Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

qualcomm.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#61

Post by my123 »

sidkshatriya wrote: post #60
my123 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll have EL2 on Snapdragon X Elite. If it's using the design that I prototyped while at Qualcomm, it's jumping to EL2 at ExitBootServices when the boot to Linux at EL2 option is enabled. Didn't look at a release firmware yet to see what was the final impl, but was told that it did ship :)

The boot flow diagram on the article indicates the user gets dropped off into EL1 and not EL2, sadly though. The article is from Qualcomm so I would assume this the current official situation.

Out of the box that's true.

The system firmware will ship with 3 boot modes selectable via the setup interface:

- Windows (this one has the Windows tcblauncher escalated to EL2 through Secure Launch)

- Linux (this one stays at EL1)

- Linux w/ KVM (which jumps to EL2 before kernel handover)

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#62

Post by sidkshatriya »

my123 wrote: post #61
sidkshatriya wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The boot flow diagram on the article indicates the user gets dropped off into EL1 and not EL2, sadly though. The article is from Qualcomm so I would assume this the current official situation.

Out of the box that's true. The system firmware will ship with 3 boot modes selectable via the setup interface: - Windows (this one has the Windows tcblauncher escalated to EL2 through Secure Launch) - Linux (this one stays at EL1) - Linux w/ KVM (which jumps to EL2 before kernel handover)

This would be wonderful. However one would need to verify when these laptops actually start shipping. Let’s hope for the best !

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#63

Post by betaby »

maven29 wrote: post #10
betaby wrote: post #3

For me that list looks not that good compared to Asahi Linux for M1. No GPU, no camera, no suspend/resume.... I won't be spending my money on that platform until that sorted out. And judging from the other ARM platforms that means most likely never. Over-hyped and under-delivered.

This is the schedule for upstreaming/"main-lining". Realistically, customers using these SoCs will be building on a forked linux BSP (Board Support Package) with all of these included. To be fair, these might be server platforms and Chromebooks, nobody is buying ARM notebooks to run their favourite FEM package.

> Chromebooks

Qualcomm has been shipping closed-source modules for Android mobiles for years. Support of the another similar platform changes nothing. Adreno GPUs exist for many years and upstream support is deplorable. Nothing was stopping Chromebooks making ARM/Adreno support in upstream ever. Page is a marketing and not a binding. Continue to downvote all you want. Qualcomm and open source doesn't belong to the same sentence - history of the alternative ROM for Androids is a living poof.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#64

Post by pavlov »

saagarjha wrote: post #44
pavlov wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we’re talking about Linux support, the iPad benchmarks seem irrelevant. It’s a completely different kernel. Asahi Linux benchmarks on an M3 MacBook Air would be the closest thing here.

This is a CPU benchmark, not a test of what OS is running on it.

It’s common to have 5-10% differences on benchmarks between Linux and Windows on the same hardware. iPadOS is even more different (for example, no swap, and many other similar fundamental optimizations for single-app usage).

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#65

Post by jimbobthrowawy »

Hopefully there's some decently performing AMD64 emulation available on linux, and it doesn't end up exclusive to windows. It's not as necessary as it is on most other OSs, bit it'd help pull along any random bits that don't have native binaries.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#66

Post by moondev »

my123 wrote: post #61
sidkshatriya wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The boot flow diagram on the article indicates the user gets dropped off into EL1 and not EL2, sadly though. The article is from Qualcomm so I would assume this the current official situation.

Out of the box that's true. The system firmware will ship with 3 boot modes selectable via the setup interface: - Windows (this one has the Windows tcblauncher escalated to EL2 through Secure Launch) - Linux (this one stays at EL1) - Linux w/ KVM (which jumps to EL2 before kernel handover)

Is this a "arm system ready " uefi firmware? Curious if you tested ESXi for aarch64 edition.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#67

Post by my123 »

moondev wrote: post #66
my123 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of the box that's true. The system firmware will ship with 3 boot modes selectable via the setup interface: - Windows (this one has the Windows tcblauncher escalated to EL2 through Secure Launch) - Linux (this one stays at EL1) - Linux w/ KVM (which jumps to EL2 before kernel handover)

Is this a "arm system ready " uefi firmware? Curious if you tested ESXi for aarch64 edition.

Arm SystemReady SR/ES assumes sane ACPI tables. That's something that Snapdragon X (1st-gen) very much doesn't have. The ACPI tables present there are pretty much only usable for Windows if you want full functionality.

Yeah ESXi-Arm is bootable, but a number of patches were required.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#68

Post by ffgjgf1 »

klausa wrote: post #31
viraptor wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't be late. There's a significant amount of people who cannot use macs for work. If Qualcomm succeeds with the x86 translation, they'll still be the only real option for that segment, even if they're behind M4. (Also likely for people who don't have $$$ to throw around for hardware)

I think if you expect these to land in budget devices; you're going to be sorely disappointed.

The chips themselves are reportedly quite cheap relative to comparable Intel CPUs.

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#69

Post by saagarjha »

gtirloni wrote: post #51
saagarjha wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ARM vendors are annoyingly stingy about providing access to this. You’ll probably have to use Qualcomm’s proprietary hypervisor and even then it’s not clear whether they’ll give you enough access to run a VM.

> You’ll probably have to use Qualcomm’s proprietary hypervisor This one? https://github.com/quic/gunyah-hypervisor

Yes

Re: Upstreaming Linux kernel support for the Snapdragon X Elite

#70

Post by saagarjha »

pavlov wrote: post #64
saagarjha wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a CPU benchmark, not a test of what OS is running on it.

It’s common to have 5-10% differences on benchmarks between Linux and Windows on the same hardware. iPadOS is even more different (for example, no swap, and many other similar fundamental optimizations for single-app usage).

It seems very unlikely that Geekbench would swap
Post reply on HN