Linux has
| done the vast majority of their work.
| urbandw311er wrote:
| Could somebody explain in very simple terms how I might get my M1
| Mac Pro to dual boot between MacOS & Linux? Is there a guide or
| HowTo? Or am I a few months early re mainstream Linux rollout.
| maxchristman wrote:
| [dead]
| bri3d wrote:
| Run "curl https://alx.sh | sh" , ???, profit.
|
| This will download and execute the Asahi Linux installer. If
| you want to check the source ahead of time, it's on the Asahi
| Linux GitHub.
|
| While functionality improves rapidly every day, it is still
| decently rough around the edges. However, the installer is very
| streamlined and it's easy to get set up and try it out.
| dordoka wrote:
| The Asahi Linux installer sets everything up and you end up
| with dual boot. Check this post:
| https://asahilinux.org/2022/03/asahi-linux-alpha-release/
| vouaobrasil wrote:
| I used to use Linux as my primary OS for almost 20 years, but I
| switched to MacOS recently with my M1. While I wouldn't want to
| use Linux now on it, and I have to admit I now prefer MacOS a
| LOT, I am very happy for projects like these because by the time
| Apple stops supporting my M1 Macs, Linux will probably be very
| stable on them and will save them from the recycling plant.
|
| (I also resurrected a Macbook Pro 2011 and got it to run about 5
| years after Apple stopped supporting it as well.)
| worldsavior wrote:
| Can't wait for stable Linux to run on macOS. Wish I could work on
| a project like Asahi Linux, it looks a very interesting one.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Yeah... but Apple Silicon requires firmware for a lot of the
| peripherals. The upstream Linux kernel will now happily be able
| to load said firmware into the right place... but it doesn't come
| with it, so don't expect it to be as easy as rebuilding the
| kernel and dropping into a generic ARM image.
| rwl4 wrote:
| No mention of Hector Martin, who leads the project, is made in
| that whole article.
|
| Alyssa has been instrumental on the GPU front, but I'd think
| marcan deserves at least a passing mention.
| pietro72ohboy wrote:
| Exactly! Seems weird to miss out the name of the project lead.
| frozenport wrote:
| Moral: When you have a large project don't mention anybody in
| specific. You will only alienate those you didn't mention.
| mort96 wrote:
| Well, it's fine to mention the names of key players. But if
| you choose to do that, it's weird to not mention the name of
| the person who started the project and has been driving it.
| photoGrant wrote:
| Yeah, beyond. It ventures less into oversight than it does a
| slight.
| duxup wrote:
| Seems like innocent mistake is most likely.
| woleium wrote:
| I love the idea of Linux on a mac, but until the touchpad
| software is up to the same standard as the apple version I'll
| make do with osx.
|
| edit: I believe they are looking for donations.. I'll find a link
| when I have time.
| Y_Y wrote:
| https://asahilinux.org/support/
| btown wrote:
| Also don't forget to subscribe to Asahi Lina!
| https://www.youtube.com/c/AsahiLina
| smoldesu wrote:
| Linux has had Magic Trackpad support long predating it's
| support for Apple Silicon. On KDE/GNOME sessions in Wayland,
| you'll get 1:1 touchpad gestures for desktop management. Asahi
| should be using Wayland out of the box, so you'll be getting
| trackpad gestures along with the regular HID support.
|
| Edit: here's what it looks like in action -
| https://youtu.be/aBEsxTVRsEo?t=100
| bbarnett wrote:
| All of that is meaningless, if you move, and click, when
| typing.
| smoldesu wrote:
| I've not noticed any issues with palm-rejection when typing
| on Linux. If your trackpad _does_ have issues, you can
| disable it while typing (but most Windows Precision
| trackpads work fine).
|
| I'm mostly using the Magic Trackpad on my desktop though.
| It's very possible you might find a laptop with bad palm-
| rejection firmware, but I don't think that's an issue with
| these. Or Synaptics touchpads, in my experience.
| themadturk wrote:
| I've had problems with palm rejection _in MacOS_ on the
| M1 MBA; nowhere near as bad as on Dell machines running
| various flavors of Linux, but they are there.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| Heh, interestingly I also noticed more problems on my 14"
| M1 MBP than I had on my previous mid-2014 13" MBP (or
| more specifically: any problems at all, because the
| touchpad on my previous MBP was pretty much perfect).
|
| I suspect it's simply because of the bigger touchpad.
| Even if the "error rate" is the same as before, there are
| just more potential errors because of the bigger touchpad
| surface.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| It less about the gestures, but about the general "feel" of
| the touchpad: latency, accuracy, acceleration, palm detection
| etc etc etc "just works" on macOS. I never had even close to
| the same experience on Windows, let alone on Linux. Maybe
| there's a mythical "Mac-like" Linux touchpad driver out there
| that doesn't suck, but if it isn't installed by default on a
| vanilla Ubuntu setup (or any other maintream distro) then it
| might just as well not exist.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Good news! It's in vanilla Ubuntu now.
|
| The main holdup was Wayland - go get your Wintel machine
| and try booting up a Wayland session in KDE or GNOME. If
| your trackpad was manufactured with multitouch, chances are
| it will have gesture support. Any distro shipping GNOME
| 41-ish or Plasma >5.25 should have this by-default.
|
| As for the feel... I'm gonna be honest, I don't notice any
| difference from my Mac. If anything, my Magic Trackpad has
| more gesture options on my KDE machine out-of-the-box.
| Don't knock it till you've tried it!
| flohofwoe wrote:
| Erm well, I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 with Wayland and the
| touchpad is still crap :/
|
| Worst thing is that I can't enable "tap to click" because
| the palm detection just doesn't work at all.
| KRAKRISMOTT wrote:
| There are some physical constants that you can't obtain
| short of measuring the touchpad and response in a metrology
| lab. Unless Apple releases their sensor thresholds and
| constants, reverse engineering can only approximate. Even
| now Flutter on iOS with the Cupertino theme only feels
| _somewhat_ native.
| skissane wrote:
| I don't think it needs a metrology lab - how about clean
| room reverse engineering of Apple's driver(s) instead?
| andy_ppp wrote:
| I just sponsor marcan on GitHub here:
| https://github.com/sponsors/marcan but there might be better
| ways. Not sure about touchpad support.
| unpopularopp wrote:
| Strange hill to die on when full hardware accelerated graphics
| doesn't even work. Touchpad is the last problem
| flohofwoe wrote:
| A touchpad experience that doesn't get in the way is at least
| as important as good desktop rendering performance though.
| smoldesu wrote:
| You should try using MacOS with software-accelerated
| desktop rendering. Having seen both sides of the fence,
| having hardware acceleration for your desktop is a king's
| ransom relative to trackpad gestures.
| dordoka wrote:
| Have any of you actually tried Asahi? Touchpad works
| flawlessly. A rust based, open source GPU driver is working
| since December and swiftly advances daily to a fully stable
| state.
| dordoka wrote:
| https://asahilinux.org/2022/12/gpu-drivers-now-in-asahi-
| linu...
| pengaru wrote:
| > This is still an alpha driver
| viraptor wrote:
| Yes, but it works. You can use it and it does
| acceleration on par for lower OpenGL versions.
| suction wrote:
| [dead]
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(page generated 2023-02-20 23:00 UTC)