Linux kernel now officially supports Apple M1
Linux 5.13 is named ‘Opossums on Parade’
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The latestLinuxkernel release, version 5.13, has become the first official kernel to supportApple M1-powered devices.
In the works for two months, the larger-than-usual release had a relatively uneventful development cycle. For reasons that continue to remain a mystery, the codename for this release has been changed to “Opossums on Parade”.
In addition to the usual round of improvements, the highlight of the release isinitial supportforApple’s homebrewedArm-based M1 system on a chip (SoC), thanks primarily to the efforts of Hector Martin’s Asahi Linux project.
Unlike other initiativesto get Linux to boot on M1 devices, one of the main objectives of Martin’s efforts, currently centered around theM1 Mac Mini, is to upstream his work to the mainline kernel for wider reach.
More to come
Developers can now get Linux kernel 5.13 to boot on M1-based devices, though it’s still some way off from being usable for desktop users.
Besides the debut M1 support, it’s a fairly regular release. In fact, althoughTorvalds saidthat the 5.13 release is actually one of the bigger releases in the 5.x series, he added that “it’s a ‘big all over’ kind of thing, not something particular that stands out as particularly unusual".
Parsing the changelog,Phoronix reportsthat the release has security features like the Landlock LSM, and Clang CFI support. Furthermore,IntelandAMDhave added code to improve support for their hardware, and the release also has several improvements for theRISC-V architecture, which has finally started to give Arm a run for their money.
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With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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