OpenBSD Journal

OpenBSD/arm64 on Apple M1 systems

Contributed by rueda on from the right to bear ARMs dept.

In a message to tech@ (and arm64@), Mark Kettenis (kettenis@) wrote:

It has taken a while, but I'm pleased to announce that OpenBSD/arm64
works well enough on Apple M1 systems for some wider testing.  A major
milestone was reached with the release of the Asahi Linux installer:

  https://asahilinux.org/2022/03/asahi-linux-alpha-release/

This provides an easy way to add UEFI "firmware" to your Apple M1
machine which is required to boot OpenBSD/arm64.  The basic steps are:
[…]
The machine should now boot into the OpenBSD installer.  From this
point onwards the normal OpenBSD installation instructions apply.
This will keep your existing macOS install even if you select the
"(W)hole disk" option in the installer.

All currently available Apple M1 machines should work (except for the
recently announced Mac Studio).  Hardware support isn't complete, but
is on par with Asahi Linux.  All the basics (keyboard, touchpad, 1Gb
Ethernet, WiFi, USB, NVMe storage, X on the framebuffer console) work.
And WiFi works even in the OpenBSD installer!  There is no
suspend/resume or hibernate support yet and the lack of GPU
acceleration means that video playback probably isn't a great
experience.

At this point only snapshots will work.  But the 7.1 release is around
the corner!  Development continues at a fairly fast pace so a
sysupgrade every now and then won't hurt.  And updates to the UEFI
environment may be necessary at certain points as well.

Cheers,

Mark

Congratulations to Mark and the others involved!

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