As I have Linux Mint running bare metal on my Mac Mini M1, I can experiment to build images using the fast processor. At the moment I am playing around with live-build, a Debian tool to create live systems. At the end of the day, after trying a couple of configuations and building some broken package, I was able to produce a live system ISO of Linux Mint arm64. The ISO boots straight into Linux Mint, just like the Linux Mint x86-64 ISO of the Linux Mint team. The installer which is created does not yet work, although I have an idea how to fix that. If this works, I can provide a Debian style Live image which boots into Linux Mint and can install the same desktop from that image by copying the live system to the disk. This is different from the usual method which is used by debian-installer. Normally, packages from the medium or network are installed.
A working NETINST ISO is available. The image is able to install Linux Mint Debian Edition in a virtual machine via the net. It has been tested in Parallels and works very fast.
Since recently also a Live Image is available, which is able to install Linux Mint arm64 from a live system or with Debian-installer from the boot menu.
A dedicated page was added to the menu on the top of the website. The Linux Mint arm64 page is the place to go to for information about Linux Mint arm64.
The first volunteer came forward yesterday to try the new installer image. The person owns a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 featuring an arm64 processor, to be precise, a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor X1P-64-100 (1). The laptop is said to be a good competitor to Apple’s MacBook Air with the M3 chip.
Unfortunately, there is no support yet for his particular machine in Debian Trixie. The tester could therefore not boot the installer image on his machine.
We will keep track of the developments. It might be possible to install Linux Mint on these machines soon, as kernel support is coming into the mainline kernel. Debian-installer should recognize similar machines now with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor since RC1 debian-installer (2).
1. https://hostbor.com/surface-laptop-7-review/
2. https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2025/05/msg00003.html)
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/faq-ubuntu-25-04-on-snapdragon-x-elite/61016/103
Support is now also coming for the X1P line of processors. Unfortunately not yet for X1P-64-100.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Adreno-X1-45-Linux-Ready
Ubuntu released a new concept ISO:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-X1E-ISO-21-August