Apple News Archives

The AGX Gallium3D driver developed by the Asahi Linux crew for providing reverse-engineered OpenGL / GLES support on Apple Silicon M1/M2 hardware is now formally compliant with OpenGL ES 3.1.

An independent developer has posted an open-source Linux driver for review in order to handle the Apple Studio Display backlight control under Linux. The Apple Studio Display uses a Thunderbolt (DP) interface for display but lacks any hardware controls. Thus a USB interface is used by the monitor for controlling attributes like the display backlight brightness.

Experimental driver code available via the Asahi Linux "edge" packages allow for OpenGL 3.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 to be exposed for Apple Silicon M1/M2 SoCs under this Arch Linux based OS.

In addition to announcing the Apple Vision Pro AR headset, a 15-inch MacBook Air, and other new hardware, Apple lifted the lid on the M2 Ultra SoC. The Apple M2 Ultra is impressive from the technical specs and hopefully won't be too long before it begins working under Linux.

In addition to Linux 6.4 bringing some early work around the Apple M2 device support that isn't yet ready for end-users but begins laying the foundation for supporting the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini, another set of Apple changes have now been submitted ahead of this next kernel cycle.

Further adding to the excitement of the upcoming Linux 6.4 merge window is the mainline kernel seeing the Device Tree (DT) additions for Apple's current M2 devices including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems. The upstream kernel still has more work to go around the M1/M2 support compared to the downstream state with Asahi Linux, but at least now with this DT support will provide some basic level of upstream kernel support for the Apple M2.

A set of patches are expected to be merged for the Linux 6.4 cycle in two months enable support for the MMIO-based GMUX found on dual GPU Apple T2 Macs.

After being in development for several months, Asahi Lina with the Asahi Linux project has posted the initial Rust Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem abstractions for review as well as a preview of the experimental state of the AGX DRM driver providing the open-source kernel graphics driver support for Apple M1/M2 hardware.

The Asahi "AGX" Gallium3D driver providing open-source OpenGL driver support for Apple M1/M2 graphics hardware has seen preliminary work merged into Mesa 23.1 for supporting compute shaders/kernels.

Apple introduced the Touch Bar to their MacBook Pro laptops a half-decade ago as a dynamic touchscreen to replace the function keys on the keyboard. While some MacBook Pro models have already dropped the Touch Bar for not catching on, some community developers in the open-source Linux community continue work on enabling the functionality for the upstream Linux kernel.

For those wanting to run Linux bare metal on modern Apple Silicon M1/M2 systems, the easiest way to do so is by using the Asahi Linux distribution with its downstream kernel carrying the latest Apple driver enablement patches for the ARM hardware, the specialized installer for safely setting up the Linux distribution on the Apple, and modern package base provided by Arch Linux. For fans of Fedora Workstation, the Fedora Asahi remix has been working to provide a great Fedora Workstation experience for modern Macs.

A number of patches were merged this week to Mesa 23.1 around the Asahi "AGX" Gallium3D driver that continues progressing on open-source OpenGL support for Apple Silicon M1/M2 graphics.

Apple today announced their M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs found in new Apple MacBook Pro devices and they have also updated their Mac Mini computers with the M2 and interestingly even offering a model with the M2 Pro SoC.

The open-source developers working on developing the Rust-written Linux DRM kernel driver for Apple M1/M2 graphics as well as the Mesa AGX Gallium3D driver in user-space have now managed to successfully run a basic OpenGL ES 3.1 compute shader on the hardware with this open-source driver stack.

With the upcoming Linux 6.2 kernel cycle the Apple Silicon CPU frequency scaling driver is set to be mainlined for further improving the Apple M1/M2 SoC support on the mainline kernel.

The Asahi Linux distribution is now shipping an early, alpha quality graphics driver stack for the Apple M1/M2 SoCs. This work-in-progress driver consists of their experimental Rust-written DRM kernel driver and then the AGX Gallium3D code in Mesa that is currently targeting OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

The Apple SoC CPUFreq driver worked on by the Asahi Linux crew for CPU frequency scaling with the M1 and M2 chips under Linux looks like it could soon be reaching the mainline kernel.

The Asahi Linux crew has published their November 2022 status report highlighting recent open-source progress on supporting Apple Silicon M1/M2 devices under Linux.

While Asahi Linux has been running on the higher-end Apple M1 SoC variants and those Macs utilizing them, with the mainline Linux 6.2 kernel will finally be the upstreaming of the Apple M1 Pro/Max/Ultra support with the various device trees set to be added.

In addition to Alyssa Rosenzweig leading the work on bringing up OpenGL driver support for Apple M1/M2 SoCs with the Mesa "AGX" Gallium3D driver, developer Ella Stanforth has been working on "AGXV" as a Vulkan driver implementation for the Apple Silicon hardware on Linux. As of yesterday, she hit the milestone of being able to run the VKCube demo.

It was just yesterday that reverse-engineering, open-source driver developer Asahi Lina got the display output working and running Wayland's Weston. After a long day hacking away on this first Rust-written Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver, the GNOME desktop is even running off this Apple M1 graphics driver as well as applications like Firefox complete with YouTube.

Last week the Rust-written Apple Direct Rendering manager (DRM) Linux driver for supporting Apple M1/M2 graphics managed to rendered its first cube. Asahi Linux contributor Asahi Lina today is back at it and working on getting more of this experimental kernel driver working for the Linux desktop.

The very early stage Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver being written in the Rust programming language to support the Apple M1/M2 graphics processor achieved the milestone of being able to render a cube.

The Device Tree (DT) files needed by the Linux kernel for Apple Macs powered by the M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra SoCs have been submitted on the kernel mailing list for review and working their way towards upstream.

Since Apple introduced the M1 two years ago as their in-house Apple Silicon for laptops and desktops with a powerful AArch64 processor and custom-designed graphics processor, there has been much speculation about whether the Apple M1 (and now M2) graphics are a clean-sheet Apple design or derived from Imagination PowerVR graphics that Apple had been using with earlier SoCs. There has been some similarities brought up before with the Asahi Linux team working on enabling the Apple M1/M2 under Linux while the latest Mesa driver activity points to more common bits between PowerVR graphics hardware and the Apple AGX graphics.

When it comes to the Apple M1 and M2 support on Linux, one of the biggest obstacles to suitable daily use for end-users is the current lack of GPU acceleration. Reverse engineering has been happening for the Apple Silicon graphics processor, early experiments being carried out under macOS and Asahi's m1n1 environment, and the next step will be to start writing a Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel driver. To some surprise, the feasibility of writing this DRM kernel GPU driver in the Rust programming language is being explored.

Sven Peter who has worked a lot on various aspects of Apple Silicon enablement for Linux today posted the patches enabling Apple Bluetooth driver support for Apple Silicon M1/M2 hardware and also for some Apple x86 Macs.

Asahi Linux has issued an update with initial support for the Mac Studio powered by the M1 Ultra SoC as well as having initial (experimental) suppoirt for the new Apple M2 hardware.

While Apple just recently introduced their first M2-powered Apple Silicon devices, thanks to the dedication of Hector Martin with Asahi Linux and not too many breaking changes over the M1, Asahi Linux is looking at "soon" having a Linux release to support the new platform.

Hector Martin who has been leading the Asahi Linux effort for bringing up Linux on Apple Silicon recently received his new 2022 MacBook Pro 13-inch to begin porting Linux to Apple's new M2 SoC. While only started this week, he's already making significant progress. Fortunately, much of the existing M1-written Linux code can work for the M2 but some new drivers will need to be written before the new M2 Macs are fully usable on Linux.

MIT CSAIL today is lifting the embargo on a new hardware vulnerability affecting the Apple M1 SoCs (no word yet on exposure with the recently announced Apple M2) and dubbed the "PACMAN" attack.

In addition to announcing the M2 SoC, Apple used its WWDC keynote to also announce macOS 13 "Ventura". One of the interesting technical changes with macOS 13 is the ability to use Apple's Rosetta software for speedy execution of Linux x86_64 binaries running on ARM Linux VMs from Apple Silicon.

Apple's WWDC keynote this year was used to announce the M2 processor alongside a slew of other announcements.

While there has been progress with the Mesa code targeting Apple M1 to run basic tests like glmark2, that has traditionally been an effort running under macOS with its kernel driver. This week the Asahi Linux crew celebrated their first rendered triangle running with a fully open-source driver stack.

In addition to Linux 5.19 set to add NVMe support for the Apple M1 systems, the Apple eFuse driver also from the open-source community is geared up for landing in this next version of the Linux kernel.

While the Apple M1 Linux support is off to a great start and using Asahi Linux is offering good CPU performance and most functionality working to at least some degree, the biggest blocker remaining is getting the Apple M1 3D graphics working. The latest progress on that front is the Mesa code working to begin correctly render glmark2, a basic OpenGL / GLES benchmark.

The latest Apple M1 excitement on Linux for the mainline kernel is the NVMe driver is slated for introduction in the upcoming Linux 5.19 merge window.

A new Apple SoC CPUFreq driver has been posted by Asahi Linux's Hector Martin with the CPU frequency scaling driver, of course, being important for achieving optimal performance and power/thermal management.

Intel's Thunderbolt "Light Ridge" controller was introduced all the way back in 2010 for Apple Macs and the updated Intel Thunderbolt 2 "Falcon Ridge" controller is from 2013. Now in 2022 under Linux the Thunderbolt driver will be better matching the Apple macOS behavior when daisy chaining multiple Thunderbolt displays.

Sent out last week amid the busy Linux 5.18 merge window days were the patch series wiring up an Apple NVMe driver for use with the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max SoCs.

The Asahi Linux project for running Linux on Apple Silicon (currently the Apple M1 SoCs) is out with its first official alpha release.

Apple is at it again with further showing off the potential of their Arm-based Apple Silicon with today rolling out the M1 Ultra SoC.

The upcoming Linux 5.18 kernel cycle will bring a number of improvements for Apple keyboards -- both for the Apple Magic Keyboard and the keyboards integrated with their various MacBook computers.

As with most modern SoCs/processors, proper CPU frequency scaling / performance state management is absolutely critical for achieving good performance out of the hardware either for ensuring the CPU is hitting its capable performance states and also to reduce power consumption / heat when not needed in order to avoid thermal throttling and prolonging battery life. Fortunately, a proper CPUFreq driver for the Apple M1 is in development for Linux and is allowing for a combination of enticing performance and good battery life for this community-driven, open-source support around the Apple Silicon.

The Asahi Linux project has published their October and November status update to provide an overview of where the Apple Silicon / Apple M1 open-source support is now at as we approach the end of 2021.

The enablement work for supporting Apple's M1 SoC under Linux continues and with the v5.17 kernel next year will be yet more additions.

Last month Apple announced the M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs while already the very latest Linux patches originally written for the Apple M1 that launched last year paired with some small changes is allowing the open-source platform to boot on the M1 Pro MacBook.

Along with the Apple Silicon PCIe driver, another new driver for supporting Apple Silicon (primarily with a focus on the Apple M1 for now) with the upcoming Linux 5.16 cycle is a new pinctrl/GPIO driver.

Separate from all the ongoing Apple Silicon/M1 bring-up work for the Linux kernel, the Linux 5.16 cycle is set to support this year's Apple Magic Keyboard.

Queued this week into the Linux PCI subsystem's "next" branch is the Apple PCIe driver needed to enable PCI Express support for Apple SoCs such as the M1.