Few years back (2020) this happened:
They’ve since then fixed this but at this point they’ve shown that when you are running iOS/MacOS your preferrence isnt really respected and they would still put themselves above you.
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I wish I had known about all this earlier; I want out badly. I don’t even use any of Mac’s apps—19 out of 21 that I use often are open source, while the remaining two, Spotify and Obsidian, are closed source.
I could switch to Linux with minimal issues, but I feel stuck. I need a Linux machine or wish Asahi Linux starts working with external display for my Mac.
If you really want out badly, is there any prospect of selling your Macbook and buying something like a refurbished business-class PC laptop secondhand to replace it and using Linux on that? I don’t use Apple stuff myself but I have the impression it does hold its value pretty well, and a business dealing in secondhand Apple stuff will probably not find it a huge job to replace the screen before reselling.
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Thank you for replying.
On paper, that sounds great, but for me, it’s too much work. I already thought of this before posting my last comment and dismissed it. However, I still hope that Asahi might work well enough for me on my Mac."
I recommend Asahi all day, it’s my main machine. But a broken screen of course, that could very well be an issue. DisplayLink is the only thing that comes to mind which could be a work-around. Just not sure if that works well enough to be able for you to go through system setup.
I’m familiar with installing software on Asahi, having done so previously. My method involves connecting a wireless mouse, navigating the installation using my Mac’s closed screen, and utilizing an external display.
Whenever keyboard input is required, I position the cursor over the relevant button or field, lift up my Mac’s screen, enter the necessary information, and then repeat this process until Asahi Linux is successfully installed.
However, upon completion of the installation, the system fails to display on my external screen, which is unsupported by Asahi for my MacBook Pro M1 13-inch 2020 model. Could you kindly provide instructions on implementing the DisplayLink work-around?
You are allowed to connect keyboards.
However, upon completion of the installation, the system fails to display on my external screen, which is unsupported by Asahi for my MacBook Pro M1 13-inch 2020 model. Could you kindly provide instructions on implementing the DisplayLink work-around?
Yes, I’m not talking about the initial installation steps on macOS. I was saying that after booting into Asahi, then going through installation and setting everything up so that DisplayLink works, that would be the tricky part, as you don’t have any screen output. Generally DisplayLink is just a product from Synaptics that lets you connect special adapters to your computer and then you can get display output through USB, without needing special hardware support. Just need to install a proprietary driver, and you’re good to go. That’s why these adapters work even without HDMI support. But for you it would be probably almost impossible to install the driver etc.
Edit: If your laptop has an HDMI port (as in built-in HDMI, not just via adapter) then it might work Asahi Linux: "With the latest kernel update for Fedora Asahi, w…" - Treehouse Mastodon
Thanks for the info 
Happy to move this to its own question if it becomes an involved answer or seems too off topic.
Comcast/Xfinity is the only reliable ISP in my area, and so I decided to move to an offbrand modem as a potential minimal connection enabled along with Firewalla. I’m not sure if this actually does anything other than enable me not to use their router since there’s no modem only option. My hopes were that using an off branded modem would at least slow the capabilities that they would have with their own modems.
I just did a basic up with the modem, and then everything else lives behind my FireWalla as the router where I do all my managing. All of the management and configs exist locally with a small amount of traffic that routes directly between me and FireWalla servers to provide dynamic DNS that keeps a consistent domain name for my external home services when xFinity changes the IP address. I then just route all my traffic through Proton VPN when communicating outside and anything anon obviously routes me to Tor which likely blends in better for Proton’s traffic patterns.
Is there any configuration I need to consider for this modem since it’s mostly just a medium to connect to the XFinity and I otherwise keep everything well blocked behind Firewalla/VPN?
Never heard of Firewalla, I just use OpenWRT and a cheap as shit Xiaomi router, but if what you’re saying is correct and it just tunnels everything and isn’t misconfigured real bad, you should be golden. Regardless of whatever modem you use actually. Moving PPPoE to the router or switching to bridge mode just improves latency / bandwidth / reliability / overall sanity of the setup since you reduce the useless hops the traffic goes through, as in my experience ISP modems are pretty shit.
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My hope is to be understand the correct Privacy configuration/settings for the ISP modem on DSL.
Here is what I think I’ve learned so far:
Modem: Configure it to be a simple passthrough (my modem only offers “Transparent Bridging” which I am assuming provides close to the same as PPPoE passthrough).
Router: This requires the Router to be configured with the PPPoE authentication username and password.
Question: Does the fact that the router now logs into the ISP/DSL account now expose the router to privacy issues, since it is now tied to the ISP user account where before it was “one step removed”?
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Yeah Firewalla doesn’t tunnel by default but it is very easy to set up and more importantly maintain. The hardware is small SoC hardware with semi-managed (in that you are provided sensible defaults and dead simple knobs to adjust settings) open stack. Its not great if you are wanting to teach yourself stuff or get into a very detailed opinionated setup. Their target consumer is knowledgable enough prosumers that don’t have time or interest.
I’ve really enjoyed the control it has moved back to my court with less time sinks and sweating the security setup.
Thanks for the vote of confidence I’ll avoid hijacking this thread much more and just ask anyone who has any suggestions on modem configs or concerns let me know or I’ll just leave it be and give my router all the power.
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Is there any benefit to add a new router with openwrt after ISP’s modem/router? It’s a cable router with no option to replace it and it’s locked so no bridge mode or DNS change is possible.
I guess double NAT is inevitable.
That sounds pretty terrible. Anyway, it’d still mask your devices’ MACs, route internal traffic, firewall off the modem from the rest of your devices, and let you use custom DNS or set up tunneling everything. Bridging, PPPoE passthrough or full replacement all just improve performance, bandwidth, latency, security. Ultimately the traffic that’s just passing through the modem is always visible on the other end of the cable.
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As annoying as Double NAT is, if it is your only option it still is the best way to go to secure your network.
Worst case scenario, you can connect game consoles to the ISP router and everything else to your own router. Those devices usually handle the double NAT situation the worst, and probably don’t need access to the devices on your trusted internal network in the first place. Everything else you can kind of resolve with double port forwarding.
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I feel like the original question on this thread was never really answered.
If you have your own separate router that (is the only thing which) connects to the modem, then the answer to this question…
…is no. The edge of your network is controlled by your router/firewall that all of your devices connect to. The modem is the edge of the ISP’s network, and their responsibility. If applicable, simply typing in PPPoE credentials or otherwise configuring your router with ISP-provided config info is fine, but installing ISP-provided software/firmware would be dangerous.
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To add to this for people like myself and @bitsondatadev where Comcast/Xfinity is the only game in town, Xfinity charges an extra $30/month if you want unlimited data and use your own modem. This makes it much tougher to try and stick with your own equipment and have an affordable internet bill.
It seems things have gone a complete 180 from when you could get a discount for using your own equipment.
Its unclear to me how much a privacy concern an Xfinity modem/router combo in bridge mode is but, obviously not ideal.
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Yup, they charge me $20/mo so my impression is they are proffiting on something when you use their modem. A less skeptical take could be that it offsets some maintenance costs if they have to troubleshoot different modems and routers. I think the former us more likely so to me I consider it a “privacy tax” and in some strange way makes me feel validated for doing it despite the absurdity.
I really hope there’s political shifts that open up the internet globally that isn’t so dependent on centralized infra.
I’m definitely excited to get local meshes going here in my town as an emergency system. If local meshes become the norm then there can be tactics people build to start connecting them across townships and cities.
Plenty of big cities do this which is possible due to the proximity of tall buildings. Just need to get local governments involves in community building of mesh networks in suburbs and rural areas https://www.nycmesh.net/
for those in the USA you should double check on National Broadband Map because some places do have non/under advertised municipal offerings
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