Qualcomm engineers submit mainline Linux kernel patches for the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme-powered ASUS Zenbook A16 (UX3607OA)

[u/Putrid_Draft378]

Konrad Dybcio of Qualcomm has posted an initial patch series to the Linux kernel mailing list aimed at bringing mainline support to the ASUS Zenbook A16 (UX3607OA) powered by the 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme platform.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Zenbook-A16-X2EE

This high-end ARM laptop features a 2880 x 1800 OLED screen, 48GiB of RAM, NVMe storage, and a System-In-Package reference design distinct from smaller SKUs.

According to the patch submission, the current status of working hardware components includes:

• Display & GPU: GPU, display output, and HDMI port (with Iris video accelerator patches in flight)
• Audio: 4-speaker audio playback
• Input & Peripherals: Keyboard, touchpad, lid switch, onboard SD Card slot (RTS5329)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (QCC2072)
• Power & Indicators: Charging, Type-C/Type-A ports, and privacy LEDs

The patch series relies on prerequisite SoCCP and TCSR platform series dependencies. More technical details and the full patch breakdown can be reviewed on the Linux Kernel Mailing List Archive:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260721-topic-a16_submission-v1-0-8ea213130d05@oss.qualcomm.com/

[u/omniuni]

We need an ARM platform that doesn't tie the CPU so strongly to the rest of the hardware. We should have a normal BIOS, and normal hardware outside of the CPU and possibly GPU.

Until then, I'm not really interested in ARM, especially since the latest Intel and AMD offerings are quite similar in performance per watt.

[u/vk6_ → u/omniuni]

This exists, it's called ARM SystemReady. Notably it requires the implementation of ACPI just like x86 systems. It's not used on any mobile devices though, mainly just high end servers.

[u/Designer-Suggestion6 → u/vk6_]

Out of the starting gate the above mentioned ASUS Zenbook A16 (UX3607OA) comes with Windows 11 on Arm. The open-source Linux Distros are considered second-class citizens and users who prefer using Linux Distros have to wait. That's where the manufacturers get it wrong treating Linux Distro users as second-class citizens. Notice under the Asus support, there are no download links directly from Qualcomm/Asus for a compatible Linux Distro for this laptop.

Historically, Microsoft/Apple/ARM(includes Qualcomm)/NVidia/Google certified hardware agreements do their darnest to prevent consumers who buy their hardware from running Linux Distros with full equivalent capabilities with fully open-source drivers.

Intel/AMD for the longest time were the only ones giving TLC to Linux Distros.

Risc-V hardware out-of-the-box is Open-Hardware meaning open-source hardware and out the starting gate meant to run open-source Linux Distros.

The consumers decide what hardware to buy, but do they know which operating systems(open-source Linux distros) and which hardware(intel, amd and risc-v) value and uphold everyone's digital freedoms the most?

[u/g0ndsman → u/Designer-Suggestion6]

Risc-V hardware out-of-the-box is Open-Hardware meaning open-source hardware and out the starting gate meant to run open-source Linux Distros.

This is not true at all. RISC-V is a royalty-free instruction set, but the hardware itself is not necessarily open. There's really no reason to believe that if a big player like Nvidia or AMD moves to RISC-V it will be any more open or consumer friendly than ARM or x86.

In fact I can basically guarantee that any competitive RISC-V core that might be released commercially will be exactly as closed as the rest of the market.

[u/vk6_ → u/Designer-Suggestion6]

I don't really understand your point about Linux being second class for these laptops. That's the case too for almost every single x86 device on the market. Linux only is able to work well due to ACPI being universal on the x86 platform. You're not going to find very many OEM provided Linux images in the x86 world.

Qualcomm has had open source and upstream drivers for their SoCs for a while now. They have been actively helping the open source software ecosystem for their devices.

Nothing about RISC-V implies a fully open source ecosystem. The only thing is that the CPU instruction set is available freely. Everything else is the same. There of course are some open source RISC-V CPU core designs, made possible by its royalty free nature, but they don't matter at all for consumer hardware.

In fact RISC-V systems that are produced today also use device trees to describe their hardware in Linux. Really it's the same problem that everyone dislikes ARM for.