Provide qemu/desktop-app builds for Intel-based macOS (x86_64)

[achou11]

Currently builds for Arm-based macOS are available but it would be greatly appreciated to have builds for those still working with older models 😄

[vga-256]

Thank you for submitting this wishlist item. All of my machines are pre-ARM and pre-Ventura, and have absolutely no plans to ever go Silicon or beyond Monterey. Would love to have playbit running on them.

[saulpw]

Thanks for suggesting this. We're planning to build for x86_64 in the next few weeks, at least by the next release.

[andsve]

Add me to the list of people wishing for Intel support! 🙏

[ForLoveOfCats]

Hey folks, we weren't able to get the macOS x86_64 build ready in time for release 0.8 but we plan on shipping it in a follow up release within a few days!

[ForLoveOfCats]

Hey folks! Wanted to give yall another update about how this has been coming along.

We've encountered a few roadblocks which have been causing problems with shipping a macOS x86 "desktop-app" build on the timeline we hoped for.

We're encountering an incredible level of VM cpu slowdown while our window manager initializes, seemingly triggered by some action it is performing during startup, where even keypresses over ssh are delayed by up to thirty seconds at times. We're running an architecture appropriate qemu build with hvf acceleration enabled and a profile of the qemu process shows that a majority of time is being spent running the virtual cpu cores.

However from within the VM the kernel reports very low cpu utilization and if given upwards of five-to-ten minutes to churn in this ultra slow state the system eventually recovers. At which point our window manager either finishes, or has finished, initializing, and everything becomes responsive once more.

We could be overlooking some small and silly cause of this issue, but as only one person on the team has easy access to an appropriate Intel Mac with which to test, progress is slow.

We still want to get a point build of this out as soon as possible but are unsure how long it may take in actuality. On that note, if anyone here has deep experience working with qemu acceleration on macOS then we'd love to hear from you and potentially contract work in this area.

Baring that, we are going to keep pushing on it and plan to keep you all up to date on our progress!

[ForLoveOfCats]

Hey folks! We released v0.9 earlier this week which unfortunately does not have an x86 macOS "desktop-app" build.

I've personally acquired an x86 mac to start working on getting this out the door and in your hands, but I cannot promise any sort of timeline.

We've also been in contact with someone who is interested in potentially helping us track down this weird performance issue we're seeing.

So there's no solid news yet but hopefully soon! 🤞