Dual booting with Linux on M4 Mac Mini

[JanetTheGreat]

Is it possible to dual boot Ubuntu on the M4 mac mini? I have tried Virtual Machines here and there for the past few days and the experience has been very slow and kind of glitchy, so I attribute that to the fact that it takes place in a virtual machine without much space available. I heard about Asahi Linux, but is it really trust worthy? Have people had experience with it on the M4 Apple Silicon here?

 

[Brickwizard]

Whichever distribution you choose, in the end you will probably have to jump through a couple of hoops to get all the hardware working, Elementary has always been popular with Mac users [the ARM version on M1-4 machines] and Ubuntu has been successfully installed, not owning an ARM machine I had no reason to test out Asahi Linux, but I do remember the founder and lead developer quit earlier this year, sorry cant say much more

 

[Alexzee]

I don't have a Mac however; I did find good info. on Asahi Linux.

After reading this article on Asahi Linux here:

About - Asahi Linux

asahilinux.org

Asahi is developed by a community of free and open source software developers.
Additionally, it's a project....meaning that the devs are still working on it here:

Asahi Linux

Porting Linux to Apple Silicon Macs. Asahi Linux has 40 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

github.com

Apple still controls the boot process from what I understand. My thinking is that you may have to jump through a hoop or two to get your Mac to play nice with the Grub bootloader.

The support page:

Feature Support Overview - Asahi Linux Documentation

None

asahilinux.org

Before you install Asahi or any other Linux distro on your Mac I'd say download the .iso image and make sure the .iso isn't corrupt. Then use a program to make the thumb drive bootable for Linux.

Sadly, Ventoy will not work with a Mac.

Ventoy support macOS

hi all, does ventoy support macOS it says this Most types of OS supported (Windows/WinPE/Linux/ChromeOS/Unix/VMware/Xen…) just wondering if it supports macOS yet or will it ever do thanks, rob

community.spiceworks.com

Trying to find a program that will create a bootable usb for you.....
I found that you'll have to use theTerminal command createinstallmedia on your Mac. Instrctions below:

• 1. Format the USB drive using Disk Utility (found in Applications > Utilities). Select the drive, click Erase, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and GUID Partition Map as the scheme, then name it something simple like MyVolume.
• 2. Open Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities or via Spotlight search).
• 3. Copy and paste the appropriate command for the macOS version you downloaded into Terminal (e.g., for macOS Sonoma):
  bash
• <span>sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume<br></span>
  Replace Sonoma and MyVolume with the actual name of your macOS version and your USB drive name, respectively.
• 4. Press Return, then enter your administrator password when prompted (characters won't appear as you type).
• 5. Confirm by typing Y and pressing Return when asked to erase the drive.
• 6. Wait for the process to complete. Terminal will show its progress and indicate when it's done.

How to Dual Boot macOS and Ubuntu On Apple Silicon Macs in 2025​

HTH

Alex

 

[JanetTheGreat]

Whichever distribution you choose, in the end you will probably have to jump through a couple of hoops to get all the hardware working, Elementary has always been popular with Mac users [the ARM version on M1-4 machines] and Ubuntu has been successfully installed, not owning an ARM machine I had no reason to test out Asahi Linux, but I do remember the founder and lead developer quit earlier this year, sorry cant say much more

Yeah what I am worried about is Asahi Linux not being supported / updated due to the fact that the lead developer quit this year.

 

[Brickwizard]

I am worried about is Asahi Linux not being supported /

@Alexzee posted a link, the rest of the developers are carrying on, like any other business unless they have found a new leader with the drive to push forward anything could happen

 

[JanetTheGreat]

@Alexzee posted a link, the rest of the developers are carrying on, like any other business unless they have found a new leader with the drive to push forward anything could happen

Here I am almost a year later, and it appears like there have been no updates or news for Asahi Linux on the M4 Mac.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

I think they have it running, but in a very incomplete state. The GUI Accelerators have not really been meddled with yet as far as I know.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

On Coogle's ai,

"
Asahi Linux support for the Apple M4 series (M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max) is in the early research and bring-up phase. Core OS functions work, but hardware-accelerated graphics, display output, and advanced features are not yet stable or fully supported. [1, 2, 3]

Current Technical Roadblocks

• SPTM Changes: Apple’s Secure Page Table Monitor (SPTM) and memory management changes in the M4 environment broke traditional hypervisor-based hardware reverse engineering tools used for earlier chips. [1, 2]
• Prioritization: The Asahi Linux developer team's primary focus remains upstreaming and polishing support for the older M1 and M2 generations, as well as advancing M3 hardware. [1, 2] "

 

[Alexzee]

Here I am almost a year later, and it appears like there have been no updates or news for Asahi Linux on the M4 Mac.

Just an idea:-

You could download and run Asahi Linux on your Mac as a Live session (from a thumb dreive) to see if the wifi and browser works.
This way even if there hasn't been any new info. you'll be able to establish if Asahi Linux will work for you.

Maybe join a discussion, follow Asahi Linux on Mastodon and get announcements and info. Or> you could ask on the IRC channel.

Asahi Linux

asahilinux.org

Community - Asahi Linux

asahilinux.org

Another idea Janet would be to see if there is a LUG {Linux Users Group} in your area.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

They're taking one at a time, and that's a good thing. Better than taking another "Big Tech" approach and patching it constantly because it was not thought out enough.

 

[Alexzee]

I think they have it running, but in a very incomplete state. The GUI Accelerators have not really been meddled with yet as far as I know.

Good to know.
There are some ways on the Linux side of things that is to manipulate the GUI at least with the configuration files. I'm not entirely sure how though.
I'd have to communicate with one of the developers and find out what strings in the config files actually do (as far as performance and functionality) to know which one to modify/change.