Merged last night for the Linux 6.19 kernel merge window were all of the USB and Thunderbolt driver changes. Standing out this cycle is Apple Silicon devices like the M1 Macs now having working USB3 support on the mainline Linux kernel.
There has been USB3 support in the downstream Asahi Linux project for a while but only now with the mainline Linux 6.19 kernel are the necessary patches in place for enabling USB3 support on these modern Apple Silicon devices… Sans the M3 and M4 Macs that are still being reverse engineered and worked on by the remaining Asahi Linux developers.
The Apple Silicon USB3 support patches had been undergoing review the past few months and made it for this next kernel version. Apple relies on Synopsys DesignWare Core USB 3.0 controller IP “DWC3” IP for their USB controller but there are a number of specific changes needed to get USB3 operational on their hardware, as outlined in the earlier article.
Sven Peter’s work on that Apple Silicon DWC3 glue layer driver, DeviceTree bindings for Apple devices, and other changes are now all part of Linux 6.19. In addition to the Apple bits, the USB pull also includes USB support for the ASpeed AST2700, Qualcomm Kaanapali and Glymour Device Tree additions, MediaTek MT8189 XHCI support, and ESWIN EIC7700 USB controller support.
