Running Linux on Apple M1 Macs: Asahi Linux Installation, Features & Speed

Background and Milestone

In November 2020 Apple introduced its custom‑designed M1 silicon, sparking interest among Linux enthusiasts who wondered whether the new architecture could run Linux. Despite Linus Torvalds’ early skepticism about GPU and peripheral support, developer Hector Martin (aka Marcan) launched the Asahi Linux project to port Linux to Apple‑silicon Macs.

After more than a year of work, the Asahi Linux team announced on March 18 that an Alpha version of their distribution successfully boots on an M1 MacBook Air, marking the first Linux distro that supports Apple’s M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips.

Installation Requirements

Supported devices: all M1‑based Macs (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max) except Mac Studio.

Host macOS version: 12.3 or later, logged in as an administrator.

Disk space: at least 53 GB free (15 GB for the Asahi Linux desktop, plus 38 GB reserved on macOS to avoid interfering with system updates).

Internet connection: the installer downloads 700 MB – 4 GB of data depending on the selected components.

When these prerequisites are met, users can follow the on‑screen prompts to begin the Alpha installation (see the “Installation” section on https://asahilinux.org/2022/03/asahi-linux-alpha-release/).

Supported and Unsupported Features

Supported hardware includes Wi‑Fi, USB‑2 (Thunderbolt), USB‑3 (Mac Mini Type‑A), screen (frame‑buffer only, no GPU), NVMe, laptop lid and power button, built‑in display, keyboard/touchpad, backlight control, battery information, RTC, Ethernet (desktop only), and CPU frequency scaling.

Additional chip‑specific features are available on certain models: headphone jack (M1 only), HDMI output (Mac Mini), and SD‑card reader (M1 Pro/Max). Future support for USB‑3, speakers, and display controllers is planned.

Not yet supported are display ports, Bluetooth, GPU acceleration, video codec acceleration, the Neural Engine, sleep mode, camera, Touch Bar, and several other peripherals.

Some applications also have limited functionality on Asahi Linux, such as Chromium (requires manual fixes), Emacs (patch submitted but not released), and any software that depends on jemalloc or libunwind (patches pending).

Legal and Dual‑Boot Considerations

Apple permits unsigned or custom kernels to boot on M1 devices without jailbreaking, so the Asahi Linux approach is fully legal as long as no macOS code is used to build the Linux support.

The installer does not replace macOS; users retain their macOS installation and can choose the operating system at boot by holding the power button and selecting the desired entry, enabling true dual‑boot operation.

Safety and Stability

The Asahi team emphasizes that all disk‑management actions are performed via native macOS tools in the background, and no “bricking” incidents have been observed during testing. Nevertheless, as an Alpha release, the project makes no guarantees about stability.

Performance Benchmarks

Developers have reported dramatic speed improvements when running Linux on M1 hardware. In one test, the static site generator Hugo built 273 pages in 549 ms on Asahi Linux (M1) versus 6.1 s on macOS (Intel Core i9), an >11× speedup. Additional tests on the same hardware showed Hugo completing 275 pages in 210 ms on Asahi Linux, less than half the time of macOS.

Community discussion highlights both enthusiasm for the performance gains and questions about the underlying causes, such as differences in system call implementations (e.g., missing statx in macOS libc) and the need for more extensive benchmarking.

Conclusion

Asahi Linux’s Alpha release demonstrates that Linux can run natively on Apple’s M1 silicon, offering developers a viable platform for experimentation while maintaining macOS safety features like FileVault. The project aims to evolve the distro into a daily‑use operating system, inviting users to test, report bugs, and contribute to its maturation.