Asahi Linux 7.3 marks significant progress in bringing Linux support to Apple Silicon Macs, with major driver contributions and expanded device compatibility.
Two substantial drivers advanced toward upstream inclusion this cycle. The macaudio driver, representing about 3,100 lines of code, required core ALSA subsystem changes to support Apple Silicon’s specialized audio hardware, including custom speaker and headset amplifier variants. The AVD driver moved from downstream to upstream consideration in just three months—the fastest turnaround yet for a major SoC component at approximately 13,000 lines of code. The project has also shifted toward upstream-first development where practical, with changes to TI USB-PD and SPMI drivers developed upstream initially.
M3 series support has graduated from an experimental EXPERT flag to general availability after minimal early adopter issues. DCP enablement on M3 devices brings performance and battery improvements, plus sleep functionality and usable screen space around the notch on MacBooks.
GPU reverse engineering for M3 chips has progressed substantially. Contributors Alyssa Millburn, Anna Maniscalco, and TellowKrinkle demonstrated at XDC that m1n1 can now successfully initialize the M3 GPU and render graphics. Apple’s GPU design represents significant departures from M1/M2 architectures, requiring substantial engineering effort for Mesa integration.
Thunderbolt support has arrived in limited form. The implementation required extensive work due to Apple’s custom Thunderbolt controller—a Cortex-M3 running RTKit coupled with a bespoke router. The controller breaks assumptions in the Linux kernel’s Thunderbolt subsystem, and its integration with PMGR power management added complications. Currently supported are USB3, XDomain, and Thunderbolt networking, enabling device connections and computer-to-computer communication. PCIe and DisplayPort tunneling, essential for most Thunderbolt docks, remain unsupported.
Initial Devicetrees now exist for M4 Pro, M4 Max, and M5 devices, sufficient for TTY boot with further enablement in progress. The team also announced virtualization support for M5 macOS via m1n1, managing the security complexities of Exclaves—isolated applications controlling sensitive functions like camera indicators. The implementation now spawns three VMs under m1n1 to handle SPTM, Exclaves, and macOS.
Key facts
- macaudio driver approaching upstream submission with core ALSA changes to support Apple Silicon audio hardware
- AVD driver moved from downstream to upstream in three months, the fastest SoC component turnaround yet
- M3 support now generally available with DCP enablement for improved performance, battery life, and sleep functionality
- M3 GPU reverse engineering reached GPU initialization and triangle rendering capability
- Thunderbolt support shipped with USB3 and networking functionality; PCIe and DisplayPort tunneling not yet supported
- M5 macOS virtualization now functional via m1n1 handling of Exclaves and Secure Kernel
- Project increasing upstream-first development approach for new device support