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Title: Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X2 Series Processors Will Support Linux

Link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/09/24/015...

Snapdragon X2 Series processors feature a neural processing unit (NPU)
delivering 80 trillion operations per second and allowing advanced AI
features to run locally. And Snapdragon X2 Series "is expanding to Linux,"
Qualcomm announced today, calling it one of their most-requested
capabilities: Qualcomm Technologies is a top contributor to Linux development
at a kernel level, and now we're embracing support for Snapdragon X2 Series
as a platform directly. We're upstreaming core drivers for Snapdragon X2
Series - including the Hexagon NPU and Adreno GPU - to open the door to
developers and partners. We are starting with support for two operating
systems based on Linux... - Debian: We're kicking off with Debian by the end
of this year, one of the most influential Linux distributions and the
foundation behind many of the distros people use every day. - Ubuntu:
Qualcomm Technologies has partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu, the
world's most widely used Linux distro, to the platform with Snapdragon X2
Series certification targeted for the first half of 2027. ...and this is just
the beginning. Our partners HP, ASUS and HUMAIN are planning Linux support in
the first of 2027, so that their devices deliver the incredible experience
users expect with Snapdragon X2 Series in a new operating system. Qualcomm's
developer blog called it "a significant step forward" in Qualcomm's
commitment to a developer-first approach, and "to the open-source community."
"For developers, the important part is simple: more core hardware features
are being reviewed and merged, so that laptops with Linux on Snapdragon X2
Series will be easier to build, test, and debug..." The enablement work
completed so far has been validated on a Debian 13-based ("Trixie" user
space and a custom kernel, so developers should treat this as the current
reference environment while support continues to mature... Linux support for
laptops with Snapdragon X2 Series is rolling out in stages, starting with the
core pieces developers need before they can do production-level work on their
device... For developers who want to try it today, the call to action is
straightforward: start with Snapdragon X2 Series hardware, review the latest
recipes to build Qualcomm Linux Debian Images, build available upstream
sources the Debian OS image and test the peripherals that matter to you, such
as graphics, AI inference, device I/O, or basic application bring-up. Early
testing helps identify the gaps that matter most before support becomes
broader and ready for production-level workloads... You do not have to wait
for everything to be fully finished before getting hands-on. If you are
comfortable working from upstream sources you can start evaluating Snapdragon
X2 hardware today... Check out the step-by-step instructions, including the
full build flow and deployment guidance for Snapdragon X2 Series Linux
software. Put simply, this effort is less about supporting specific Linux
distributions and more about empowering the developers who make Linux
available on new hardware. This Developer Preview targets distribution
maintainers, toolchain developers, kernel contributors, and hardware
enablement engineers. It provides the upstream building blocks, including
kernel patches, drivers, and reference device trees, needed to enable
Snapdragon X2 Series support in their own projects and distributions. For end
users looking for a turnkey "install and go" experience, that will come later
as distributions adopt what lands upstream. We're encouraging the community
to build on this work and help shape what comes next. The blog post notes
that in the initial enablement stage, "Qualcomm Linux supports systemd-boot
as the Universal extensible firmware interface (UEFI) boot manager to load
and boot the Linux kernel." Hands-on demos were given at the Snapdragon
Summit in Maui of Linux running on Snapdragon X2 Series hardware, which the
developer's blog calls "a practical look at what works today and where
Snapdragon X2 Series Linux support is headed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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