[HN Gopher] Linux 6.2 and Apple Silicon clarification
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       Linux 6.2 and Apple Silicon clarification
        
       Author : jasoneckert
       Score  : 120 points
       Date   : 2023-02-26 17:16 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | quasisphere wrote:
       | Just to make sure that people understand the clarification
       | correctly: This is about upstreaming the work by Asahi Linux
       | team. In particular, Linux on Apple Silicon macs is quite usable
       | already if you use their own Arch-based distribution which
       | includes yet-to-be-upstreamed patches. I run it on my M1 Air and
       | the only major (to me) things with no support yet are the builtin
       | speakers (afaik support is coming soon) and the webcam.
        
         | jjtheblunt wrote:
         | on my m2 power levels and sleep don't work right : if i close
         | the lid, it heats up and smells like model airplane glue, and
         | that's super annoying. if i leave the lid open, or just power
         | down, it's fine.
        
           | Gigachad wrote:
           | They don't have support for putting the cpu to sleep yet. A
           | recent update switches it to its lowest frequency when the
           | lid is closed but it's still not off like with macOS. It
           | sounds like they are pretty close to having it sorted though.
        
         | jasoneckert wrote:
         | Ditto here - I run Asahi on my Mac Studio, and all features I
         | require work perfectly (HDMI, GPU driver, Bluetooth, sound, 10G
         | networking, WiFi, etc.):
         | http://triosdevelopers.com/jason.eckert/stuff/AsahiSwayM1Ult...
        
         | nilsbunger wrote:
         | Funny that they didn't mention it! Seems like an obvious thing
         | for them to plug their own distribution.
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | They tend to be very cautious about advertising it as usable
           | vs in testing itself. E.g. GPU acceleration is an opt in to
           | the edge packages of Asahi, which they consider at alpha
           | stage itself. Even with that approach there is still a
           | surprising number of users that join IRC confused it's not
           | further along, largely because there is a huge variance in
           | what one considers usable.
        
         | mikae1 wrote:
         | Regarding the speakers:
         | https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109917995005981968
        
       | Gys wrote:
       | Does support for the M1 automatically mean support for the M2 as
       | well?
        
         | dagmx wrote:
         | It depends what you're talking about specifically. There are
         | differences in how input devices are handled etc... and there
         | may be other component differences.
         | 
         | So in that sense it's the same as Linux on any other arch.
         | It'll support the arch but support for other pieces may vary.
        
         | captn3m0 wrote:
         | Asahi supports M2, but I don't think there's a clear patch
         | parity in both for what's been merged upstream.
        
         | Gigachad wrote:
         | It does look like they had to do extra work for the M2 so it
         | wasn't just a for free feature.
        
       | skrrtww wrote:
       | Interested to see how the page size issues are worked out. Coming
       | down on one side or the other seems detrimental. I've watched
       | some of marcan/lina's work on GPU stuff, but I haven't heard
       | their vision for resolving those issues yet.
        
       | cf100clunk wrote:
       | From the tweet: ''There is an ongoing news cycle about Linux 6.2
       | being the first kernel to support the M1, started by @ZDNET. This
       | article is misleading and borderline false. You will not be able
       | to run Ubuntu nor any other standard distro with 6.2 on any M1
       | Mac. Please don't get your hopes up.''
       | 
       | The ZDNet article at the core of the controversy:
       | 
       | https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-6-2-the-first-mainstream...
       | 
       | SVN getting overenthusiastic, it would seem.
        
       | jiripospisil wrote:
       | Could anybody provide more context about the issue regarding the
       | page size?
        
         | jasoneckert wrote:
         | Check out the IOMMU section here:
         | https://asahilinux.org/2021/10/progress-report-september-202...
        
       | jeroenhd wrote:
       | I can see why people will end up disappointed by the way this is
       | being reported. Support for a machine in a kernel means the thing
       | boots without crashing if you pick the right configuration. You
       | can probably get to a bash shell in Debian with the upstream
       | kernel if you get the build script. For non-x64 devices, building
       | a kernel that works and boots can be a disappointingly tricky
       | experience.
       | 
       | ZDNet should know that a vast amount of people think "Ubuntu" or
       | maybe "Debian" when they hear Linux being mentioned, because
       | there are no common desktop operating systems where the kernel
       | and the thing you're actually using are entirely separate things
       | managed bg separate entities. You can't add macOS to the Windows
       | kernel or use the Windows 7 desktop on a Windows 11 kernel (as
       | much as I'd wish that to be possible), it's just not a concept
       | most people, even Linux users, can easily wrap their head around.
       | 
       | This is still great news for people who buy M2 machines for use
       | as a server, because you don't need Bluetooth/WiFi/keyboard/touch
       | pad support for that. I doubt many people will use their
       | expensive Macbook as a NAS that way, though.
        
         | brundolf wrote:
         | > I doubt many people will use their expensive Macbook as a NAS
         | that way, though
         | 
         | Maybe a Mac Mini though. Could be an interesting server option
         | in the long run, the AS ones are a pretty decent bang for the
         | buck
        
           | jeroenhd wrote:
           | That's true. You'd probably still need at least ethernet
           | and/or thunderbolt acceleration for that use case. And to be
           | honest, not using the GPU/ML hardware would be a waste of
           | expensive hardware in my opinion.
           | 
           | I'd go for a high end NUC over a Mac mini, but if energy
           | efficiency is important for your use case then Mac Mini is
           | definitely something to consider.
        
           | Kon-Peki wrote:
           | Asking for a friend...
           | 
           | If you wanted to use a Mac mini as a NAS, what would you use
           | for the disks? Is there a decent Thunderbolt/USB disk chassis
           | that would work well, use very little electricity, and make
           | no noise? IE, be a perfect pair for a Mac mini?
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-26 23:01 UTC)