FAQ: Ubuntu 25.04 on Snapdragon X Elite

tobhe · June 25, 2025, 10:42am

Updated the FAQ to reflect that we now build new concept ISOs based on 25.04 and publish them at Index of /~platform/images/ubuntu-concept as we did for oracular.

glathe · June 25, 2025, 3:24pm

For X1P42100 you would need a dtb which is for this SoC. Do you have a launchpad bug open? Do you have further Info on the SKU or PSREF for yours?

jeffremec · June 27, 2025, 2:36pm

Sorry to ask this question. Is the image bootable as is on the Surface 7? I tried the 24.10 version and didn’t have any luck with it.

alex-castro · June 28, 2025, 2:55am

Missing / and ? key on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (048D:8987 keyboard) with Ubuntu 25.04 on Wayland
Hi everyone,

I’m running Ubuntu 25.04 on a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14Q8X9 (MTM: 83ED001XBR, Snapdragon X Elite) and have performed a deep-dive diagnosis of a critical issue with its Brazilian (ABNT2) keyboard. The keyboard is detected as hid-over-i2c 048D:8987.

The Problem

The / ? key (located next to the Right Shift, identified as <AB11> in xkb) is completely dead. It generates NO EVENT in evtest, xev, or libinput debug-events.
In addition to the dead key, the ; : key is incorrectly mapped. It generates KEY_SLASH (code 53) events in evtest.
The keyboard works perfectly under my Windows dual-boot setup, which confirms the hardware is fully functional.

Troubleshooting Summary

I have ruled out all common causes and have strong evidence that the issue is at the kernel driver level:

High-Level Configuration: My layout is correctly set to br (confirmed with localectl and GNOME Settings). Custom xkb layouts, xmodmap, and other user-space tools have no effect, as the initial kernel event for the key is missing.
Hardware Database: hwdb overrides are not applicable, as there is no scancode being generated for the dead key to bind to.
Proprietary Firmware: I have thoroughly investigated the possibility of a missing firmware file:

a) I ran the qcom-firmware-extract tool successfully. dmesg confirms that firmware for other components (like DSP from the .../LENOVO/83ED/ path) is being loaded, but this did not solve the keyboard issue.
b) I manually inspected the keyboard’s driver package in the Windows DriverStore/FileRepository (hidi2c.inf_arm64_...). This package does not contain any separate loadable firmware file (like .bin or .dat). It only contains the driver’s .sys and .inf files.

Conclusion

These findings lead to the definitive conclusion that this is a bug within the Linux kernel’s native hid-over-i2c driver. The driver’s internal scancode map for this specific keyboard (VID:PID 048D:8987) appears to be both incomplete (missing the / key) and incorrect (mismapping the ; key).

Any hints on where in the kernel tree this could be patched would be appreciated. I’d be happy to test any patches or provide further debugging logs.

Thanks in advance!

alexvinarskis · June 28, 2025, 9:03am

Hi,

Thanks for another concept release.
I have just tried installing the new plucky ISO, on both Asus Zenbook A14 and Dell XPS 9345. Both installations finished, however failing to boot as device trees are not deployed and grub config is not adapted. Manually loading dtb allows to boot. It appears ubuntu-x1e-settings, qcom-firmware-extractpackages are missing - installing them also installs flash-kernel, and device trees are correctly deployed, everything works.

@tobhe perhaps ubuntu-x1e-settings was forgotten in this image?

jokkeholmberg · June 29, 2025, 8:05pm

Sorry for the late reply. Been AFK. Not sure it is interesting for you anymore, but just in case.
BIOS Information
Version: N42ET85W (2.15 )
Release Date: 11/22/2024

tobhe · June 30, 2025, 10:08am

Thanks for testing, that suggests that something is broken with the automatic detection in ubuntu-drivers… I intentionally didn’t install ubuntu-x1e-settings by default to use the same auto detection process we’d use in a regular Ubuntu release.
Zenbook is indeed missing in hwe-qcom-x1e-meta.modaliases « debian - ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-x1e-settings - [no description], I suppose the XPS one should be svn (system vendor) instead of bvn (BIOS vendor).

EDIT: because I didn’t have your previous MR merged in plucky yet. Uploaded a hopefully fixed version that will make it into the next ISO.

alexvinarskis · June 30, 2025, 1:49pm

Thanks for merging the Zenbook, will test once ISO is out and share results.

Wrt to Dell XPS: it used to work before on 24.10 images, or was the ubuntu-x1e-settings manually added there, so no autodetection took place?

Likely relevant peaces from XPS:

# dmidecode -s bios-vendor
Dell Inc.
# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer
Dell Inc.
# dmidecode -s system-product-name
XPS 13 9345

tobhe · June 30, 2025, 1:59pm

The previous concept image did have it installed unconditionally (somewhat by accident). The 25.04 release did not. This caused issues on a few machines so now is probably a good time to find and fix them before 25.10. I updated the XPS signatures too.

Once the package shows up as published at Packages in “Ubuntu Concept - X Elite” : Ubuntu Concept - X Elite : “Ubuntu Concept” team it should probably work with online installations. For offline installations we need to wait for the next ISO.

tobhe · June 30, 2025, 5:33pm

Package and new ISO should be available now.

elgerm · July 1, 2025, 1:30pm

On my surface laptop 7 (32gb) I’m trying to install the latest release (from Index of /~platform/images/ubuntu-concept). After flashing the drive and booting it, I get till the first menu saying ‘try to install ubuntu’ but the keyboard doesn’t work so can’t really do anything. Then after 3 secs the laptop reboots and comes back to this menu again. I’ve also tried the official arm release which has the same problem. Als I tried to connect an external usb keyboard but that also doesn’t work.
Is there anything I can do?

psarapkin · July 1, 2025, 11:14pm

And here is my little story.
I had Ubuntu 24.10 Concept installed. So, I did “do-release-upgrade”, I gave answer “yes” or “y” on every question I had.
Then I’ve waited for sometime. And After 25.04 started I found that I have no wifi… ))))
I connected to my phone via bluetooth (bluetooth-tethering) and updated and upgraded packages. I installed q1e-ubuntu-settings (I forgot exact name) and qcom-extract-firmware, I did it… And after that I had Video driver working… But wifi not…

So, what have I done?
I made bootable flash with 25.04. I loaded from LiveCD - and I had no WiFi again. So, I restart once more, and after rebooting - I have WiFi.

And only in such case I start installation (similiar behavior I had with 24.10).

Now, I have 25.04 on my Asus Vivobook S15.

But the great desire is

Audio
Camera

After I would have got this functionality - I’m gonna fully swipe Windows from laptop)

tobhe · July 2, 2025, 12:08am

I pushed another updated ISO, maybe this one works better. There was a bug in the automatic dtb selection in previous versions. If that doesn’t help we might have to wait for a new kernel.

No keyboard in grub might get fixed with a BIOS update but there isn’t really anything we can do about it.

haider5c · July 8, 2025, 9:35pm

me too i do really want Linux distro in my Surface Pro 11 I sadly Brunch/Chrome os does not support arm yet

david8271 · July 10, 2025, 7:19pm

I’m trying to install the 20250703.iso onto my Zenbook A14 UX3407QA (BIOS version 306). Although it tries to access the SD card I’ve written the ISO to it appears to make no attempt to boot from it boots straight into Windows. Secure boot is definitely disabled in the BIOS. I’ve disabled bitlocker in Windows.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I can try next?

xelef2000 · July 12, 2025, 12:47pm

I tested most of the isos on my Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and they all do not work (same behavior as described above, grub loads and the system reboots right afterwards)

We should probably remove the Surface Laptop 7 from the list of devices with successful installations.

vladimir_alekseev · July 12, 2025, 1:03pm

Try using ventoy (or any similar tool) as an “ISO launcher” to boot any recent Ubuntu Concept ISO. Worked for me on my Surface Laptop 7 with X Plus.

david8271 · July 12, 2025, 1:53pm

I managed to get it to install about 2 hours ago. I had to jump though some hoops to get Windows to let the A14 boot from the USB drive. I don’t know if this is a modern Windows thing, a Windows on ARM thing or just specific to this hardware - the last version of Windows I used was XP.

Anyway, in case anyone else has the same problems, I did the following:

Insert USB drive containing Ubuntu ISO
In Windows…
Start
Settings
System
Recovery
Advanced startup : Restart now → Restart now
Wait until “Choose an option” screen appears
Select “Use a device”
Select “EFI USB Device”
Wait for boot into Ubuntu from USB drive
Install Ubuntu

There’s no qcom-firmware-extract package and it looks like the device tree bits are missing as there’s no networking, sound, etc.

I’ll tinker around a bit more in the next few days.

tobhe · July 12, 2025, 7:02pm

Which model is that exactly? X1E or X1P cpu?
The problem is that Microsoft released newer models with different internals that require extra tweaks and kernel changes to get working.

xelef2000 · July 12, 2025, 7:28pm

In my case it’s the 13.8 inch x1e80100 with 16gb of RAM.
Do we need a different dtb than the romulus13.Dtb?