Thread

1. hurricanepootis · 1790221063 · focus · HN ↗

   I hope Qualcomm upstreams all the device tree kernel level stuff to Linux for every laptop model. One of the things I don't like about Arm Laptops is—for example—how even if a SoC is supported upstream, if the manufacturer does not upload a device tree for their device, then you're cooked.

   I read that while these Snapdragon laptops do technically have UEFI + ACPI, the information they provide is not useful for Linux and is more coupled with Qualcomm's proprietary drivers on Windows. Therefore, device trees are needed on Linux (I could be wrong about the first part).

   1. ChocolateGod · 1790251149 · focus · HN ↗

      Needing the kernel to be changed for each device is an Androidism that encourages ewaste and we should fight against it.

      Instead Qualcomm should improve their ACPI implementation and improve the kernels handling of it

      1. aseipp · 1790252565 · focus · HN ↗

         Someone from Qualcomm posted a "DT-ACPI Hybrid Mode" set of patches a while back that let you call ACPI table functions, etc even while booting with the device tree, allowing you to control some things like keyboard lightning/power management independently. That would be a good first step but I'm not sure it went anywhere in the meantime. In theory supporting Device Tree by including the blob in a ROM somewhere shouldn't be much more work (if any) than including working ACPI tables, but we all know how that works out in practice!

         1. throwaway173738 · 1790252827 · focus · HN ↗

            > supporting Device Tree by including the blob in a ROM somewhere shouldn't be much more work (if any) than including working ACPI tables, but we all know how that works out in practice!

            This is definitely a thing in some embedded systems I’ve used. There are some Marvell boards which do this. They all use U-boot though.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.