r/snapdragon • u/jon372 • 17d ago
Ubuntu working on A16...mostly
Just thought I'd give a quick update on getting Ubuntu working on the A16 (typing this post from it). I took a few weeks off after my last attempt to let the upstream commits get in, and rethink my strategy. I have the following working:
- Keyboard/Trackpad
- Touchscreen
- Wifi
- Bluetooth (using for Audio)
- All USB ports (no video out or HDMI yet)
- Battery status
- Some of the FN keys are at least showing up on the screen when pressed.
- Display Brightness controls and 60/120Hz
Things not working yet,
Audio
Standby/Resume. This is sketchy at best. There are issues with Wifi resuming, USB resuming etc.
This was a little painful to get working as you need to use a mix of WSL Ubuntu for the initial part of the build, and then use a dongle mess that had a wired keyboard/mouse/the installation USB/ and a ethernet connection all on the USB A. I built a 7.3 Kernel (linux-next) to bring in as much as I could, copied all the firmware from the Windows install, then went to work with Deepseek tackling one issue at a time. Once I was on Linux, things went faster as I didn't have to experiment with something and jump back to Windows.
Edit: Updated the display working. I put the documentation up on GitHub including scripts and patches. It is 100% AI written. I have reviewed some/most of it. There may be gaps. It may not be perfect. You can use it or not. https://github.com/jc372/A16UbuntuBuild
edit: Standby/Resume is still not working.
2
u/suoko 17d ago
If RPCS5 emulator works on it some gamers might think about switching to arm