multipass https://multipass.run/docs/installing-on-macos
The default backend on macOS is hyperkit on Intel, and qemu on the M1, wrapping Apple’s Hypervisor.framework. You can use any M1 Mac, or a 2010 or newer Intel Mac with macOS 10.14 Mojave or later installed.
Asahi Linux is a project and community with the goal of porting Linux to Apple Silicon Macs, starting with the 2020 M1 Mac Mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.
Is this a Linux distribution?
Asahi Linux is an overall project to develop support for these Macs. We will eventually release a remix of Arch Linux ARM, packaged for installation by end-users, as a distribution of the same name. The majority of the work resides in hardware support, drivers, and tools, and it will be upstreamed to the relevant projects. The distribution will be a convenient package for easy installation by end-users and give them access to bleeding-edge versions of the software we develop.
We expect that support will eventually trickle up and back down to other distributions. Advanced users will always be free to use the distribution of their choice and add the necessary patches/software themselves before this happens.
Feature Support, https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support
Linux Now Officially Supports Apple Silicon
POSTED BYby TUX PENGUIN FEBRUARY 25, 2023 1 COMMENT
Linux now officially supports Apple silicon.
The latest Linux 6.2 kernel release is the first version to ship with mainline support for devices powered by some of Apple M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips.
“Mainline” is the important qualifier here as it’s been possible to run custom Linux kernel builds on Apple silicon for a while, thanks in large part to the efforts from the Asahi Linux project.
Linux Apple silicon support is very much a work in progress. Not all devices using M-series chips are supported by Linux 6.2, and there are still a clutch of core computing features that lack anything rudimentary support or, in some cases like speakers, no support at all.
Still, this is significant milestone for Linux on Apple silicon.
That Linux runs at all on Apple’s new-fangled hardware is both testament to the kernel’s adaptability, and the ingenuity and talent of Linux developers and the Asahi Linux project.
After all, Apple doesn’t directly support, document, or provide drivers to let alternative operating system run on its hardware.
With Linux 6.2 carrying support directly you won’t need to use Asahi Linux to run Linux on M1 computers. In theory, any Linux distribution shipping the Linux 6.2 kernel can boot up and run. And despite gaps in functionality, Linux 6.2 support is robust enough for essential tasks.
Plus with growing support from app makers for Linux on ARM in general, the viability of Linux on Apple silicon is only set to get better over the coming year.
Currently the only known virtual machine management software that supports this feature is UTM, https://docs.getutm.app/advanced/rosetta/Overview
In macOS 13 and later on Mac computers with Apple silicon chips, the Virtualization framework supports Rosetta in ARM Linux virtual machines (VMs). Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run apps that contain x86_64 instructions on Apple silicon. In macOS, this allows apps built for Intel-based Mac computers to run seamlessly on Apple silicon; Rosetta allows the same capability for Intel Linux apps in ARM Linux VMs.
Note
Rosetta doesn’t support the bootstrapping or installation of Intel Linux distributions on Mac computers with Apple silicon using the Virtualization framework. Intel Linux distributions can run using the Virtualization framework on Intel-based Mac computers without the need for this translation capability.