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Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

422 points · 290 comments · ADevWithAnIdea

  1. porphyra · · focus · HN ↗
    This is super great. The biggest pain point of Asahi Linux is how it doesn't have GPU acceleration on M3 and newer, especially now that M6 is out!

    However, Asahi Linux has a strictly no-AI policy [1]. So this great work can't be upstreamed. I expect to see a bunch of AI-assisted forks that get things working smoothly on newer hardware to dominate as most people just care about getting stuff working, while only a handful of purists stick to the non-AI version running on ancient hardware.

    [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asahilinux.org&#x2F;llm-policy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asahilinux.org&#x2F;llm-policy&#x2F;

    1. ADevWithAnIdea · · focus · HN ↗
      :) I think we have a surprise in store here. Asahi don&#x27;t have a monopoly over Linux for Apple Silicon, and upstream Linux absolutely does *NOT* ban LLMs.
      1. doctorpangloss · · focus · HN ↗
        i install proprietary modules for nvidia all the time, i&#x27;m not going to care if i have to do it for something else that i own
        1. bpye · · focus · HN ↗
          Nvidia&#x27;s kernel module is open source these days, it&#x27;s the usermode stack that&#x27;s still closed.
          1. yonatan8070 · · focus · HN ↗
            Even though the kernel module is open-source (sort of, development still happens behind closed doors), it&#x27;s still an out-of-tree module, rather than being built into the kernel, which would give you as smooth an experience as with AMD or Intel, who&#x27;s GPUs literally do just work on any distro with no fuss.
            1. cromka · · focus · HN ↗
              It’s never gonna be a smooth experience with Linux on Macs, because of installation, but also firmware upgrades etc. there’s always some manual steps involved and nothing will change unless Apple itself starts supporting Linux natively
          2. userbinator · · focus · HN ↗
            Can&#x27;t wait for someone to point an LLM at that and &quot;open it up&quot; ;-)
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