Initial support was added to NetBSD -current for Apple M1 systems on Aug 30, 2021.

Installation

As of April 2022 it is best to use the Asahi installer.

• Follow instruction as documented here: https://asahilinux.org/2022/03/asahi-linux-alpha-release/ to get the "UEFI environment"

• Uncompress http://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/evbarm-aarch64/binary/gzimg/arm64.img.gz and write it to a USB drive. Make sure this file was built after May 7th, 2022

• Reboot with an arm64.img USB drive plugged into a USB C port.

The old installation instructions are:

Please note that installation on an Apple M1 requires macOS 11.2 or later to be installed first.

• Uncompress http://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/evbarm-aarch64/binary/gzimg/arm64.img.gz and write it to a USB drive. Make sure this file was built after Aug 30, 2021!

• Build and install sysutils/u-boot-apple-m1 from pkgsrc.

  • The bootloader for the Mac mini (M1, 2020) will be installed to /usr/pkg/share/u-boot/apple-m1/u-boot-t8103-j274.macho.
  • j274 - Mac mini (M1, 2020)
  • j293 - MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)

• Boot the M1 system into 1TR mode by holding the power button at startup. Until the "Loading startup options..." message is displayed, then select Options.

  • In the Utilities menu, select Terminal to bring up a root shell.

• Downgrade security and disable SIP. (If you get any errors while doing this, first run csrutil clear, reboot, and try again)

  • # bputil -nkcas
  • # csrutil disable

• Copy the u-boot.macho from pkgsrc to the mini over the network (curl, sftp, etc).

• Install the new bootloader:

  • # kmutil configure-boot -c u-boot-t8103-j274.macho -C -v /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/

• Reboot with an arm64.img USB drive plugged in.

Supported hardware

• Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020)
  • SMP
  • Interrupt controller
  • IOMMU
  • PCIe
    • USB (Type-A ports)
    • Ethernet
  • USB (Type-C ports)
  • Framebuffer console
    • X11 (requires startx -- -depth 30)

Back to MacOS

Commits

Add some missing barriers:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131945.html
• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131946.html

Support EL2 host mode:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131947.html
• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131948.html

Add 10-bit pixel format support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131949.html

Fix bus_dmamap_sync usage in bge(4):

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131950.html

Fix PCI resource allocation:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131951.html

Disable dwc3 when iommu support is required:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131952.html

Do not touch CNTCTL_IMASK in generic timer driver:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131953.html

Fix incorrect KASSERT in cpu_lwp_fork:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131954.html

Add IOMMU support to arm bus_dma:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131955.html

Identify M1 CPU IDs:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131956.html

Support 64-bit cpu-release-addr for spin-table:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131959.html

Add support for FIQs:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131960.html

Initial Apple M1 support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/08/30/msg131961.html

Make scheduler aware of efficiency and performance cores:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/09/01/msg131982.html

Support 8-bit ASID field in pmap:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/10/10/msg132887.html
• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2021/10/10/msg132889.html

Add mailbox and power-domain support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/03/04/msg137351.html

EFI boot from 4K devices support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/24/msg138177.html
• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/24/msg138178.html

Sync DART and PCIE with OpenBSD:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/27/msg138239.html
• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/27/msg138242.html

Power domain controller support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/27/msg138240.html

GPIO controller support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/27/msg138241.html

Mailbox and RTKit OS communications protocol support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/04/27/msg138243.html

Pointer Authentication fix:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/05/06/msg138377.html

NVME support:

• https://mail-index.netbsd.org/source-changes/2022/05/07/msg138395.html