u/jon372

Just thought I'd give a quick update on getting Ubuntu working on the A16 (typing this post from it). I took a few weeks off after my last attempt to let the upstream commits get in, and rethink my strategy. I have the following working:

1. Keyboard/Trackpad
2. Touchscreen
3. Wifi
4. Bluetooth (using for Audio)
5. All USB ports (no video out or HDMI yet)
6. Battery status
7. Some of the FN keys are at least showing up on the screen when pressed.
8. Display Brightness controls and 60/120Hz

Things not working yet,

Audio

This was a little painful to get working as you need to use a mix of WSL Ubuntu for the initial part of the build, and then use a dongle mess that had a wired keyboard/mouse/the installation USB/ and a ethernet connection all on the USB A. I built a 7.3 Kernel (linux-next) to bring in as much as I could, copied all the firmware from the Windows install, then went to work with Deepseek tackling one issue at a time. Once I was on Linux, things went faster as I didn't have to experiment with something and jump back to Windows.

Edit: Updated the display working. I put the documentation up on GitHub including scripts and patches. It is 100% AI written. I have reviewed some/most of it. There may be gaps. It may not be perfect. You can use it or not. https://github.com/jc372/A16UbuntuBuild

Most things aren't working in the live version, but at the very least, I can get it to boot and nearly get a working install to the HD (I was hoping once it was installed, I could finish working on getting other things running). In order to install it, you have to put the iso on a sdcard and boot from that. You can then use a wired keyboard on the free USB A port (probably use a Hub connected to a keyboard and mouse, but I don't have one). The USB C port will not work after initial boot. I gave it a 100GB partition and I can see it copied everything over.

Hoping someone smarter than me can get the boot working....On both Ubuntu daily (7.0 kernel) and latest Tumbleweed(7.1 kernel) when I get to the end where they both try to install the bootloader(I have tried both secure on/off), that fails with efi errors...fine....I mount all the directories, manually copied the files over to where I (from memory) and help from Gemini(don't fully listen to it...it has some older information) think they go, but can't get the bios (F2 or Esc) to give me the option to boot into either Linux install.

I'm not as familiar anymore with the last steps on getting the bios setup correctly, but if someone has free time today and looking for something to do, I think it is probably doable. I am seeing plenty of commits to the 7.2 kernel for the x2, so hoping the next releases will be easy to get up and running.

Just got the A16 from BB on an open box excellent for $1400, (still had the plastic on the cords it, and only 1 battery cycle). This is my second Asus Snapdragon. I have the cheap model with the Plus that I picked up for $400 12-18 months ago that I use almost daily for light tasks or as a remoting machine. My other daily machines used for various tasks, that I judge against, are a couple of Mac Minis (M5), a MacBook Air (M5/16...going to my son which is why I was looking for another laptop), a Legion (3070TI, 32GB) running Linux (90% of the time) used for gaming/AI models locally. Most of these machines I use remote/headless a lot of the time. I also considered buying a Panther Lake with a b390 for better Linux compatibility, or another MBA/Pro with 24GB.

For my initial tests, I'm just installing default downloads, no changes in most cases. I just wanted to get a feel of the laptop and see where it fits in my daily work.

Gaming - Everything I or my kids play works fine. CSGO, Fortnite, Siege some older games, Hogwarts, Palworld, CyberPunk etc. My son tested the shooters and said they were perfectly fine for casual/fun matches. 90-100+ FPS with some dips. We drop down graphics if needed. Other games were easy to get to 50-60+ FPS with good enough graphics. I also have GeForce Now Ultimate and the Legion if needed, but so far, I wouldn't have an issue playing casually on this machine knowing the limitations.

AI - Models have been hit or miss with llama.cpp and LMStudio. I have not yet compiled lllama.cpp from source. I downloaded the nightly build for ARM. Both tools were just dumping junk, but a little searching and I found the params on llama.cpp that generally get things to work. They seem to be slightly slower than my Mac Mini if both can fit them in memory, but I can load a bunch of larger models on the A16 that the mini just refuse or freeze on. Most models seem to run faster when all or some layers are on CPU, not using the GPU. I did not do extensive testing here or applying any special params...just poking around at models off the shelf.

Linux - Bare Metal/latest ARM images. No tweaks applied, just trying the default images. I did not spend a lot of time yet trying to get these to work. I did have Ubuntu installed on my other Snapdragon.

Ubuntu boots, but I have no functioning keyboard or trackpad, so couldn't do anything. If I can find my wired mouse, I will try again with wired and see if I can get it updated and working. I have high hopes this will be working under 26.10.

Fedora - Would not boot.

Debian - Would not boot.

VMs - VirtualBox latest

Fedora/Ubuntu both work and feel very responsive. Could easily use them as my daily if I needed/wanted to be in Linux all day.

To install, had to change the display to VBoxSVGA and then could switch it back. Installing the Guest Additions took a few times as well for some reason.

Resizing the display doesn't work in Fedora when expanding the window, but you can resize the display in the OS to fit the size you want.

Also have to sometimes hard stop the VM either after sleep, or if I do a restart and it won't boot. I also have to sometimes do a hard stop it if I do a VM shutdown.

Bonus - The battery life in my basic testing has not really been impacted by the VM and I'm easily getting a full day out of it while limiting charge to 80%, but I offload to other machines for heavier workloads.

Some general annoyances -

Trackpad can be sensitive to phantom clicks. I rest my palms on the edges, and I notice that sometimes my cursor suddenly jumps. My other Asus does the same thing. It's probably just my hand placement. A little posture adjustment and it stops. I also worry that my watch might scratch it, so it's forcing me to stop being lazy.

Screen is reflective when using a dark theme. Switching to light themes helps. It's more reflective compared to my MBA, but they both suffer from it.

Other good.

Laptop is incredibly light. Screen, other than reflection, is great. Wake from sleep is instant and battery doesn't drain overnight (even with VM running). Battery is great for all day, sometimes multiday work. I don't like to carry the brick when I'm out or gone for a few days, so I always test various charging options. Fortunately, like the MBA, the Asus will charge off a low watt charger if needed (tested on a low power charger delivering about 7W...it was slow but charged). Have had no issues with any software that I use. Keyboard is nice, backlighting is good, ports are good.

Update: Nightly Tumblweed also boots, but no keyboard or trackpad. Wired mouse doesn't work either.