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Gravity Linux Alpha Release: Linux on the M4 Mac Mini with GPU and DCP Support

gravitylinux.org22 points8 comments
Screenshot of Gravity Linux Alpha Release: Linux on the M4 Mac Mini with GPU and DCP Support

Gravity Linux has released an early alpha build that boots Linux on the M4 Mac mini with working display controller (DCP) and GPU support, claiming OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 3.3 compliance. Built as a Fedora remix, the default desktop is KDE running on Wayland. The release targets developers for testing real workloads and contributions rather than daily use; installation from macOS is provided via a one-line installer (curl -fsSL https://install.gravitylinux.org | sh). The announcement is explicit that many features outside those listed have been tested and function, and that the team aims to upstream their work.

Known, explicit limitations include no upgrade path to a future beta (expect a reinstall), nonfunctional suspend, no DisplayPort/USB‑C display output (HDMI works), no Thunderbolt/USB4 support, higher-than-expected power draw, conservative speaker volume limits, and unreliable shutdown/reboot. Testing has been limited and some developer settings are enabled that won’t appear in final releases. Roadmap items include support for MacBook Neo, other M4 variants and M5/M6 devices. The authors emphasize a clean‑room reverse‑engineering process (no inspection of Apple binaries), invite bug reports and contributors via Discord, and note the maintainers’ strong focus on user experience despite not being long‑time distribution maintainers.

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