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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

Another catch is that you cannot install Linux (at least Asahi Linux) without first booting macOS, opening up a GUI terminal there and installing Asahi via a shellscript downloaded from their website.

Also, saying that "lacking GPU support" is the only drawback, is minimizing the issue a bit. Here is the following components that don't currently work with Asahi Linux:

- DisplayPort

- Thunderbolt

- HDMI on the MacBooks

- Bluetooth

- GPU acceleration

- Video codec acceleration

- Neural Engine

- CPU deep idle

- Sleep mode

- Camera

- Touch Bar

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This is incorrect as Asahi Linux can also be installed from macOS Recovery, which is the Apple UEFI equivalent.

Can I install macOS Recovery without installing full macOS? If my memory serves my well, macOS Recovery is a part of full macOS, so to get it, you need a full install. If that's true, you still need a full macOS install in order to install Asahi Linux, in comparison to normal laptop/desktop computers which can have nothing on them, but still allow you to install Windows/Linux/macOS.

Apple computers come with macOS pre-installed, so technically you don’t have to install anything. It’s not possible, as far as I know, to purchase a Mac without macOS already installed.

I’m planning on buying an M2 Air. That leaves my mid 2012 Air running Catalina (poorly).

I don’t want to continue running the old Catalina system.

Is there a way to install Linux on that bare metal? What’s the best approach - direct install, or use something like QEMU underneath?

Typing this from a MacBook Air 2013 running ArchLinux :)

You just flash the installer of your favorite distro (don't use ventoy) to a USB and install as usual.

Do you reformat / partition the drive?

If you want! I installed latest Ubuntu mate on an old imac for a kid and completely wiped out the partitions with snow leopard stuff.

I would say read the limitations first and don’t buy it as a Linux machine yet if that’s what you need right now. Wait another year or two for Linux to be ready and comfortable.

If you need to install Asahi, you should install it as per the instructions in a dual-boot setup, then delete the macOS partition and resize afterwards.

I need the M2 for business communications and software, e.g. my accounting system. I also want to stay compatible with the other family iOS systems. I might dual boot Asahi at some point.

What I’m most interested in is converting my 2012 Air to Linux for development purposes. The hardware is good! With 4GB, it’s really too small to run recent MacOS, and it will be unsupported soon, but it should be fine for i3/Linux.

From what I've understood, Apple Silicon Macs can't function at all with "nothing on them", the same flash memory is shared between the pre-boot environment and the OS and data. There's no separate firmware flash memory.

I am not sure how the method of installation plays a role and I have not said, that lacking GPU support is the only drawback, just the biggest. The rest is work im progress or already working. But to a few of your points:

- HDMI: the MacBook Air doesn't have HDMI, seems to work on the Mini or how are they getting a monitor attached. Or they use DisplayPort, what you listed as not working.

- GPU accelleration, I mentioned that. Of course you cannot expect Video accelleration without GPU support

- Neural engine: well, most other devices don't even have one.

- CPU idle certainly will come, run times are already excellent under Linux.

- Touch Bar: except for the M2 Pro, there are no devices with a touch bar left, and I expect the touch bar to go away entirely soon.

> I am not sure how the method of installation plays a role

It does, because it means I cannot just install Linux on the machine. I have to have macOS installed and running first, then and only then can I install Linux. It makes the hardware dependent on macOS, even if I just wanna run Linux.

Other computers you can have literally nothing on it, and then get Windows or Linux running on it (or macOS even).

I didn't make that list myself, it's from the official Asahi website. And I'm not gonna argue against you if each item on the list has a big impact or not. I'm generally a fan of Asahi (and I donate to their efforts each month), I was just putting it out there to show that there are actually a bunch of "drawbacks" (more like missing features) than people in this comment thread is letting on.

Other computers you can have literally nothing on it, and then get Windows or Linux running on it

This is absolutely not the case, of course - it’s just the pre-installed environment you use to install Windows or Linux is called “BIOS” or “UEFI” instead of “macOS”.

Exactly. The incapacity to understand what it means to have one company responsible for every component of a computer is incredible.

Bluetooth works now. and GPU acceleration is "close"

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