Developers have created a Linux driver for the GPU in the Apple M1 chip

The team of developers has successfully implemented a Linux driver for the Apple M4 graphics processor installed in new Mac Minis. The process of reverse-engineering the complex firmware and ABI (Application Binary Interface) took exactly one month of intense work.

To achieve the result, engineers used hardware signal tracing and a specially developed hypervisor. This allowed them to intercept the interaction between the system and the graphics core and restore the logic of the command processor. In the current version, the driver provides support for the OpenGL ES 3.0 standard, which makes it possible to run graphical applications and games.

During testing of the system's performance, developers successfully launched Minecraft and ensured correct rendering of content via WebGL. The use of a custom hypervisor was a key stage, as it allowed isolating the execution environment and analyzing data streams between macOS and the GPU without damaging the device's hardware.

This development opens the way to full-fledged Linux support on the latest Apple Silicon chips. Previously, the lack of graphics acceleration was the main obstacle to using the M4 as a desktop platform with an open kernel. Details of the technical implementation and analysis of the firmware are available in the project discussion on specialized platforms.