Add generic Snapdragon X support on aarch64 - #8672
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Each of these is an unconditional assumption that only holds on x86_64. None
is x86-specific in spirit, and each one blocks or breaks an ARM64 install.
1. etc/mkinitcpio.conf.d/thunderbolt_module.conf
MODULES+=(thunderbolt) is unconditional, but Thunderbolt is x86-oriented
hardware and the module is not built for every architecture -- Arch Linux
ARM's aarch64 kernel has no `thunderbolt`. mkinitcpio treats an unresolvable
MODULES entry as a hard error, so *every* initramfs build fails:
==> ERROR: module not found: `thunderbolt'
That means no UKI, no boot entry, and an install that completes and then
cannot boot.
2. install/post-install/pacman.sh
This overwrites /etc/pacman.conf unconditionally. That config points
[core]/[extra]/[multilib] at Omarchy's mirror of Arch, which is x86_64-only,
and [omarchy] at pkgs.omarchy.org/stable/$arch, which 404s for aarch64.
([multilib] is 32-bit x86 libraries and exists on no ARM mirror at all.)
Applying it on ARM leaves the installed system unable to update anything.
3. install/user/mise-work.sh
Node publishes its builds as linux-x64 / linux-arm64, which does not match
uname -m. The bundled-tarball lookup hardcodes linux-x64, so on ARM it finds
nothing and the install aborts with "no bundled Node tarball". The sed that
parses the version back out of the filename needs the same treatment.
All three were found by installing Omarchy on aarch64 (Arch Linux ARM) and are
fixed here the same way: derive from uname -m rather than assuming.
The previous guard skipped the pacman.conf restore on aarch64 on the grounds that Omarchy's config points at x86-only repositories. But at that point the target still carries the live ISO's pacman.conf, which knows only the offline mirror, and that directory does not exist on the installed system. Skipping therefore left every aarch64 install unable to run pacman at all, which is the outcome the guard claimed to prevent. Derive the config from Omarchy's template instead: drop [multilib], keep [omarchy] (its $arch placeholder resolves correctly), add Arch Linux ARM's [alarm] and [aur] repositories, and leave the mirrorlist the distribution installed rather than replacing it with Omarchy's x86_64 mirror of Arch. The x86_64 path is unchanged.
Snapdragon laptops boot with the device tree for their exact model and the firmware provides none. The live ISO already boots them with a systemd-stub UKI that carries every candidate tree as .dtbauto sections and picks one by SMBIOS hardware id; the installed system built its UKIs with no tree at all, so the first reboot after the install had nothing to boot. Add the omarchy-hw-qualcomm-soc probe (root device-tree compatible starts with qcom,) and a hardware leaf that lists the trees in /etc/kernel/uki.conf, which mkinitcpio hands to ukify for every UKI limine-mkinitcpio-hook builds. The list is a snapshot of /boot/dtbs/qcom taken when the leaf runs; the file header says so, and the enumeration retires when ukify accepts globs.
The same set Fedora's Snapdragon images and the live ISO carry, as a limine-entry-tool drop-in so limine-update folds it into every entry, with each parameter's reason and retirement condition in the file.
Adreno GPUs are platform devices, so the lspci vendor scan in vulkan.sh never sees them; ask the SoC probe instead.
…s exist Arch Linux ARM keeps the redistributable Qualcomm blobs in linux-firmware-qcom; the installed system had none of them. The vendor-signed DSP firmware comes later from the owner's Windows partition; until it is there the DSP driver's failing probe resets the USB-C mux, which drops a USB-C root disk and hangs the boot (seen on the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q).
install/hardware/qualcomm/firmware.sh installs qcom-firmware-extract next to linux-firmware-qcom and runs it in the target: the files the device tree names (GPU zap shader, audio and compute DSP images) are taken from the stage the ISO saved before the disk was written, or from a Windows partition still on disk, into /usr/lib/firmware/updates. The audio-DSP blacklist now follows what is actually missing (qcom-firmware-extract --list-missing) instead of a path glob, so it clears itself once the firmware is present. install/omarchy-other.packages lists qcom-firmware-extract (arch=any) so the offline mirror carries it.
With real DSP firmware the Type-C port controller takes over the ports once the ADSP is up and resets them, which drops a root disk behind a USB-C port (G1q, external NVMe: cdsp up at 10.8 s, I/O errors and a read-only root at 22 s). Installs whose root disk reports TRAN=usb keep qcom_q6v5_pas blacklisted (no audio or battery reporting) until the kernel stops resetting connected ports; internal-disk installs are unchanged.
The final pacman restore is skipped entirely on ARM, which leaves the installed system pointed at the live ISO's offline config -- a file:// repo under a bind mount that only exists during the install. The first thing a new aarch64 desktop does is fail: $ sudo pacman -Sy evtest failed retrieving file 'offline.db' from disk: Could not open file /var/cache/omarchy/mirror/offline/offline.db No pacman -S, no omarchy-update. The skip was right that Omarchy's channel configs cannot be applied on ARM -- [core]/[extra] come from Omarchy's mirror of Arch, which builds x86_64 only, [multilib] is 32-bit x86, and the Omarchy package repository serves no aarch64 tree -- but the configuration it keeps instead is the offline one, so it trades a broken config for no config. Restore Arch Linux ARM's repositories there instead: [core] [extra] [alarm] [aur], its stock set, through a mirrorlist of its own because ALARM serves $arch/$repo where Arch serves $repo/os/$arch. [options] is kept byte-identical to the x86_64 channel configs. [omarchy] is left out until that tree exists; including it would 404 on every sync, and Omarchy's own packages simply hold at the versions the ISO installed. Three further things the restore has to do that the x86_64 path does not: - Take archlinuxarm-keyring while the offline mirror is still the active source. Arch's `base` pulls in archlinux-keyring and nothing pulls in this one, and the repositories being written are unreachable during an offline install. - Write the mirrorlist unconditionally. The target's mirrorlist carries Omarchy's and Arch's x86_64 mirrors ahead of ALARM's, so a sync logs 404s from mirror.omarchy.org, mirror.rackspace.com and geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com before it finds anything. - Populate the keyring. The install leaves ALARM's build key untrusted on the target, so the first signed install fails with "Arch Linux ARM Build System <builder@archlinuxarm.org> is unknown trust". x86_64 keeps running the same two lines it ran before, and every other architecture keeps the behaviour it had before the skip was introduced.
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@JimmayVV — thank you for the Snapdragon work. Your three snapdragon branches are what made the Yoga Slim 7x installation possible. I have opened the generic work for upstream review with your original commit authorship preserved: this PR, omacom/omarchy-iso#129, and omacom/omarchy-pkgs#221. The drafts are intentionally still gated on a fresh encrypted-install test. Please review or correct the split; I am happy to restructure it around how you want the work presented. |
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@birkskyum, thank you. This is what I was hoping would happen. I only did this to get the ball moving, and seeing it boot a second machine with audio working is more than I managed on my own. I'm happy for these PRs to be the upstream path with you driving. I'll review, test on the G1q, and otherwise stay out of the way. The split looks right to me, and the provenance is accurate on all five PRs. One thing I think needs a look, which I've left on omacom/omarchy-pkgs#222 since it lives there. The pkgbase shim also wrote Testing on an HP EliteBook Ultra G1q with the X1E-78-100 and linux-aarch64 7.2-2, from these same commits. It installs and boots via Limine. Display at native resolution with GPU acceleration, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, keyboard, touchpad and touchscreen all work. Audio doesn't yet. The card needs a topology and UCM name that upstream hasn't given the G1q, and I have a small follow-up for that. The encrypted path is also open. On the G1q the LUKS prompt comes up with the panel dark and no keyboard driver in the initramfs, so it looks hung. That's JimmayVV/omarchy-iso#25, and it may be useful for your encrypted-install gate. Anything new from me, audio, USB-C root disks, encrypted installs, will be small follow-ups after these land rather than additions to this stack. |
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Correction to the Yoga validation above: microphone input works, but the internal speakers currently produce no sound during playback. I have corrected the PR descriptions; Yoga audio output remains an open hardware item. |
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Pull request overview
Adds aarch64 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X installation support, including boot configuration, firmware, graphics, and Arch Linux ARM package sources.
Changes:
- Adds ARM-safe Node, mkinitcpio, and pacman handling.
- Configures Qualcomm DTBs, firmware, kernel parameters, and Freedreno.
- Integrates Qualcomm detection and hardware setup.
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Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 11 out of 12 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.
Show a summary per file
| File | Description |
|---|---|
install/user/mise-work.sh |
Selects architecture-specific Node bundles. |
install/post-install/pacman.sh |
Restores ARM repositories and key trust. |
install/omarchy-other.packages |
Stages the Qualcomm extractor package. |
install/hardware/vulkan.sh |
Installs Freedreno on Qualcomm systems. |
install/hardware/qualcomm/kernel-params.sh |
Adds Snapdragon boot parameters. |
install/hardware/qualcomm/firmware.sh |
Installs firmware and DSP safeguards. |
install/hardware/qualcomm/dtb-uki.sh |
Embeds Qualcomm DTBs in UKIs. |
install/hardware/all.sh |
Runs Qualcomm setup leaves. |
etc/mkinitcpio.conf.d/thunderbolt_module.conf |
Restricts Thunderbolt to x86_64. |
default/pacman/pacman-aarch64.conf |
Defines Arch Linux ARM repositories. |
default/pacman/mirrorlist-aarch64 |
Adds the ARM package mirror. |
bin/omarchy-hw-qualcomm-soc |
Detects Qualcomm device-tree systems. |
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I think I found why the speakers are silent on both machines. Arch Linux ARM's |
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Thanks, Jimmy. I independently checked the current official ALARM config and upstream Yoga DTS. ALARM has |
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The speaker fix is now physically validated on the Yoga and submitted upstream as archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs#2217. With |
Summary
Provenance
The generic Snapdragon commits are authored by Jimmy Van Veen and come from JimmayVV/omarchy@snapdragon. The prerequisite ARM runtime commits are authored by Sean and come from #8039. Jimmy has confirmed the provenance and the upstream split in his PR comment.
Dependencies
The branch currently carries #8039 so it can be tested end to end. It should be rebased to remove those prerequisite commits after #8039 merges.
Pacman follow-up to #8039
The final Jimmy commit intentionally replaces the generated aarch64 pacman configuration from #8039. At the time of testing, the configured stable and edge aarch64 Omarchy repository paths return 404. A real installed target also needed
archlinuxarm-keyringinstalled while the offline repository was still active and thenpacman-keypopulation. Without that, the first signed Arch Linux ARM transaction fails.The ISO's offline closure for that late package is fixed in omacom/omarchy-iso#129.
Physical validation
Validated on a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14Q8X9 (83ED) with Snapdragon X Elite:
/dev/nvme0n1p2is a 951.9 GB LUKS2 volume and/dev/mapper/rootcontains the Btrfs rootKnown limitations
Speaker output was physically validated with an ALARM kernel rebuilt with
CONFIG_RESET_GPIO=m: all four WSA8845 amplifiers changed fromUNATTACHEDtoAttached, andspeaker-testproduced audible output. The kernel config fix is submitted as archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs#2217.The original encrypted-install gate has passed. The invisible prompt is documented because it still needs a separate early-display fix.