The Forgetful CPU (Linux on M4)

A developer successfully booted Linux on an M4 Mac mini by working around new security features and hardware changes introduced in Apple's latest chip generation. The M4 required modifications to the m1n1 bootloader to handle SPTM (Secure Page Table Monitor) security hardening and locked hardware registers that differed from previous Apple Silicon generations. The achievement involved disabling strict boot security, conditionally skipping GXF initialization, and creating a minimal device tree to load the Linux kernel with a serial console for debugging.