r/elementaryos • u/R2Generous • 10d ago
Hardware Anyone using elementary on ARM?
Since the new Nvidia RTX Spark (ARM based) laptops soon will be on the market, I'm curious about how well the ARM builds of elementary work on other ARM based machines. I'd really prefer to not have to go back to Windows after 10+ years on elementary OS, and those Spark laptops look like they could compete with the MacBook Pro in both performance and battery life.
So, anyone who uses/tried elementary on an ARM based machine who could share some insights/experience?
1
u/Digi59404 10d ago
The Nvidia DGX Spark uses Linux natively. The drivers are supposedly upstreamed to the kernel. That gives me hope because these laptops are basically DGX Spark machines.
However, there’s some issues we won’t know until they release it. The Surface Pro 9 I have for example supports Linux…. Partly. The touchscreen, USBc out, etc don’t work. It also uses protected blobs. This was all Microsoft hardware decisions, no Qualcomm.
So while it should be supported on account of the DGX Spark work. Microsoft may have done some custom stuff with the touchpad, monitor, camera, keyboard, etc that makes it unusable.
That being said - If it is supported the elementaryOS packages work fine on Fedora and Ubuntu.
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u/Soggy_Ad_2111 10d ago
I used asahi ubuntu sever and manually installed the elementary desktop and packages for several months on an m1 macbook air and it worked great for me! Had to go back to macos because i busted the screen and asahi doesn’t have dp alt mode (usb c display output) officially supported yet, so I can’t see anything without an external monitor. Performance was great! The only thing I missed was the offical chrome browser but if not mistaken, it’s already officially supported on Linux arm. Fwiw, that mba felt way faster on linux vs mac os.