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Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by robbiet480 on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:57PM (#30729228)
According to the post, Bluetooth does not yet work, but this is only a alpha release.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by lambda_dn on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:00PM (#30729257)
I would switch to linux if they could get BT to work. Macbook Air M1 owner here I need airpods to work otherwise it's not a viable switch. This this is true for many users. Please focus on that guys.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by mort96 on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:10PM (#30729353)
For some people, Bluetooth will be the one important thing and everything else that doesn't work isn't so important. Other people will be able to live without bluetooth but can't live without the HDMI port. Other people again may not use external screens but absolutely require hardware acceleration. Others still may not care so much about any of that stuff, but need the camera to work for their meetings. And maybe some are absolutely dependent on external storage accessed through Thunderbolt.

There's _a lot_ of work still. It's not clear that Bluetooth should be the highest priority of what's left. And this whole undertaking is a monumental task which it's amazing that volunteers are even attempting. Saying "I want bluetooth, please focus on that guys" here seems a bit tone-deaf.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by lambda_dn on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:23PM (#30729468)
It's a Linux project aimed at being a Linux OS to compete with MacOs. As per usual with the linux community it's "if you want it roll your own". That's why the year of the Linux desktop will never come.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by alluro2 on Saturday March 19, 2022 @01:15AM (#30731294)
It's an early alpha version of such project. Clearly stated at the beginning of post.

Your comment indicates that you are expecting the community to serve your feature requests, while not even pointing out to the "beneath you" opportunity to contribute yourself. If not willing to put the effort into desktop configuration or "rolling your own" features, why are you bothering with Linux? You can be better served by Windows or MacOS. But you might find your feature requests to fall on deaf ears there.

In my experience, a Linux desktop is unparalleled in flexibility, productivity and stability, if given some time/effort to configure and adapt to your workflows - it's been years and years "of Linux desktop" already for people who care.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by howinteresting on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:34PM (#30729555)
This is ridiculous. Linux, including Bluetooth, works great on regular PCs. In fact with Pipewire, Bluetooth on Linux these days is generally in better shape than on other OSes.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by nullwarp on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:56PM (#30729725)
Seriously my Jabra's and Senny BT headphones pickup and work flawlessly with my Linux desktop.

Meanwhile my Sennhesier headphones work sometimes with my POS mac to the point where I have to tell people If i don't immediately pick up it's because I'm wasting 15 minutes trying to get my headphones to pair with my Mac.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by rowanG077 on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:30PM (#30729522)
> "if you want it roll your own"

Yes, and every other mainstream OS is: "No, this is not supported.". I don't see how Linux is seen as worse then that answer. If anything this post proves how rapidly the Linux community moves. Within a year there is working Linux on FULLY proprietary hardware. And not just a funny PoC. No, you can daily drive this thing. Let's see how long it takes for Windows to run on the M1...

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by sudosysgen on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:35PM (#30730379)
You're trying to run Linux on an M1. If you want to just have it work, grab a good x86 computer, and you'll have it mostly just work.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by nrdvana on Saturday March 19, 2022 @02:09PM (#30736119)
My "year of the Linux desktop" was 2018 when for the first time ever I was able to play a AAA video game (Deus Ex Mankind Divided) installed from Steam with nothing but normal GUI mouse clicks.

Sadly there haven't been many AAA games with Linux compatibility (that I wanted to play) since then. Valve is still pushing it though.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by mattl on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:44PM (#30729626)
The year of the Linux desktop was March 2020-March 2021 when millions were given a Chromebook against their will.

EDIT: To everyone downvoting this: nobody cares, nobody is listening to you.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by Shared404 on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:56PM (#30729723)
This makes me so upset.

I love honestly love a lot of Chromebook hardware. It's honestly exactly what I want in a laptop - long battery life, efficient, lightweight, decent enough keyboard.

But it's impossible to get without giving Google money, and without dealing with a massive warning every time you boot - if you're model even lets you install something other than Chrome OS.

I should really grab a Pinebook Pro I guess.

And that's without getting into all the privacy issues of students being forced to use Google software/hardware, or the schools spying on students through the Chromebooks.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by zozbot234 on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:09PM (#30729822)
> But it's impossible to get without giving Google money, and without dealing with a massive warning every time you boot

You can get rid of the warning by physically removing a write-protect screw and replacing the firmware. It's still a very user-hostile feature because it's not just a 'warning' either, but actively prompts you to wipe your existing installation. That sort of thing is very much what you'd expect in a toy, not a machine for serious use.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by floatboth on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:37PM (#30730011)
The screws are long gone, to unlock you prove ownership by sitting for a few minutes pressing the power button when told.

Wiping the installation is very much expected. The security model includes protecting data, of course data has to be wiped when removing security. Data on disk is encrypted with a key stored in the security chip, which destroys the key when security settings are changed.

Android does the same for fastboot unlock.

What's the big deal? If you want to flash UEFI and use a custom OS, why would you want to preserve the ChromeOS partition?

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by emptysongglass on Saturday March 19, 2022 @05:23AM (#30732365)
The PineBook Pro was never fully supported by Linux despite shipping with Linux. I had one and sold it because of this. Suspend is still broken in mainline, for example. Direct NVMe booting is buggy. Hardware accelerated video is still in a weird state. Tons of tiny little things like this plague the device with many distros shipping their own fixes that never get upstreamed.

Check out this FAQ that's scoped around a custom Arch Linux ARM but gives you an idea of the pain: https://github.com/SvenKiljan/archlinuxarm-pbp/blob/main/FAQ...

For thoughts on why Pine64 seems to be stuck in this state of never fully working hardware I can recommend Drew DeVault's blogpost: https://drewdevault.com/2022/01/18/Pine64s-weird-priorities....

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by zozbot234 on Saturday March 19, 2022 @09:30AM (#30733555)
> The PineBook Pro was never fully supported by Linux despite shipping with Linux.

The postmarketOS folks have significant experience with mainlining kernel support for hardware that's only supported in downstream/vendor kernels. Please reach out to them and make sure they know about the issues; this work should be plenty relevant to them because Pine64 is also doing mobile HW.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by opan on Saturday March 19, 2022 @12:57AM (#30731200)
>I should really grab a Pinebook Pro I guess.

Yes, however now is a bad time. They are out of stock and struggling to source parts last I checked. I think screens are the main issue.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by my123 on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:05PM (#30729789)
> But it's impossible to get without giving Google money, and without dealing with a massive warning every time you boot - if you're model even lets you install something other than Chrome OS.

That's not even the most painful part. Full data wipe when switching between security modes is outright user-hostile, and would be widely considered as unacceptable if Microsoft or Apple did that on their general-purpose computing platforms.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by yjftsjthsd-h on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:09PM (#30730228)
> Full data wipe when switching between security modes is outright user-hostile,

I don't think it's user hostile to prevent all security models from being dragged to the lowest common denominator. If they didn't do that, an attacker could just switch to a more insecure mode and go after your data.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by my123 on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:16PM (#30730278)
> being dragged to the lowest common denominator

It's rather the reverse. How macOS handles it is by asking for user credentials on a security policy downgrade, and enforcing that by the Secure Enclave.

(and if you have user creds, you _have access to user data anyway_)

On other platforms, that tying... just doesn't exist.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by zozbot234 on Saturday March 19, 2022 @09:41AM (#30733616)
On modern Android you also need user credentials for OEM unlock; the user needs to enable the developer options menu and allow unlock from there, otherwise the fastboot step won't succeed. (Notably, this preserves the effectiveness of FRP; even "wiping" the hardware and restoring the stock OS install won't allow unlock unless the existing user is verified). But a successful unlock still wipes all data, same as in previous Android versions where the user-side step was not needed.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by mattl on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:04PM (#30729777)
Yeah it’s bleak but true.

Somehow I got downvoted for it.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by tomcam on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:43PM (#30730064)
How did that happen, and where can I apply to get a Chromebook against my will?
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by Shared404 on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:48PM (#30730088)
A lot of US based students were provisioned Chromebooks by their schools.

"Against will" probably only applies to the families with people technical enough to understand what having an enterprise managed Chromebook that their child has to be on for 8 hours a day means.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by mattl on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:08PM (#30730220)
Office workers too. Lot of Chromebooks plus Citrix being used on couches out there still.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by smackeyacky on Saturday March 19, 2022 @02:09AM (#30731555)
Google sent me one when I was evaluating google cloud. I ended up using neither.

It was a very low grade HP chromebook that was shamed by the performance of a raspberry pi 3b. I have been thinking of gutting it and installing a pi inside to make a pibook.

Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by Raymonf on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:13PM (#30729378)
Come on, it's the first alpha. If you _need_ it, I'm sure they wouldn't mind you contributing a driver to check it off this page: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Tasks
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by DougMellon on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:47PM (#30729656)
Any suggestions for a good way to learn driver development?
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by rowanG077 on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:07PM (#30729807)
It's not that different from any other C development. If you know C you can basically hit the ground running. Just read the sources.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by zozbot234 on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:15PM (#30729876)
If low-level embedded coding "is not different from any other C development", that's not really a positive remark about C. No wonder that software defects are so common in C code.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by tedunangst on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:40PM (#30730044)
What are you expecting to be so different? You call the right functions with the right arguments to get it to do what you want. What language do you use that you can program by calling the wrong function with the wrong arguments?
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by floatboth on Friday March 18, 2022 @09:38PM (#30730022)
That's if working from documentation. With independent FOSS driver development, the big deal is the reverse engineering.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by tomrod on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:08PM (#30729326)
Sounds like an area for a good, motivated technologist who appreciates lambdas and DNs to contribute, if the project is open source and accepting contributions.
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by lambda_dn on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:15PM (#30729396)
Good point, I may scratch that itch
Re:Asahi Linux alpha release by tomrod on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:23PM (#30729463)
Thank you for entertaining my silly comment :) And good luck!