Snapdragon X2 Elite ARM Laptop CPU

Here's my big question: are there datasheets/programmers manuals available or is this yet another proprietary mess of a SoC that ships undocumented Linux drivers with binary blobs? No thanks.

I will not spend money on hardware no one can reliably patch or write drivers for. I also want other operating system maintainers to be able to write drivers and get booting.

I haven't dug deep, but it looks like Qualcomm has been working on merging code into the Linux kernel: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-X2-Elite-Linux-8EG5

With them only merging upstream now, it'll be a while before you can actually use Linux on these devices. You can build your own kernel from upstream, but it's probably a better idea to wait until Arch or Gentoo package the necessary pre-configured kernels.

From what I can tell, the Elite SoCs are a lot less outdated-semi-proprietary-Linux-fork-y than many other Qualcomm chips.

Or Fedora, which tracks kernels pretty closely (e.g. this Fedora, running the normal update channel is on 6.16)

That means nothing for the community who may need or want to fix and patch issues on their own. Instead we're beholden to Qualcomm to fix major issues on an OS it may or may not care about supporting. It also excludes other open source operating systems such as the BSD's who have to then reverse engineer the undocumented Linux drivers.

A better question: can a small company like Framework or even MNT Research build and support an open laptop around this chip?

Last time I checked the Fedora ISOs didn't include the device trees necessary to even begin installation.

Framework doesn't even develop their own firmware; most of the engineering in PCs is done by Intel/AMD/ODMs/IBVs. The whole ecosystem is based on vendor support not datasheets.

Firmware is not preventing Framework or anyone from offering a repairable laptop. Firmware also doesn't matter once the kernel is loaded. We need the datasheets.

While not this chip, MNT Research has been working on a processor module for Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 and is manufacturing the first wave of test PCBs now:

https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform-qcs6490

This article seems to be about Qualcomm adding the device trees for the X2 CPUs. Which isn't the first gen.

As someone with a first gen, the device trees are, as I understand it, one of the issues with trying to just install any distro, except for that special Ubuntu one.

I can't just (for example) grab the latest fedora, and try and run that.

Correct, you kind of have to do a bit of work to it to get it to boot.

Now, I haven't tried the latest beta of Fedora 43, but my guess is this won't change.

"Firmware doesn't matter once the kernel is loaded".

ACPI enters the chat... It can send pieces of code interpreted by the kernel on any hardware event.

I have a Framework laptop and yeah the ACPI firmware is totally buggy and the Linux kernel fails at interpreting it in various cases.

I was under the impression that the firmware is responsible for loading the ACPI tables but the OS takes over and runs the code in its ACPI VM once running.

This is exactly the issue with Qualcomm. If they actually had datasheets/ref manuals/open drivers... it'd be a no brainer. The part looks great.

The reality is this company is notoriously a law firm with a small technical staff on the side.