The timing couldn’t be more ironic. Just as I finally install and start running Asahi, not only did the cofounder leave the project, but a couple weeks later the GPU dev also left. Oh and they’re both based in 東京.
It may be the project loses a bit of steam and allure and is never able to fully recover. On the other hand, Apple products are “popular.” They don’t necessarily make an ideal hardware ecosystem. Is it took much to just have them release hardware specs for others to build on? People would still be buying your hardware.
So the future of the asahi linux project is unclear, and looks somewhat weakened and tarnished in the short term. I’ve chosen not to get my hopes up about the long term viability of the project. It is what it is. To some degree then it might be kinda stupid to sell off a perfectly OK 15” ×64 Dell that’s more or less running Fedora fine.
Again, getting back to the M1 running Asahi, there are definite limitations as will always be the case when running something a bit hacky. But then it’s not like Linux on x64 is perfect.
There are a few hardware issues that I’ll restate:
1. No video output — nothing I can do about this one. So it’s either accept and wait for a solution, buy an m2 with HDMI output, or don’t use Asahi. I’ve decided that I don’t need video output, which is a bit ironic because I just sold a Lenovo X Carbon because video output was broken. But TBH, maybe it’s because I use a macbook for work all day, I find the feel of the macbook a bit better. Also that was about a 2 year older computer. There are some good hardware features of the Ms that outshine x64. Battery life, cool n quiet, and they generally seem pretty fast. In my experience Fedora always feels quite zippy on a fresh install, but then starts to feel a bit laggish after 6-12 months. :shrug:
2. No internal mic — this is mainly nice for calls. Headphones work fine, so there is a workaround. They’ve also just released mic support for some Ms. So I’m a bit more optimistic that mic support might happen.
3. GPU video acceleration — ironically, as someone that probably would like to do some video editing ultimately, I’m not “feeling” this one at the moment. I don’t expect this to see a breakthrough. For my regular use so far, it has been fine, but I should do some video edit tests to see how that feels.
4. Touch ID — I missed this feature last time I was using linux on mac. For some reason, this time around, I don’t see it as a bit loss. I guess it’s because without biometric support in linux for a password manager, it only helps so much to be be able to authenticate the actual device. I don’t expect this to be supported.
5. Suspend power management drains the battery — this has always been an issue for linux. But as someone who’s not on the go much these days, it’s closer to the nice to have then deal breaker. I think they’ll find ways to make modest inroads, but probably tough to get that breakthrough battery life. For me, just having the battery able to last as long as it can while using it is already awesome. Not sure if I can get that on any x64 linux laptop.
If I have to guess, I think we see mic support this year. External monitor is unlikely, but we can hope. GPU might happen eventually depending how far along they were, and how much demand there is for someone else to step in and help. And Touch ID ain’t holding my breath (don’t think it’s even been cracked for linux on mac).
So worse case scenario,
——
Running ARM instead of x64 also creates some issues with software that maybe isn’t all well supported. This will usually be cross platform products. Currently I’ve run into issues with:
1. Signal
2. Ente
3. Trezor
4. Exodus
I think all Electron based(?). I’ve heard there might be a Chromium/Electron bug that is impacting Linux ARM until it’s fixed upstream.
Oddly, each has a slightly different solution.
Signal – I was able to compile an RPM following this guide: https://github.com/BarbossHack/Signal-Desktop-Fedora
Interestingly, I just came across this: https://github.com/kenballus/asahi-signal-desktop?tab=readme-ov-file
Ente actually has an ARM binary. It’s running a tad glitchy ATM. Does some kind of UI “reload”.
Trezor, I think also has an ARM binary. I than randomly found someone mentioning an argument to add to address the Chromium bug, and that helped:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/useidel-signal-desktop/26257/11
I also had to make a couple other simple tweaks.
sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/libz.so.1 /usr/lib64/libz.so
sudo dnf install fuse
./trezor_suite.appimage —js-flags=”—no-decommit-pooled-pages”
After I read there’s also a fedora package:
sudo dnf install trezor-common
Exodus
No ARM solution for this one so far. I’m using the FEX, which seems to be some kind of x64 emulator for ARM64.
sudo dnf install fex-exu
And then have to run Exodus
muvm /full/path/to/executable
It does launch, but it’s slow and seems to usually end with a black screen after moving around the wallet a couple times. But I think in a pinch you might be able to get to work well enough to complete a task.
——
I updated to Fedora 42 beta, thinking it might give mic support (it didn’t for me).
I’m experiencing an issue external (USB) hard drives. They attach and work fine. However, when the laptop suspends, they are not there when awake.
I’m not sure if this is a known Asaha issue, something related to the 42 beta or just specific to my devices.