February 18, 2026
Fairydust hits the fan
Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19
Five years in, USB‑C screens finally light up—cheers, side‑eye, and memes
TLDR: Asahi Linux’s experimental “fairydust” branch finally pushes video from Apple Silicon Macs to external monitors, though it’s still buggy and for tinkerers. Commenters split between celebration (hello 120Hz) and gloom about open software lagging Apple’s fast hardware, with side chatter about M3 support and dreams of future M4 laptops.
After five years of “When will it work?” the Asahi Linux crew finally got external displays running on Apple Silicon—kind of. Their new “fairydust” branch can push video out of a Mac’s USB‑C port to HDMI, and the crowd went wild. One commenter yelled “120Hz is awesome!” while another wondered if anyone at Apple is secretly watching in awe. The devs say it’s experimental and fiddly—one “blessed” port at a time, color quirks, plug‑in weirdness—so it’s for tinkerers, not your boss’s Zoom call. Still, it’s a big win for a community that’s been living on the “done when it’s done” meme since forever.
The emotional split is spicy. The hype squad is celebrating a legit milestone and the promise of smoother displays, while the doomers sigh that Apple’s already on M5 chips and free software will always lag. One practical futurist predicts used M1/M2 MacBooks will become the next cult dev laptops, ThinkPad‑style. Meanwhile, optimists are already dreaming of an M4 Air running Linux like a dream.
There’s another subplot: fresh faces stepped up to help support the newer M3 machines, proving the project’s momentum is real. Call it a grassroots victory lap. If you want to join the fun, the devs say bring your own kernel and courage. More at Asahi Linux.
Key Points
- •Asahi Linux introduced experimental external display output via USB‑C (DisplayPort Alt Mode) on Apple Silicon through its new fairydust branch.
- •A live demo showed an M1 MacBook Air driving slides over a USB‑C to HDMI adapter, confirming functionality.
- •Enabling display output required reverse engineering and drivers for four Apple Silicon blocks: DCP, DPXBAR, ATCPHY, and ACE.
- •Current limitations include single designated USB‑C port for DisplayPort, hot/cold plug quirks, and some color/timing issues; the branch is offered as-is for developers.
- •m1n1 already supports M3 at a basic level; M3 enablement now advances with per-machine device trees and kernel driver patches from new contributors Alyssa Milburn, Michael Reeves, and Shiz.