Asahi Linux 7.2: progress on Apple Silicon
Summary
James Calligeros describes how Asahi Linux brings together power-saving features, new Apple generations and direct video output. M3 devices now support the webcam, microphones, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. M4 and M5 systems reach working NVMe and initial PCIe device detection.
Ideas
- A UEFI runtime service can relay PSCI calls without Apple's missing EL3.
- For this, m1n1 stays resident and takes over tasks of classic platform firmware.
- Emulated GXF and SPRR make Apple's SPTM observable under the m1n1 hypervisor.
- Shared interchange framebuffers avoid copies between video decoder, GPU and display controller.
- ACE3 uses SPMI but largely keeps the register structure of its predecessor.
- Desktop integration decides whether working hardware acceleration actually reaches applications.
Insights
- Open hardware support often requires creative bridges between standards and proprietary architectures.
- Fewer data copies save computing time, memory bandwidth and energy at the same time.
- Stable interfaces speed up upstreaming more than individual spectacular driver successes.
Facts
- AVD decodes H.264, H.265 and VP9 largely reliably on supported devices.
- KWin currently treats AGX and DCP as a multi-GPU system.
Recommendations
- Assess hardware support by the entire desktop chain, not just by the kernel driver.
- Prefer shared buffer formats when several hardware blocks process the same image data.
- For now, only test M4 and M5 support outside production systems.
References
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