this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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Only M-series SoCs can run Asahi.
Did Apple lock a bootloader or something? A link would go a long way to helping others understand what you already seem to know
Proprietary hardware and nobody reverse engineered the drivers for graphics and all the proprietary shit.
They didn't technically locked it down but they making sure that using an alternative operating system it's a miserable experience
Here go to this page https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support
Do you see the Neo on there? It’s an entirely different chip than the M-series so they don’t even have drivers for the SoC in the Neo
tyvm, appreciate the further reading
Is the bootloader locked like on iOS devices? If not, there’s probably a chance it can eventually run Asahi
No, but Asahi Linux works only for M1 and M2 as of now. They need to reverse engineer a lot and want to get it working there well enough before even attempting M3. The Apple Neo is neither of those, it is an A18 Pro. Entirely different SOC.
“Entirely different” is a bit of a stretch. It’s about as close as you can get in this world without relabeling it. It’s built on the same architecture, same manufacturing processes, its just a different number of cores with different priorities for phone efficiency.
When Apple piloted the switch to Apple silicon, it sent developers a Mac mini with an iPhone chip in it before they released the M1. This is that exact same thing, but newer.
Yes the language was a bit colourful but the point remains.
M1/M2 and A18 Pro are not the same and Asahi, which is available for M1 and M2 cannot just run on an A18 Pro: https://github.com/rusch95/asahi_neo
I thought you'd also need adaptations of your drivers for an A18 Pro compared to an M4 but maybe I was mistaken there. Certainly M1 and M2 compatibility does not suffice.
For sure, but I bet some work can be done to allow it to work on the A18 Pro down the line. Maybe.
Maybe, it would be cool for sure. I was playing for a moment to get Apple silicon for Asahi, because it is such a great power efficient hardware. But even where Asahi is supported, for M1 and M2 it is still with some limitations. I opted for a Ryzen 395+ instead and get the full choice for Linux instead.
Probably eventually, so not right now. And it’s not a certainty though, M3 and 4 aren’t even fully supported they are missing GPU acceleration. Don’t buy a Neo today on the hope of running Asahi on it someday.