Apple silicon M1 support

[Muzosh]

Hello,

I'm just wondering, is Universal/Native binary on the roadmap or at least in considerations?

Thanks, Muzosh

[benma]

Hi. Yes it's under consideration. I think last time we checked, our tech stack didn't allow for it yet. @x1ddos do you know if this is still the case?

[x1ddos]

@thisconnect I think #1335 closed the wrong issue.

[thisconnect]

yes sorry 😇

[x1ddos]

i've just checked https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-85279 and it appears to be closed with:

Fix version: 6.2

so, i'm afraid we'll need to switch to qt6 for macos builds, to support apple m1 that is.

[thisconnect]

QT6 still supports macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, do we need to support older macOS versions?

found on https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/macos.html

so, i'm afraid we'll need to switch to qt6 for macos builds, to support apple m1 that is.

[pdr2002]

Any news for the native support of Apple Silicon? We have 2022 by now... 😉

[benma]

@pdr2002 is there any specific issue you are having with the current BitBoxApp build?

[pdr2002]

It’s starting slow, runs „sluggish“. Besides I prefer to use native Apps on my computer. Emulation is always just a compromise and not the best experience.

[tobomobo]

@benma

Is it possible to get an update on this? My brother and I had some issues with rosetta2 and phantom battery drain on our m1 MacBooks and to remove it we had to reset our macs. We therefore are unable to install non-native software, including the bitbox wallet app. In addition to that, it's an extra attack vector because you are essentially and voluntarily opening your machine up to all old (x86) malware.

The Bitbox app is the last non-native thing we use, and therefore it is simply not worth the above-mentioned tradeoffs.

Please update asap, it shouldn't be that hard anymore.

[benma]

@tobomobo no update yet. A comment above mentions that an upgrade to Qt 6 is needed for M1 support (at least, possibly more). We build the app with Qt 5.15 so we can keep supporting macOS 10.13, which is still in use (Qt 6 drops support for this platform). Making an universal binary using Qt 5.15 is not trivial unfortunately, as QtWebEngine for M1 doesn't seem to be officially supported, see here.

[tobomobo]

@benma

Thanks for the prompt, albeit disappointing answer.

I have no insight in your usage statistics, but I can't imagine that macOS 10.13 (originally released in 2017) is more important than the future of the whole platform. Security minded people, such as a bitbox02 customer, will certainly not stay on a five-year-old OS that doesn't get updates.

If the decision were up to me, I would abandon 10.13 immediately and I would then try to build a universal or native binary asap.

(EDIT: I don't want to sound rude in any way - Thanks for the great product you made!)

[pdr2002]

I totally agree 👍🏻 please urgently provide a Apple Sillicon native version, intel is history.

[tobomobo]

I totally agree 👍🏻 please urgently provide a Apple Sillicon native version, intel is history.

I wouldn’t say intel is history, but certainly 10.13 is. The future of the platform is more important than a single old version of the OS.

Time to sunset 10.13 if it’s hindering progress in any way.

[benma]

Is it possible to enable Rosetta2 only for specific apps like the BitBoxApp?

I am afraid sunsetting 10.13 is out of the question, as it would prevent some users from accessing their funds that are stuck with 10.13 still. There are even customers that cannot use the BitBoxApp because they are stuck with 10.12.

A possible way forward is to provide a universal binary for 10.14+ (including M1) and a separate release for 10.13. It complicates the build and release process, so there is no ETA.

[pdr2002]

Well for Apple, Intel is history. Time to move on.

[pdr2002]

< Is it possible to enable Rosetta2 only for specific apps like the BitBoxApp?> No. < I am afraid sunsetting 10.13 is out of the question > Can’t they not use the old Version? Are the many Users which ran Apple Silicon Hardware less important. They cannot use the app either, if they have security in mind?🤷‍♂️

[tobomobo]

Is it possible to enable Rosetta2 only for specific apps like the BitBoxApp?

I am afraid sunsetting 10.13 is out of the question, as it would prevent some users from accessing their funds that are stuck with 10.13 still. There are even customers that cannot use the BitBoxApp because they are stuck with 10.12.

A possible way forward is to provide a universal binary for 10.14+ (including M1) and a separate release for 10.13. It complicates the build and release process, so there is no ETA.

Yes, technically it is possible to switch between Rosetta2 mode and Apple Silicon mode on a per app basis, but before that, you have to install it. Installing Rosetta is not an option for me unfortunately, due to the bugs I encountered and the inherent security risks.

Additionally, once Rosetta is installed, it can't be removed. I am certainly not the only who would rather keep it off my machine.

As for the people you mentioned. Wouldn't they still be able to use a previous release of your software? They don't seem to mind using old software... And the private keys are stored on the secure element anyway.

[benma]

There are multiple reasons why users cannot keep using an older release (e.g. there can be security updates, older releases could stop working for a variety of reasons, or they simply want to enjoy new features).

Can you elaborate on the security risks with Rosetta2 when enabling it for specific apps only?

[tobomobo]

Risking sounding like a broken record: Installing rosetta2 is opening yourself up to software that couldn't otherwise be run on your system.

This software includes useful "old" x86 programs such as the current release of your wallet and undesirable malware.

Sure, there is "new" arm64 malware. And sure there are other things to worry about, but why would I unnecessarily want to worry about more things? Especially if it causes additional problems besides security and is not absolutely needed.

Only arm64 malware is less worrisome than arm64 AND x86.

And for better or worse, me being a vocal customer, getting my wishes out puts pressure on devs to move forward and keep software including dependencies up to date benefiting everyone.

[pdr2002]

ONCE activated Rosetta 2 will always run in the background. ANY Intel only Program will be executed.

[tobomobo]

@benma

https://github.com/crystalidea/macdeployqt-universal

Is this helpful in any way?

[benma]

@tobomobo this is very helpful, thanks a lot!

[d0minikh]

Hi together,

are there any news about this? a universal version for both architectures would be great!

cheers, Dominik

[benma]

Hi @d0minikh. No news as of yet. We'd first need to upgrade from Qt 5.15 to At 6.2+.

[d0minikh]

Hi @benma, thanks for the update!

[pdr2002]

Hi @d0minikh. No news as of yet. We'd first need to upgrade from Qt 5.15 to At 6.2+.

You are telling that for nearly 2 years now, very disappointing. When do you actually DO IT? Your software is a security risk for my computer, and I'm not willing to take that chance much longer. When will you provide security for all of your users?

[Overload3910]

+1 on native Apple Silicon support.

It's time guys. Please make this a priority.

[jingx23]

Any updates on this? We already on M3 so would be time to have the App running without Rosetta mode :).

[benma]

As mentioned earlier in this issue, we are kind of blocked here because Qt does support universal builds in version 5.15, only in Qt 6, but we can't use Qt 6 as this version drops support for older Windows/macOS/Linux versions still used by BitBoxApp users last time we looked into it.

It seems that Qt backported universal builds to 5.15.9, but unfortunately without QtWebEngine, which we require:

https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qtreleasenotes.git/about/qt/5.15.9/release-note.md

The alternatives now are:

• officially drop support for the older OS versions, upgrade Qt, and release universal builds
  • we will consider it, but we want to avoid imposing this major annoyance on our users if many of them are stuck on old OSs for whatever reason
• revisit again in the future once the older OS versions are dead for good

I left out the possibility of us releasing two separate versions for macOS, as this is not really feasible for us to do.

[lclc]

Maybe a good idea to in general communicate for how long which Operating Systems releases are officially supported.

On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 at 12:00, benma @.***> wrote:

As mentioned earlier in this issue, we are kind of blocked here because Qt does support universal builds in version 5.15, only in Qt 6, but we can't use Qt 6 as this version drops support for older Windows/macOS/Linux versions still used by BitBoxApp users last time we looked into it.

It seems that Qt backported universal builds to 5.15.9, but unfortunately without QtWebEngine, which we require:

https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qtreleasenotes.git/about/qt/5.15.9/release-note.md

The alternatives now are:

• officially drop support for the older OS versions, upgrade Qt, and release universal builds
  • we will consider it, but we want to avoid imposing this major annoyance on our users if many of them are stuck on old OSs for whatever reason
• revisit again in the future once the older OS versions are dead for good

I left out the possibility of us releasing two separate versions for macOS, as this is not really feasible for us to do.

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