The Asahi Linux Project, a distribution aimed at bringing Linux desktops to Apple Silicon-based Macs, has released its November 2022 “Progress Report”.
Asahi Linux Increases Hardware Support
Asahi Project leader Hector aka “Marukan”, his Mr. Martin, announced the rollout progress in an official blog post.
“This month’s update is packed with new hardware support, new features, fixes for long-standing vulnerabilities, and a new cutting-edge kernel with much-anticipated display and sleep controller support!” he said Martin.
The big change in Asahi Linux is the addition of support for USB 3.0 devices. The biggest challenge was writing the PHY driver needed to communicate with Apple’s silicon CPU. This requires very careful timing on the part of the Asahi developers. Asahi is currently only available for download as an alpha version.
Still no speaker support in Asahi Linux
USB support has been improved, but speaker support is still being considered. The main reason is that it can blow your laptop’s speakers.
Asahi Linux users may have to wait at least a little while for speaker support to complete. Martin said the team plans to implement safety measures features to ensure the speakers are powered with the correct voltage, similar to how macOS and Android handle speaker output. Asahi Linux Proves Linux Finds a Way for Every Machine
The progress of Asahi Linux shows that Linux seems to be expanding rapidly into new hardware. Linus Torvalds famously never imagined that his tiny kernel would exceed his 386 machines, but now almost every processor on his architecture has an available port.
The fact that Apple Silicon is built on the ARM architecture, for which a Linux port already exists, will likely help the effort. There are also many ARM-based devices on the market that come pre-installed with Linux. Asashi Linux will be a competitive alternative to macOS once it is fully completed. Linux programmers will likely be excited to port Linux to more hardware.
As VTuber and Asahi developer Asahi Lina has developed a cult following on YouTube with an odd subject for live streaming: the development of the Linux graphics stack, Asahi Linux users can observe this development in real time.