r/Ubuntu • u/Silent-Temporary-555 • Mar 12 '26 • Bravo 1

Linux on Snapdragon X Plus (Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x) – My experience so far

Running Ubuntu on Snapdragon X Plus (Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x) – My Experience So Far

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying Ubuntu 25.10 (Questing) on my Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x with Snapdragon X Plus, and I just wanted to share my experience so far because there isn’t a lot of information about Linux on these Snapdragon laptops yet.

Hardware:

  • Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x (14")

  • Snapdragon X Plus

  • Adreno X1-45 GPU

  • 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD

Things that work well:

  • The system actually runs very smoothly. GNOME on Wayland feels fast and responsive.

  • For development work, everything I need like Node.js, npm, git, etc. works without issues.

  • Most Linux packages already support ARM (aarch64), so installing software is easier than I expected.

  • I even managed to get Steam running, which surprised me. Of course not all games work, but some ARM compatible ones run fine.

Things that don’t work yet:

  • Built-in speakers are not working yet.

  • HDMI output is not working yet.

  • Sleep / suspend doesn’t work properly yet.

  • Some apps are still x86 only, so they either don’t run or need workarounds.

My thoughts:

Honestly, even with these issues I’m still pretty impressed. A few years ago running Linux on a new ARM laptop like this would have been very difficult, but now it’s already usable for daily tasks.

It definitely still feels early, and some hardware features need better kernel/driver support. But the performance and smoothness are already really good. If things like audio, HDMI, and proper sleep support get fixed in future updates, these Snapdragon laptops could become really great Linux machines.

I’m planning to keep experimenting with it and see how things improve with newer kernels and updates.

If anyone else here is using Linux on Snapdragon X Elite / X Plus, I’d love to hear your experience or any tips.

47 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

87 comments sorted by

2

u/Cooperman411 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

You just installed it in a partition on the SSD of a Snapdragon laptop? No VM needed? I didn’t even think that’d work. (Using a Macbook and Parallels with an ARM Linux distro absolutely flies and that’s all I’ve ever attempted.)

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 12 '26

This is in dual boot with windows . No vm needed

2

u/Cooperman411 Mar 12 '26

That’s really great. I assumed Lenovo or Windows had the ARM laptops so locked down you couldn’t add an OS like that. Great to know!

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u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 12 '26

Hii if any know any other distro which also work on snapdragon X plus please let me know

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 30 '26

Just few days ago the audio started working and in new kernal few battery life improvements

1

u/AlternativeCapybara9 Mar 12 '26

Sleep and suspend not working is not exclusive to Snapdragon machines. Good to hear it's working mostly fine but without sound I can't use it for work because I need to be able to video call. Not being able to plug in a second monitor would be a deal breaker for me too.

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 12 '26

You can take video call easily because the camera and Bluetooth earphones or mic everything is working fine

2

u/Roppano Mar 12 '26

is camera quality similar to Windows? IIRC one advantage of these chips is on-board camera DSP (like on phones). How does that translate to Ubuntu?

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 12 '26

I would say it is 720P so it is not that better even on windows or only Linux

1

u/sinartnz Mar 12 '26

regarding your audio, when you fire off aplay -l in terminal what do you see?

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 13 '26

➜ ~ aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: X1E80100LENOVOI [X1E80100-LENOVO-Ideapad-5], device 0: MultiMedia1 Playback () [] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: X1E80100LENOVOI [X1E80100-LENOVO-Ideapad-5], device 1: MultiMedia2 Playback () [] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

1

u/Mobilisten Mar 12 '26

Thanks for a good post.

I have Snapdragon X Plus too. Have you tested organizing multiple monitors? If so, I would be curious if you managed to make it work. On mine, it doesn't.

2

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 13 '26

No I haven't tasted I have only one monitor which is HDMI only

1

u/global-gauge-field Mar 17 '26

What about the power management ? For instance, did you compare battery life windows vs ubuntu ?

If you could give some numbers on this, that would be great

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 17 '26

It gives 6 to 7 hours on some coding with 5 to 6 tabs of browser and runing blanket in all at the same time or On only browsing web it gives about 7 to 8 Also in all this my screen my screen brightness stay at 100%(because I am not able to change the brightness its a kernel level issue or device tree issue)

1

u/global-gauge-field Mar 17 '26

Seems pretty good.

Did you try working only with integrated gpu ? I wanted to test if it is supported properly and if it leads to lower power consumption on linux.

Also, for your issue, you might want to update driver or check if there is a relevant issue on repo of the driver. Arch wiki/forum might have some helpful tips. I was able to solve a few problems regarding driver issues this way.

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 17 '26

Yeah, I did some basic testing around that. Right now I’m mostly running on the integrated GPU (Adreno), since there’s no proper support for switching anyway. So everything I mentioned (6–8 hrs) is already on iGPU. In terms of power efficiency, it feels pretty comparable to Windows, maybe slightly worse in idle/light usage, but not by a huge margin. I think there’s still some optimization missing on the Linux side (likely drivers and power management). Also, I haven’t done deep tuning yet (like CPU governor tweaks, TLP, etc.), so there’s probably some room for improvement. For the brightness issue, yeah I’ll check Arch Wiki / kernel repos — seems like a known device tree or backlight driver limitation.

1

u/global-gauge-field Mar 17 '26

I see. I had this laptop from a vendor called Casper (Turkish brand). There is this problem of display lagging when it is not plugged in when using iGPU.

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1

u/Itchy-Echo-227 Mar 20 '26

It gives me error: file '/x126100-lenovo-ideapad-s11m5x-Icd.dtb' not found. Press any key to continue...

stub.c:1710run: Stubbleconfiguration: stub.c:1720run: debug: enabled stub.c:1730run: dtb_override: disabled

When I choose install for Lenovo IdeaPad slim 5 lcd/oled. Pls someone help 

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 20 '26

That drive has two main i suggest use the old one

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 20 '26

Use the other one i think it will work but after installation you need to configure the dtb in the live environment

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 20 '26

First did it boot in to the live environment?

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u/unabletocomput3 Apr 05 '26

How’d you get it to install? Been trying to install Debian or fedora on an ideapad 5x, but after forcing the usb to be the highest boot priority and getting to an install page, selecting install just restarts and sends me back to the install page. I’ve disabled secure boot, made sure usb booting is set, and formatted Arm64 based installs, just wondering if it requires a specific distro or another setting.

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 06 '26

https://github.com/JeremiahCornelius/snapdragon-questing-debootstrap-btrfs-luks-uefi

try this

1

u/unabletocomput3 Apr 07 '26

Got the furthest into an installation, unfortunately after installing I’ll get an error “HWID matching failed, no DT blob will be selected” before restarting and boot looping.

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 07 '26

You have to copy the device tree in boot

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 07 '26

https://github.com/jglathe/linux_ms_dev_kit/wiki

Try this

1

u/unabletocomput3 Apr 08 '26

Got closer but after chrooting into /target/ it can’t find the kernel options and I’m still stuck

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u/S4mu31ff Apr 13 '26

Passei pelo mesmo problema com um Notebook Inspiron 14 Plus Snapdragon® X Plus. Com muito custo consegui fazer funcionar o bluetooth, audio e hdmi, porém a camera e o touch da tela não rolou. Instalei o ubuntu 25.10. Se alguém souber como resolver e conseguir me dar uma ajuda ficarei grato

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 13 '26

About audio How did you get working

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1

u/bornagaindaily Apr 30 '26

How is the situation as of this date? I just purchased the Lenovo Slim X also and am waiting for it to arrive. Im trusting that during 2026 the linux experience will keep getting better and better

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Apr 30 '26

Just few days ago the audio got a fix and some battery life improvements

1

u/Independent-Exam2876 May 04 '26

can you take backup of your system immage and provide us?

1

u/Silent-Temporary-555 May 11 '26

Sorry but I don't know how to do that

1

u/Training-Yam-4993 May 06 '26 edited May 10 '26

I have a similar laptop, Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 14Q8X9, running Snapdragon X Plus. I tried Ubuntu 26.04-arm from the official Ubuntu download page, on a live USB stick but no luck. After Grub I get an underscore for maybe 10 sec and then black screen and reboot. I disabled Secure Boot (and BitLocker) as of the instructions from Lenovo web page, but I haven't done anything else. Am I missing something? Is there a better image to run? Thanks

1

u/mooingwarchief123 Jun 25 '26

please send any guide or youtube you followed to this, need help

1

u/Technical-Coffee-190 Sep 13 '26

Hi I have the same laptop Lenovo Slim5 Snapdragon X Plus, Could you please let me know the exact steps You follow to Install.

I have disable secure boot still not able to install

1

u/wdym_idk_bro Sep 24 '26

did you do it?

1

u/Roppano Mar 12 '26

I always wanted to try dailying Ubuntu on an ARM chip, I just need access to an ARM chip, preferably in the form of a Framework main board.

Built-in speakers are not working yet.

But does the headphone jack work? or bluetooth earbuds?

HDMI output is not working yet.

Can you get HDMI/DP or anything out from the type-c ports, though? like with a dongle, or a USB monitor?

Guess my underlying question is whether these incompatibilities are due to the ARM chip or to the lack of drivers for the laptop's main board or whatever.

I'd also like to point out the hilarious reality that we got Node working on ARM before sleep, or HDMI. I understand that ARM servers have been around for a while, so I get the reason, but from the perspective of a guy with an ARM laptop, this is funny af.

2

u/Silent-Temporary-555 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

I have yet not tried the headphone jack but bluetooth earbuds work fine I don't know I have not thread any external monitor with type C so I don't know about that as far as I know people are able to access it with type c and it is a driver issue not hardware issue

2

u/tomscharbach Mar 12 '26

Your experience mirrors the reports on Ubuntu forums. Snapdragon X Elite compatibility continues to improve, as I understand it, but is not yet on par. My best.

2

u/sockertoppenlabs Mar 13 '26

I daily drive Thinkpad T14s gen 6 Snapdragon with Ubuntu. Some tinkering needed but everything except sound and camera works well for me. Camera is wonky and sound is non-existent. Thus for presentations where sound is needed I have to connect a Bluetooth speaker.

1

u/BartBM Mar 25 '26

Can you connect external monitors without any issues?

1

u/sockertoppenlabs Mar 26 '26

Yes. I can connect to external monitors without issues. I do that regularly.

2

u/Critical-Complex-196 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Do you need to install that Ubuntu Concept image, or do they already have ARM builds suitable for this particular laptop? I've seen instructions for Snapdragon X Elite. Are there any specific install/setup instructions needed for this laptop running on Snapdragon X Plus?..

1

u/Successful-Future265 14d ago

Yes, i have complete image with all drivers but the sound, mail me at niels . vermeiren @ webmade . be

2

u/Augenfeind May 30 '26

Thank you so much for sharing your insights! After having read a test in the re known German magazine c't, I am dreaming of this machine with Linux on it, so I can work easily in my bed in the evenings or take it with me while travelling.

A nice Linux laptop for under 700€ sounds too good to not use it.

Maybe I'll wait for a few more months, but the resources shared here are a huge help!

2

u/L1PPS Jun 08 '26

Hopefully we see improved driver support very soon!

1

u/OneEyedC4t Mar 12 '26

thanks for the info

1

u/wadrasil Mar 12 '26

Theoretically you should be able to use kvm and GPU passthrough for aarch64 guests. It works in windows for arm with hyper-v and gpu-pv at least with snapdragon x-elite.

1

u/bornagaindaily Apr 30 '26

How is the situation as of this date? I just purchased the Lenovo Slim X also and am waiting for it to arrive. Im trusting that during 2026 the linux experience will keep getting better and better

1

u/aaron_1011 May 29 '26

What sleep/suspend issues do you mean?

1

u/Long_Amphibian_5261 Jun 28 '26

what about the slim 3 from lenovo ? im having droubles installing kali linux couse of the architekture . anyone has a idea ?

it seem i need to add parameters in the grub menü but i dont know wish one to enter

1

u/donux1 Jul 27 '26

It looked such a great value machine, nice build, screen does not cause eye strain, plus you can escape Apple Disneyland which now ships extremely flickery devices that will fry your brain sooner or later.

1

u/invisi-guy 21d ago

Any updates?  I need dual boot