Is it possible to install Ubuntu on my MacBook M1 running macOS Sequoia?

As the others have mentioned, installing the ARM version of Ubuntu into a Virtual Machine is the best & least invasive option.

It is however possible to install Ubuntu & Fedora on bare metal using the Ubuntu Asahi Linux and Fedora Asahi Linux Remix distributions (the Asahi developers are only supporting the Fedora Remix at this time....I'm not even sure about how much support that actually means). Keep in mind while the Linux kernel in these two distributions have a lot of functionality, it is still a work in progress so some things are still rough around the edges, plus it does require having a large enough internal SSD for supporting both operating systems. Unless you have a 500GB SSD, you will likely find one or both partitions not having enough room to run.

Plus the Asahi Linux versions require some manual intervention during the install process....if you don't follow the instructions exactly, then you will be needing to start over from scratch....possibly performing a DFU Firmware Restore to reinstall macOS followed by restoring from a backup & trying the Asahi install once more. Keep in mind there is no Linux uninstaller option, so if you don't know what you are doing, then you may need to perform a DFU Firmware Restore to fix the drive layout of the internal SSD & pushes a clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD.....you must follow up with restoring from a backup. The DFU Firmware Restore process requires access to another Mac running macOS 15.x Sequoia (at least at this time...by Sept/Oct 2025 Sequoia will no longer work & you will need the next major version of macOS).

I highly recommend you read up on the Asahi blogs & Ubuntu/Fedora Asahi sites to fully understand the limitations and possible issues. Also keep in mind that some things are incomplete as I was unable to get the current source code used by the Asahi Linux kernel....some of it is available, but it may not match the current kernel.

I don't recommend installing Linux on bare metal on these M-series Macs if it is your main computer. I also don't recommend installing Linux on bare metal of your main compuer if you are attempting to learn Linux....you are bound to make mistakes.....exploring Linux on a secondary computer or within a VM is best. If it is a secondary Mac, then go for it if you wish & understand the risks involved. Otherwise take the advice of installing Ubuntu into a VM.

Yes. However, I strongly advise against a bare metal installation or dual boot via another APFS volume. Instead, use a Virtual Machine (e.g. VMware, Parallels) that can provide the hardware abstraction layer to support the Apple M1 chip, GPU, Bluetooth, and network chips — support that won't be in Ubuntu directly.

You may find yourself installing the ARM version of the Ubuntu server and then stall the Desktop environment afterward. I do not recommend VirtualBox 7 for the VM on an M1 Mac.

VikingOSX wrote:

You may find yourself installing the ARM version of the Ubuntu server and then stall the Desktop environment afterward.

As far as I know, Ubuntu Server is the only ARM64 version currently available.

I do not recommend VirtualBox 7 for the VM on an M1 Mac.

Personally I haven't recommended VirtualBox for a long time for VMs. And that's even considering I was a contributor on the the VB forums.

Especially now that you can use Parallels Desktop for free.

I installed VirtualBox 7+ in my M4 mini pro and downloaded and installed an ARM Ubuntu 24.04 server as a guest. Then, from within that guest, I attempted to install the ubuntu-desktop package into the server via apt install and it crashed the VM. That was enough for me… It turns out that supported Linux guests in VirtualBox are predominately Oracle-branded distros.

Parallels Desktop for free… ? How is that, and did you mean VMware instead?

VikingOSX wrote:

Parallels Desktop for free… ? How is that, and did you mean VMware instead?

Maybe. I'm old. I forget stuff. 🤣

UTM has a Ubuntu ARM64 file available. I don't know if it's only the server or not. I wasn't going to check.

I lost my fascination with Linux some time ago. The only reason I bothered with it was to customize GUIs. I also gave up on Windows and macOS guests. I kept them to help those using Windows or older versions of macOS. But then I got bored launching them. I'm basically lazy. 🤔

Yes.

You didn't ask but you would need the ARM64 version of Ubuntu.

If you want to run Ubuntu along side OSX you may want to look at VMWare Fusion.

I already have a Ubuntu 24.04 LTS guest in Parallel's Desktop Pro on my 2020 iMac. I can access it over Wi-Fi 6 using screen sharing on the M4 Mac Mini Pro.