r/linux_on_mac

Hey everyone,

Quick question—is it actually possible to run Linux off a bootable external SSD or USB drive on an M1 Mac?

I definitely don't want to wipe macOS. Ideally, I just want to keep Linux (Asahi Linux) entirely on a separate drive and boot into it whenever I need to use it. Has anyone actually managed to get this working?

[photo from internet]

Story: I decide to turn my family's Macbook Air 2017 into a backup machine. It was running slow, so Window was put on it at the repair shop before this by another person.

I install Debian on it but it can't play YouTube videos without lag...I was a little confused, decided to get a lighter distro.

I install MX Linux, the same thing happened. I thought it was the AV1 codecs, and after deactivating them on every browser, videos were playing better, so I thought that was the fix; it was NOT.

The laptop is still like a potato; loading takes too long, and I remember some user said it should play 4k video just fine.

so I ran the Apple Diagnostic tool; error codes show:

PFM006 /PPN001

Research result: possible defective motherboard, damaged SMC module, damaged battery temperature sensor. The CPU is capped at a max of 500 MHz...!!

No freaking wonder my old ThinkPad X200 seems to be faster.

So I open the back cover to check if anything is damaged. OH MY!! There was an ant colony in there.

After cleaning up the inside, I try resetting the SMC / NVRAM / PRAM a few times, but nothing changes.

While fixing the laptop and babysitting, I close the screen to go watch the baby. Come back and see the CPU frequencies work normally! I rebooted the laptop to see if it was permanent; it wasn't.

I had TLP installed and was playing with mbpfan.config settings... but nothing worked.

On idle the CPU frequencies seem to be normal, it's only capped when it's active.

I decide to do a sensor-detect check, remove TLP, and install the power-profiles-daemon instead.

BEHOLD! IT'S WORKING!

The CPU is at full speed now; browsing the web is speedy and instant.

I still don't know what fixed it. Maybe it was the closing and opening of the screen.

HTOP should have show the frequencies and temperatures by default, it would have saved me from distro hopping.

tengo como maquina principal una mini 2018 pero con sequoia ya se siente bastante pesado.

yo la uso para desarrollo web, docker, navegacion, musica, videos, office, diseño de logos con adobe. alguna distro que pueda sacarle mas provecho?, que no tenga problemas con la suspensión, una vez le puse cachyos y despues de pasar horas en suspension ya no logra encenderse y toca hacer un apagado forzado. cualquier opinion me sirve

Just found this Sub-I've been obsessed with Mint/Cinnamon/Ubuntu and Debian and running it on old Macs for 6+ months, trying different distros.

I always come back to Mint lol

Has anyone tried the KDE Connect app? I gave it a try for a while to connect my iPhone 16, but eventually gave up. I have CachyOS on both a 2019 iMac 5K & a 2015 MacBook Air with dual booting macOS Monterey. When I connected Bluetooth headphones to either one, the audio would constantly pause when playing any video or audio. Searching online, I found several solutions to resolve this glitching, but the one that worked for me was connected to the KDE connect app. After opening the KDE Connect app, select the settings button at the bottom, then uncheck Backends for Bluetooth…no more glitching!

I spend an evening installing Debian on a Macbook Air, everything was very smooth until I play video on YT.. 100% CPU, laptop become laggy as sheeet..

I cannot comprehend why.. my old X200T never had this problem and this is an i5 from 2017..

I proceed to try MX Linux KDE on it, live test it and the video play back was very smooth. Install.

And after all the update and ricing... same sheet again!

Did some research...

It's not the hardware fault..

It's YT AV1 fault.

The solutions is to install "Not Yet AV1" extensitions on Firefox

And "YouTube H. 264 Optimizer on the Brave browser.

If you have an old MacBook with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M gpu there is a problem using newer versions of Linux. Nvidia has discontinued support for these gpu’s so you can’t get a working driver from them. The open source “Nouveau” driver was created to fill the gap. ( https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/ ) And it works. But since they can get no help from Nvidia it had to be reverse engineered. Considering that, it works amazingly well but there are still problems.

A patch was created that lets you run the original Nvidia driver on current Linux versions. This is where I found out about it: ( https://www.linux.org/threads/how-to-install-the-340-108-nvidia-driver-on-modern-kernel-6-8-6-11.56948/ )

I have used this 3 times now on both 2008 and 2009 MacBooks and it has always worked for me. Be sure the 9400M is the gpu on your machine. ( https://everymac.com/ breaks down all the specs on all the models. ) I had annoying problems with audio under both Pulse Audio and PipeWire until Mint 22.3. That version has worked for me right out of the box - with no tweaks or patches. But 22.3 uses the 6.14 kernel and won’t let you down grade to 6.8 which you need for this to work. ( Also the 6.8 kernel has Long Term Support. )

There are 2 work arounds involved;

(1) Getting Linux Mint 22.3 to use the 6.8 kernel and

(2) installing the gpu patch.

This is what you do:

_________

(1) Install Mint 22.1 & do all the updates, then, using the Update Manager, upgrade to 22.3. It will keep the 6.8 kernel and still fully upgrade. ( https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_zena.php )

(2) Next, to fix the GPU driver use this PPA:

Open the terminal and enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kda2210/nvidia340

sudo apt update

sudo apt install nvidia340

& then Reboot your computer, if you see the Nvidia splash screen you are golden. Good Luck, I hope this works for you as well as it has for me.

Putting Linux on this machine has really given it a second life, it’s crazy how well it runs given its age.

would do the research myself but im very sleepy and I am VERY new to this stuff so i thought it would be a good idea to ask people for a bit of guidance before i do that myself, but here are 4 pictures of the specifications and stuff. I already ran Linux Mint LMDE 6 (32 bit) but it was equally as laggy and long to boot as the regular apple OS. I'll check back in the morning!

I plan to use this as a learning experience before i dual boot on my main laptop and also for my parents for general work and browser needs. gaming stuff would be nice too but i dont think thats even remotely possible with this one