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I have no faith in Qualcomm to even make me basic gestures towards the Linux community. All I want is an easy way to install Linux on one of the numerous Snapd

I have no faith in Qualcomm to even make me basic gestures towards the Linux community. All I want is an easy way to install Linux on one of the numerous Snapdragon laptops. I think the Snapdragon Thinkpad might work, but none of the other really do. A 400$ Arm laptop with good Linux support would be great, but it's never ever going to happen.

walterbell 10mo ago
Google has previously delivered good Linux support on Arm Chromebooks and is expected to launch unified Android+ChromeOS on Qualcomm X2 Arm devices in 2026.
- ekianjo 10mo ago
  Isn't Google moving to Fuchsia?
  - walterbell 10mo ago
    On bare metal or pKVM?
  - birdboat00 10mo ago
    Fuchsia is dead sadly
    - robin_reala 10mo ago
      Citation needed? I don’t disbelieve you but I haven’t seen anything concrete.
    - gessha 10mo ago
      “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” Google folks pop up here and there and say it’s actively worked on. Unless you have more recent information, I believe the project is still alive.
    - Grazester 10mo ago
      It's very alive. It's being used for Google Nest hub devices. Through for HN that might as well it being dead, it seems.
    - ekianjo 10mo ago
      I thought it was the opposite and that it would replace Linux for Google products
  - cromka 10mo ago
    I don't think these are mutually exclusive, they're just unifying ChromeOS and Android for now.
cromka 10mo ago
Facts are Linux support has heavily accelerated from both Qualcomm and Linaro on their behalf. Anyone who watches Linux ARM mailing lists can attest that. Things have definitely changed, a lot.
- 999900000999 10mo ago
  Fantastic. Can you please let me know if there is an ISO to get any mainstream Linux distro working on this Snapdragon laptop ? ASUS - Vivobook 14 14" FHD+ Laptop - Copilot+ PC - Snapdragon X It's on sale for $350 at Best buy and if I can get Linux working on it it would definitely be an awesome gift for myself. Even if there's some progress being made, it's still nearly impossible to install a typical Linux distro on one of these. I've been watching this space since the snapdragon laptops were announced. Tuxedo giving up and canceling their Snapdragon Linux laptop doesn't instill much confidence
  - cromka 10mo ago
    There's an Ubuntu release specifically targeting new Qualcomm Elite based laptops: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800 https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-concept-snapdragon-x-e... This includes Vivobook S15, not sure about the 14.
    - 999900000999 10mo ago
      That covers the Elite, not the cheaper Snapdragon X laptops such as the ASUS Vivobook 14 (X1407QA). I've followed that thread for almost a year. It's a maze of hardware issues and poor compatibility. From your other response. >but vendors usually require a firmware binary to be signed with their keys, which are burned into the SoC. As a result you cannot use Qualcomm's vanilla firmware and need to extract the original firmware as provided by the vendor, otherwise it won't load. This makes the install process impossible without an existing Windows install. It's easier to say it doesn't work and move on. It's going to be significantly easier to buy run Linux in an X86 laptop. Not to mention no out of the box Linux Snapdragon Elite laptop exists. It's a shame because it would probably be an amazing product.

walterbell 10mo ago

Google has previously delivered good Linux support on Arm Chromebooks and is expected to launch unified Android+ChromeOS on Qualcomm X2 Arm devices in 2026.

ekianjo 10mo ago
Isn't Google moving to Fuchsia?
- walterbell 10mo ago
  On bare metal or pKVM?
- birdboat00 10mo ago
  Fuchsia is dead sadly
  - robin_reala 10mo ago
    Citation needed? I don’t disbelieve you but I haven’t seen anything concrete.
  - gessha 10mo ago
    “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” Google folks pop up here and there and say it’s actively worked on. Unless you have more recent information, I believe the project is still alive.
  - Grazester 10mo ago
    It's very alive. It's being used for Google Nest hub devices. Through for HN that might as well it being dead, it seems.
  - ekianjo 10mo ago
    I thought it was the opposite and that it would replace Linux for Google products
- cromka 10mo ago
  I don't think these are mutually exclusive, they're just unifying ChromeOS and Android for now.

cromka 10mo ago

Facts are Linux support has heavily accelerated from both Qualcomm and Linaro on their behalf. Anyone who watches Linux ARM mailing lists can attest that. Things have definitely changed, a lot.

999900000999 10mo ago
Fantastic. Can you please let me know if there is an ISO to get any mainstream Linux distro working on this Snapdragon laptop ? ASUS - Vivobook 14 14" FHD+ Laptop - Copilot+ PC - Snapdragon X It's on sale for $350 at Best buy and if I can get Linux working on it it would definitely be an awesome gift for myself. Even if there's some progress being made, it's still nearly impossible to install a typical Linux distro on one of these. I've been watching this space since the snapdragon laptops were announced. Tuxedo giving up and canceling their Snapdragon Linux laptop doesn't instill much confidence
- cromka 10mo ago
  There's an Ubuntu release specifically targeting new Qualcomm Elite based laptops: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800 https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-concept-snapdragon-x-e... This includes Vivobook S15, not sure about the 14.
  - 999900000999 10mo ago
    That covers the Elite, not the cheaper Snapdragon X laptops such as the ASUS Vivobook 14 (X1407QA). I've followed that thread for almost a year. It's a maze of hardware issues and poor compatibility. From your other response. >but vendors usually require a firmware binary to be signed with their keys, which are burned into the SoC. As a result you cannot use Qualcomm's vanilla firmware and need to extract the original firmware as provided by the vendor, otherwise it won't load. This makes the install process impossible without an existing Windows install. It's easier to say it doesn't work and move on. It's going to be significantly easier to buy run Linux in an X86 laptop. Not to mention no out of the box Linux Snapdragon Elite laptop exists. It's a shame because it would probably be an amazing product.