Qualcomm has announced the transfer of changes to the main Linux kernel that enable support for devices with Snapdragon X2 chips, equipped with Qualcomm Oryon CPUs (6-18 cores depending on the model), Hexagon AI accelerators (80 TOPS), and Adreno X2-90 GPUs. Among other things, a FastRPC driver for the Hexagon NPU will be prepared, and support for new Adreno GPUs will be added in the Freedreno, Turnip, and Rusticl Mesa drivers.
The integration of Snapdragon X2 support into the kernel is divided into several phases. First, components for booting and basic system initialization have been published (systemd-boot is supported as the boot manager). The second phase will involve the addition of drivers to ensure basic input/output, allowing various peripherals to connect via USB, PCIe, and UP (Qualcomm Universal Peripheral). The third phase plans to work on GPU support in the Mesa drivers Freedreno, Turnip, and Rusticl, while the fourth phase will see the publication of the FastRPC driver for utilizing the NPU for local execution of AI models. In the final phase, drivers will be added for power management and temperature control, and the final stabilization of the software stack will be carried out to prepare it for OEM pre-installation.
The changes published by Qualcomm will enable the use of Linux on devices equipped with Snapdragon X2 SoCs, such as the HP Googlebook 14, Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe, Dell XPS Googlebook, Microsoft Surface Pro 12, Microsoft Surface Laptop 13, and HUMAIN Horizon Ultra. HP, ASUS, and HUMAIN will initially ship their laptops based on Snapdragon X2 SoCs with Windows, but they plan to provide official Linux support in the first quarter of 2027.
The first Linux distributions to implement Snapdragon X2 support will be Debian and Ubuntu. Debian plans to integrate support by the end of the year, while Ubuntu aims for the first quarter of 2027 (a corresponding announcement has already been made by Canonical). For those who want to test Linux on real hardware without waiting for all changes to be merged into the kernel and distributions, Qualcomm has opened access to a repository with a Linux kernel branch that includes the necessary patches, as well as providing packages, scripts, and instructions for building Debian 13 for use on Qualcomm RB1 (QRB2210) and Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 (QCS6490) boards. Ready-to-install test builds of Debian are expected to begin assembling soon.
Source: opennet.ru
