With the Linux 6.15 kernel soon to debut as stable, the Asahi Linux project issued a new blog post outlining some of the new code they managed to get upstream for this next mainline kernel version as well as some of their other efforts for enabling Linux on modern Apple Silicon hardware.
As far as new Apple Silicon material for the upstream Linux 6.15 kernel, there is the new Touch Bar / touchscreen driver code, a backlight driver for some Apple devices, and various DT updates. The Asahi Linux blog post adds:
“The past couple of months have also led to even more kernel patches finding their way upstream. Linux 6.15 sees the introduction of the Apple Display Pipe (ADP) display controller and Z2 touchscreen digitizer drivers, which together enable Touchbar support in the upstream kernel for the M1 and M2 13” MacBook Pros.
Also finding their way upstream are a number of critical patches for supporting various functional blocks in Apple’s SoCs. PCIe controller support has been merged for the T6020 SoC (M2 Pro), which lays the groundwork for supporting the USB-A ports on the M2 Pro Mac mini, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth on all M2 Pro devices. WiFi/BT additionally depends upon the System Management Controller. Work is ongoing to get the SMC driver upstreamed.
Linux 6.15 also includes some patches we require for audio, particularly around the TAS2764 and TAS2770 speaker amp chips. These patches add basic support for the Apple-specific variants found in Apple Silicon Macs.”
While not ready for Linux 6.15, the Asahi Linux developers have also been working to get microphone support working well on modern Apple systems:
“Last update, we released microphone support for most laptops. We have since added support for the M1 and M2 13” MacBook Pros. Unfortunately, wider release of the microphone stack revealed a number of issues. We discovered that the Always-On Processor (AOP) on M2 Pro/Max devices differs slightly from the rest of the Apple Silicon family, meaning that microphones currently do not work on laptops with those SoCs. Work is underway to sort this out, so hang tight!
As discussed last time, Triforce is my naive attempt at implementing a beamformer with minor prior knowledge. In my haste to get something working out the door in a reasonable timeframe, I made some questionable, temporary engineering decisions. Surely I would have time to undo these soon, right?
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. Life got in the way, and I found myself with no time to rectify the issues. Ah well, performance is pretty bad, but it works well enough…”
The current Asahi Linux level of support for different devices and SoCs can be found via the project documentation. While more of the Apple M1 and M2 support is getting squared away and being upstreamed, the Apple M3 and M4 support remains a big undertaking that is looking like it will still be quite a while before it’s nicely supported under Linux.
More details on the latest Linux kernel efforts for Apple Silicon hardware via the AsahiLinux.org blog.
