Asahi Linux takes on Apple M3, minus a few creature comforts
Most hardware works, although graphics, sleep, and external displays need more attention
The Asahi Linux community has announced support for Apple's M3 silicon, though there are some significant caveats. The project officially supports Macs equipped with an M3 series System on a Chip (SoC). However, users should be prepared for a few limitations. Performant or power-efficient 3D acceleration from the GPU is not yet supported, and the HDMI port on equipped MacBooks is currently disabled due to the lack of DCP (Display Color Primaries) support.
Sleep functionality is also not working, but the project noted that this issue will be resolved once full DCP support is implemented for M3.
Despite these limitations, the Asahi Linux team managed to reverse engineer a vast majority of the features supported by the M1 and M2 series machines, including the webcam, internal microphones, USB connectivity, hardware-accelerated video decoding (including support for AV1), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Nevertheless, the absence of GPU support makes any setup other than a 2D desktop a challenging experience.
The team is actively working on resolving these issues, with the M3 support being merged into the installer but currently gated behind Expert mode, requiring users to run the installer with EXPERT=1 enabled. The project aims to eliminate this requirement before the Fedora Linux 45 beta release, barring any major regressions or showstoppers.
Apple introduced the M3 SoC in 2023, and Asahi's support covers the M3 Pro and M3 Max. However, the M3 Ultra, found in the Mac Studio, is not yet on the supported list. The team hopes that the progress made in supporting the M3, including its GPU, will be beneficial when tackling Apple's subsequent chip generations. Apple recently announced their upcoming M6 chip.
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