Linux 6.2 brings native M1 Mac support, but it’s not quite ready for public release, says Linux users that have tested it. A post from ZDNet says M1 support is available in Linux 6.2. The update comes after Asahi Linux and Alyssa Rosenzweig brought a usable version of Linux to ARM on July 31, 2022.
There have been various experimental builds to bring native M1 support to Linux. ZDNet says Linux 6.2 is expected to become Ubuntu 23.04’s default kernel and will be included in Fedora 38 before the April release of Linux 6.3.
From ZDNet:
Getting Linux to run on the M1 family wasn’t easy.
When these high-powered ARM chips first arrived, Torvalds told me in an exclusive interview that he’d like to run Linux on these next-generation Macs. But, while he’d been “waiting for an ARM laptop that can run Linux for a long time,” he worried, saying, “The main problem with the M1 for me is the GPU and other devices around it because that’s likely what would hold me off using it because it wouldn’t have any Linux support unless Apple opens up.”
Unfortunately, Linux users in the Y Combinator forums say the native M1 support is not quite ready for primetime. Despite the effort from Asahi Linux and its engineers, this version isn’t ready for day-to-day use.
“That doesn’t sound as interesting as this article suggests when stuff like USB, the touchpad, keyboard, speakers, 3.5mm audio, suspend/sleep are all still WIP downstream,” says Y Combinator iuafhiuah. “This isn’t a dig at the Asahi Linux developers. They’re making solid progress. This is just a bad article.”
