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None. I was down-voted during the launch for saying that there won't be any meaningful support from Qualcomm and 6 months later ... there is none. Browse reddit

by betaby 2y ago

None. I was down-voted during the launch for saying that there won't be any meaningful support from Qualcomm and 6 months later ... there is none. Browse reddit thread to see how thing are (non)working on Qualcomm based laptops.

kristopolous 2y ago
really? I know there's quite a few arm64 distributions ... that's pretty strange. What about WSL2 and what about NetBSD?
- betaby 2y ago
  "Really" as a surprise or you are confronting the veracity of my statement? No, NetBSD is not working on Qualcomm based laptops. I also know quite a few arm64 distributions ... like LineageOS, which works OK-ish on my phone. This thread however is about laptops in a sense one expects from the laptop, i.e. hardware accelerated video, WiFi 5 and above, bluetooth, woking sleep/resume. I don't understand what exactly is strange here for you.
  - kristopolous 2y ago
    They must not care about Linux as much as I think. I thought it's kinda standard these days to release laptops that plausibly work with at least Ubuntu, in some limited way. I must live in a bubble.
    - betaby 2y ago
      I would say Linux support even for modern x86 laptops is not great. Take for example Zenbook S series, both AMD and Intel. While most of the things are kind of working, they are not that stable. I would say Linux support peaked somewhere on 12th generation Intel laptops.
      - kristopolous 2y ago
        For me, ACPI is the one thing that never seems to work quite right. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong
      - brucehoult 2y ago
        I don't have any problems with Ubuntu 24.04 on my i9-13900HX Lenovo Legion Pro 5i. It's never crashed, I never reboot it, sleep works fine. It spends almost all its time sitting with the lid closed, sshing in from my Mac, using 13W-15W depending on whether it's in eco/smart/performance mode, then boosting to 160W or so if I ask it to do something serious. When I do take it mobile, it runs for about 5 hours doing light stuff in eco mode, vs 6 hours when it has Windows on it. The difference isn't really a problem as it disappears if you give it some real work to do. That's not Arm Mac battery life, but it's 2 or 3 hours more than I ever actually need. I've got it set up to keep running closed on AC, sleep if the AC disappears. Works great, and it's going instantly from sleep with a keypress if I open it. Really, no complaints at all.
- Muromec 2y ago
  It's not about the arm as an instruction set (I'm writing this from the arm machine running linux). It's the drivers, bootloader, all the fdt glue. You don't just need support for arm, but for the specific board on the specific SOC. Want a different board on a soc that already works? Welcome to the world of writing this kind of things: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5.dtsi https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/boo... and compiling the kernel from some dude's branch instead of going with mainline. I have the risc thing too, that magically works on mainline kernel somehow, but is slow.
MobiusHorizons 2y ago
With UEFI lots of arm64 distros both Linux and BSD should boot, but quite possibly have very poor periferal support. pcie and graphics seem like likely candidates. If pcie isn’t working you may be able to load a ram disk, but it wouldn’t be usable as a laptop. (Given nvme storage)
- 6SixTy 2y ago
  IIRC my X13s has experimental right next to booting Linux, and I doubt any of the newer models are better. Honestly not a great sign even though Windows forced the use of UEFI.
sangnoir 2y ago
> None. I was down-voted during the launch for saying that there won't be any meaningful support from Qualcomm and 6 months later You were - and are - wrong. Qualcomm mainlined enough drivers for in the same window (past 6 months) so one can boot and install the latest Linux kernel on several Snapdragon X laptops from different OEMs. There are people running Fedora and an Ubuntu Experimental[1] builds. Its still rough, depending on ones device tree, the peripherals line microphone, webcam, and/or fan control may not work right now, but it's a platform that's actively being developed for. 1. https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800 https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdrag...
- betaby 2y ago
  > You were - and are - wrong. Let me post the quote from your link from other users then: A recent post " Beyond that, I still have the following issues (Thinkpad T14s 64GB): Internal webcam not working Internal speakers/mic not working Suspend not working (only goes into suspend if not attached to a screen; it drains around 50% of bat overnight) " Another post from 4 days ago "Is there separate bug-tracking for display related things somewhere? Currently I have the following issues: internal screen: no backlight control one 4k screen: cannot boot with it plugged in (hang after grub); but plugging it in afterwards works. Sometimes the screen shows only 640x480, but unplugging and replugging fixes it. another 4k screen: no problems booting with it or with resolutions. third screen (3440x1440): if the screen turns off (e.g. after time in idle), it never turns back on. However, swaymsg -t get_outputs reports it as connected and even as focused when I move the mouse there. Unplugging and replugging the screen does not fix this. The only way to get the screen back on is killing the session (gdm does manage to bring it back online). HDMI does not work [T14s, IPS screen, 64GB] "
  - sangnoir 2y ago
    I mentioned broken peripherals in the comments you responded to. You're moving goals. >> which distro(es) would be available? > None Me: there's Ubuntu 24.10 build specifically for Snapdragon X Elite ARM computers You: that distro is buggy Me: but it exists, because Qualcomm mainlined code to Linus' kernel tree.
wmf 2y ago
Weirdly, it had good Linux support before launch and then it somehow went away.
ekianjo 2y ago
it's wrong. I have tried a Debian distro running on a Snapdragon based machine just last month. Not everything was perfect. but it worked well enough that you could use Box64 to run some Windows games.
arp242 2y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40676553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40676553 First of all, the post wasn't downvoted, and secondly, someone pointed out that it's being worked on, as another commented pointed out here as well. I hope being corrected twice is enough to prevent repetition.
- onli 2y ago
  It might have been downvoted at first.
- betaby 2y ago
  > it's being worked on What is the state of hardware accelerated video playback 8 months later? More specifically video playback in chrome/chromium? Check this thread https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/jan-2025-state-of-linux-on-snapdragon-x-elite-systems.1505095/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/jan-2025-state-of-linu... > I hope being corrected twice is enough to prevent repetition. What exactly you are correcting? Maybe I was unclear, thus let me quote other users, data point from 2 days ago: "I'm running Debian with a 6.12-ish kernel with some Qualcomm patches. I still don't have working audio from the built-in speakers or onboard headphone jack, the kernel can't tell how much charge the battery has (and it goes through a full charge about twice as fast as Windows would), ollama has no clue how to use the built-in NPU, and my graphics are still reporting software rendering."

by betaby 2y ago

kristopolous 2y ago

really? I know there's quite a few arm64 distributions ... that's pretty strange. What about WSL2 and what about NetBSD?

betaby 2y ago
"Really" as a surprise or you are confronting the veracity of my statement? No, NetBSD is not working on Qualcomm based laptops. I also know quite a few arm64 distributions ... like LineageOS, which works OK-ish on my phone. This thread however is about laptops in a sense one expects from the laptop, i.e. hardware accelerated video, WiFi 5 and above, bluetooth, woking sleep/resume. I don't understand what exactly is strange here for you.
- kristopolous 2y ago
  They must not care about Linux as much as I think. I thought it's kinda standard these days to release laptops that plausibly work with at least Ubuntu, in some limited way. I must live in a bubble.
  - betaby 2y ago
    I would say Linux support even for modern x86 laptops is not great. Take for example Zenbook S series, both AMD and Intel. While most of the things are kind of working, they are not that stable. I would say Linux support peaked somewhere on 12th generation Intel laptops.
    - kristopolous 2y ago
      For me, ACPI is the one thing that never seems to work quite right. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong
    - brucehoult 2y ago
      I don't have any problems with Ubuntu 24.04 on my i9-13900HX Lenovo Legion Pro 5i. It's never crashed, I never reboot it, sleep works fine. It spends almost all its time sitting with the lid closed, sshing in from my Mac, using 13W-15W depending on whether it's in eco/smart/performance mode, then boosting to 160W or so if I ask it to do something serious. When I do take it mobile, it runs for about 5 hours doing light stuff in eco mode, vs 6 hours when it has Windows on it. The difference isn't really a problem as it disappears if you give it some real work to do. That's not Arm Mac battery life, but it's 2 or 3 hours more than I ever actually need. I've got it set up to keep running closed on AC, sleep if the AC disappears. Works great, and it's going instantly from sleep with a keypress if I open it. Really, no complaints at all.
Muromec 2y ago
It's not about the arm as an instruction set (I'm writing this from the arm machine running linux). It's the drivers, bootloader, all the fdt glue. You don't just need support for arm, but for the specific board on the specific SOC. Want a different board on a soc that already works? Welcome to the world of writing this kind of things: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/boot/dts/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5.dtsi https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/boo... and compiling the kernel from some dude's branch instead of going with mainline. I have the risc thing too, that magically works on mainline kernel somehow, but is slow.

MobiusHorizons 2y ago

With UEFI lots of arm64 distros both Linux and BSD should boot, but quite possibly have very poor periferal support. pcie and graphics seem like likely candidates. If pcie isn’t working you may be able to load a ram disk, but it wouldn’t be usable as a laptop. (Given nvme storage)

6SixTy 2y ago
IIRC my X13s has experimental right next to booting Linux, and I doubt any of the newer models are better. Honestly not a great sign even though Windows forced the use of UEFI.

sangnoir 2y ago

> None. I was down-voted during the launch for saying that there won't be any meaningful support from Qualcomm and 6 months later You were - and are - wrong. Qualcomm mainlined enough drivers for in the same window (past 6 months) so one can boot and install the latest Linux kernel on several Snapdragon X laptops from different OEMs. There are people running Fedora and an Ubuntu Experimental[1] builds. Its still rough, depending on ones device tree, the peripherals line microphone, webcam, and/or fan control may not work right now, but it's a platform that's actively being developed for. 1. https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800 https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdrag...

betaby 2y ago
> You were - and are - wrong. Let me post the quote from your link from other users then: A recent post " Beyond that, I still have the following issues (Thinkpad T14s 64GB): Internal webcam not working Internal speakers/mic not working Suspend not working (only goes into suspend if not attached to a screen; it drains around 50% of bat overnight) " Another post from 4 days ago "Is there separate bug-tracking for display related things somewhere? Currently I have the following issues: internal screen: no backlight control one 4k screen: cannot boot with it plugged in (hang after grub); but plugging it in afterwards works. Sometimes the screen shows only 640x480, but unplugging and replugging fixes it. another 4k screen: no problems booting with it or with resolutions. third screen (3440x1440): if the screen turns off (e.g. after time in idle), it never turns back on. However, swaymsg -t get_outputs reports it as connected and even as focused when I move the mouse there. Unplugging and replugging the screen does not fix this. The only way to get the screen back on is killing the session (gdm does manage to bring it back online). HDMI does not work [T14s, IPS screen, 64GB] "
- sangnoir 2y ago
  I mentioned broken peripherals in the comments you responded to. You're moving goals. >> which distro(es) would be available? > None Me: there's Ubuntu 24.10 build specifically for Snapdragon X Elite ARM computers You: that distro is buggy Me: but it exists, because Qualcomm mainlined code to Linus' kernel tree.

wmf 2y ago

Weirdly, it had good Linux support before launch and then it somehow went away.

ekianjo 2y ago

it's wrong. I have tried a Debian distro running on a Snapdragon based machine just last month. Not everything was perfect. but it worked well enough that you could use Box64 to run some Windows games.

arp242 2y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40676553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40676553 First of all, the post wasn't downvoted, and secondly, someone pointed out that it's being worked on, as another commented pointed out here as well. I hope being corrected twice is enough to prevent repetition.

onli 2y ago
It might have been downvoted at first.
betaby 2y ago
> it's being worked on What is the state of hardware accelerated video playback 8 months later? More specifically video playback in chrome/chromium? Check this thread https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/jan-2025-state-of-linux-on-snapdragon-x-elite-systems.1505095/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/jan-2025-state-of-linu... > I hope being corrected twice is enough to prevent repetition. What exactly you are correcting? Maybe I was unclear, thus let me quote other users, data point from 2 days ago: "I'm running Debian with a 6.12-ish kernel with some Qualcomm patches. I still don't have working audio from the built-in speakers or onboard headphone jack, the kernel can't tell how much charge the battery has (and it goes through a full charge about twice as fast as Windows would), ollama has no clue how to use the built-in NPU, and my graphics are still reporting software rendering."