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Haiku OS Achieves First Boot on Apple M1 Macs with Bare Metal Support

Hacker News •
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Haiku OS has successfully booted on M1 Mac hardware, marking a significant milestone for the open-source BeOS successor. Developer reports confirm the operating system reaches the desktop environment on Apple Silicon, utilizing the m1n1 bootloader alongside u-boot to handle Apple-specific boot processes. This bare-metal implementation enables Haiku to boot UEFI images directly from USB drives.

Current functionality remains limited but functional. All eight CPU cores operate, though USB support is barely functional and mouse movement suffers from noticeable lag. Early testers reported distorted color output, later resolved through color space conversion adjustments. The display initially rendered with improper color profiles before proper 32-bit RGB handling with 10-bits per channel was implemented.

Development environments present additional challenges. Nightly ARM64 builds lack essential tools like git and gcc, requiring developers to manually configure haikuports or rely on cross-compilation from x86_64 systems. Package management through pkgman encounters OpenSSL-related errors, limiting software installation capabilities. Community members have resorted to FAT32 disk image transfers between host systems and Haiku guests to share necessary development files.

Despite these limitations, the achievement demonstrates Haiku's expanding hardware compatibility beyond traditional x86 systems. The port opens possibilities for broader ARM64 adoption, though significant refinement remains necessary before the system becomes practical for daily use or serious development work.