Is it possible to make dual boot with Ubuntu 20.04 in Macbook M2 chip?

MrHoffman wrote:

KziAbdlJaml wrote:

I want to install ubuntu 20.04 but using virtual machine its working but doesn't meet the high computation set, so I need a dual boot. I can't go higher versions and I have MacBook M2, so trying to find some way install ubuntu 20.04 or lower version. Please let me know of there is any suggestion

Asahi Linux is probably the furthest along with Apple silicon support.

https://asahilinux.org/

If you need native Ubuntu support for Apple silicon, you’ll need to check with the Ubuntu folks about the status and availability of that.

You won’t be able to run an x86-64 installation of Ubuntu—or any other operating system built for x86-64—on Apple silicon without emulation; without using UTM / QEMU or such.

a brody: You typed AMD in your reply when you almost certainly meant Arm. Apple silicon is an Arm AArch64 ARMv8 architecture, and is not particularly similar to AMD64 / x86-64 / Intel 64 architecture.

Seconded. If I recall correctly Asahi Linux is the only distro that can fully boot from bare metal on Apple silicon. However, if you want to boot a different ARM distro of Linux from an external drive, you can also just install the boot components for Asahi Linux and then boot from the external drive once U-Boot or GRUB is loaded by Asahi.

KziAbdlJaml wrote:

I want to install ubuntu 20.04 but using virtual machine its working but doesn't meet the high computation set, so I need a dual boot. I can't go higher versions and I have MacBook M2, so trying to find some way install ubuntu 20.04 or lower version. Please let me know of there is any suggestion

Asahi Linux is probably the furthest along with Apple silicon support.

https://asahilinux.org/

If you need native Ubuntu support for Apple silicon, you’ll need to check with the Ubuntu folks about the status and availability of that.

You won’t be able to run an x86-64 installation of Ubuntu—or any other operating system built for x86-64—on Apple silicon without emulation; without using UTM / QEMU or such.

a brody: You typed AMD in your reply when you almost certainly meant Arm. Apple silicon is an Arm AArch64 ARMv8 architecture, and is not particularly similar to AMD64 / x86-64 / Intel 64 architecture.

Unfortunately Asahi Linux is not a real Linux distribution.....it is only a minimal "distribution" used to test the Apple Silicon drivers the Asahi team are developing. In fact, the Asahi team recently announced doing a remix of Fedora Linux for Apple Silicon Macs....not sure when this will actually be usable.

https://asahilinux.org/about/

https://asahilinux.org/2023/08/fedora-asahi-remix/

Your only options at the moment are to utilize a VM on an Apple Silicon Mac.

Or use an Intel based computer, unfortunately the Apple USB-C Intel Macs are not fully compatible with Linux especially the 2018+ models with the T2 security chip so they are not a good choice either. If you want to use an Intel Mac, then get one from 2015 or earlier since they should be Ok.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/arm/overview is helpful to see the breakdown.

Sorry, I did mean ARM.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mac

is another alternative. Parallels also has one:

https://kb.parallels.com/128445

Apple Silicon most closely resembles the AMD chipset. In fact if you use Parallels or VMware, you need to use the AMD version of Windows on Apple Silicon. Perhaps you can find an AMD release of Ubuntu to do the same?

Apple Silicon no longer offers dual booting of other OSes through Boot Camp. So unless a binary setup specifically indicates using the Apple Silicon it likely will only work under a virtualization tool.

You can always install X11 on a Mac, and it will run fairly much like a Linux platform. With all the software from sourceforge.net you'd be hard pressed to really need a genuine Linux. Remember a combination of Berkley and AT&T Unix makes up Darwin. I come from a time when Data General and Solaris and SGI Indy reigned supreme, as well as Sco Unix. Having the underpinnings of Darwin has not left me wanting.

<<. Apple Silicon most closely resembles the AMD chipset. >>

AMD processors are very, very similar to Intel x86 processors.

Apple-silicon M-series are built on the ARM instruction set.