Asahi Linux Runs into Issues with M4 Support
Due to Apple Silicon changes, the Asahi Linux project is at odds with adding support for the M4 chips.
The Asahi Linux project was created to bring Linux to Mac hardware running Apple Silicon. So far, things have been fairly smooth sailing for the project. However, with the M4 chips, things haven't exactly gone as planned.
On Mastodon, Sven Peter had this to say: “Looks like M4 support for Asahi Linux is going be rather painful. We’re still focusing on upstreaming M1/M2 support, but other people have been trying to bring up m1n1 on M4, and it looks like a few things changed.”
What's changed? According to Peter, “When configuring a macho boot object we now get dropped into an environment where Apple’s SPTM is running in GL2 and we are supposed to talk to it from EL2 with MMU already enabled to setup pagetables. This neither works for Linux nor for running XNU under our hypervisor to reverse engineer the new hardware.”
Because the project cannot run XNU under the hypervisor used to reverse engineer the hardware, the project will have to fall back to reverse engineering and kernel auditing or (as Peter brings up) hijacking “XNUs exception handlers and pagetable code and patch the tracing in there.”
This roadblock has made for a serious challenge to getting Asahi Linux working with M4 chips. There's no timetable for when/if M4 will be supported.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.