Qualcomm says no to open DSP headers for Snapdragon X
Qualcomm has closed GitHub issue for open-sourcing Snapdragon X DSP headers with the message that there are “ no plans to open source DSP headers as of now. ” On its own, this does not stop Linux from booting on Snapdragon X laptops, but it does close off one more route toward proper upstream-friendly support. Needless to say, the Linux community is not happy about this.
In May 2024, Qualcomm said Snapdragon X Elite would continue its Linux upstreaming work, and outside coverage at the time pointed to a roadmap that still included camera, video, GPU support, suspend and resume, firmware distribution, and simpler distro installs. That progress has remained stale, and Canonical still relies on patched packages and a Qualcomm-specific work-in-progress kernel for many Snapdragon X systems.
Qualcomm’s poor communication around Linux support, including the sudden closure of this issue, may help explain why TUXEDO canceled its Snapdragon X1 Elite Linux laptop after more than 18 months. The company said the chip was less suitable for Linux than expected, citing problems with BIOS updates, fan control, KVM virtualization, USB4, video decoding, and battery life.
Source: Github
Linux can still run on some devices, but the platform remains far from the level of support normally expected from a mainstream laptop. Qualcomm’s refusal to release DSP headers does not stop all development, but it weakens any remaining hope for complete Linux support.
Qualcomm is a large company that could easily allocate engineers to Linux support. That is worth keeping in mind when Snapdragon X2 systems reach the market, because most users may never have the option to switch to Linux if promised Windows updates fail to deliver.
Source: Qualcomm (Github) via Reddit
