Tuxedo Computers slams lid on Arm Linux laptop after 18 months of pain
(2025/11/26)
- Reference: 1764152108
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/11/26/tuxedo_axes_arm_laptop/
- Source link:
German Linux box vendor Tuxedo Computers has canned its long-planned Qualcomm device, citing numerous problems with the state of the Linux-on-Arm art.
After a year and a half of work, Tuxedo announced that it is [1]discontinuing work on its planned Arm laptop based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon System-on-Chip. There is some good news mingled in with the bad, though. The company is planning to submit its support code upstream to help others trying to support computers based around the device – and in a somewhat unusual move, it hinted that the [2]Medion SPRCHRGD 14 was the model it aimed to OEM.
The device was to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, whose release The Register [3]covered in October 2023 . In November that year, that specific SoC was [4]mentioned at the Ubuntu Summit as a target platform. We [5]reported that Tuxedo's machine was coming in June 2024. Back then, the vendor said [6]TUXEDO on ARM is coming , and another update [7]followed in March 2025 .
[8]
Although [9]Qualcomm was talking about Linux support back in May 2024, there were already some caveats and red lights. In June 2024, [10]Samsung warned about compatibility issues , and in October 2024, Qualcomm [11]stopped offering its desktop Windows Dev Kit devices .
[12]
[13]
As we near the end of 2025, Tuxedo says that it couldn't overcome multiple issues:
In particular, the long battery runtimes – usually one of the strong arguments for ARM devices – were not achieved under Linux. A viable approach for BIOS updates under Linux is also missing at this stage, as is fan control. Virtualization with KVM is not foreseeable on our model, nor are the high USB4 transfer rates. Video hardware decoding is technically possible, but most applications lack the necessary support.
A core problem is that with this whole list of outstanding issues yet to fix, the core SoC is getting relatively old now. It's a two-year-old part, and Qualcomm announced its successor back in September: the [14]Snapdragon X2 Elite . One of the big unspoken problems with a next-generation replacement Arm SoC is that, because Arm hardware lacks much of the baseline firmware-level intercompatibility of x86 devices, a new SoC version means largely having to restart development.
This stuff is considerably harder on Arm, even if the vendor does help. Tuxedo also calls out Linux-on-Arm specialists [15]Linaro for their assistance. If the vendor doesn't chip in, of course, it's harder still. Around the same time as the Snapdragon X Elite, [16]Apple announced its M3 SoCs , and two years later, the Asahi Linux team is [17]still working on M3 support .
We discussed the longstanding Linux-on-Arm compatibility problems and things like devicetree support when we [18]looked at the Mobian Linux project last month. Arm hardware tends to be inexpensive and very power-efficient, and as a result, there is a lot of small, cheap Arm devices out there. Many ship with one specific version of the bootloader, kernel, and various device drivers, and many never get updated again. As we covered in some depth in 2022, this is the problem that [19]Armbian exists to help with .
[20]
Although they confound newbies, long-term Linux users are used to compatibility issues. Battle-scarred veteran penguin-wrestlers know that you tend to be better off with older kit – and to [21]avoid Nvidia . We looked at getting [22]Linux on a Lenovo ThinkPad X13S in late 2023, and with some issues – like no camera – it did work. The observant will note, though, that there was a long gap between when we [23]first looked at the machine in March and when we got Ubuntu installed – in September.
The X13S used a Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3. A later model, the [24]ThinkPad T14S Gen 6 , uses the same Snapdragon that Tuxedo hoped to sell. It [25]reportedly works , and Lenovo even offers [26]some documentation [PDF] – but the ThinkPad is a $1,721 (or [27]£1,165 ) gadget. The Medion doesn't seem to be on sale in the US, but in the UK, it's [28]somewhere in the [29]region of half the price.
[30]LisaGUI recreates Apple's innovative computer OS, without emulating it
[31]This Thanksgiving, top your turkey with Cranberry sOSS to fund open source
[32]Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino
[33]Thunderbird 145 finally adds 'native' Exchange support
As we have [34]mentioned before , many vendors of pre-installed Linux laptops resell existing Linux-compatible models from original equipment manufacturers such as Taiwanese builder [35]Clevo . This is a common practice, and Clevo has been around for a long time – the then-youthful Reg [36]mentioned the company in 1999 .
There are some big differences here that many in the industry don't like to discuss. Even among Lenovo's own offerings, the gap between, say, the premium ThinkPad and budget consumer IdeaPad ranges is substantial. The Reg FOSS desk owns rather more elderly ThinkPads than is strictly necessary, and exchanging, say, a Danish keyboard for a UK one in a W520 is a simple five-minute job. Last year, we repaired and upgraded an older IdeaPad 510 for a friend's son, and it was an experience we are not keen to repeat – for example, fitting a new keyboard meant either snapping off and re-melting plastic clips, or replacing the entire top cover of the machine, trackpad and all. There's also a big difference between buying a pre-installed machine, where you can reasonably expect everything to work well, and putting your own OS onto a machine, where the odd glitch might be perfectly acceptable.
We reviewed one Tuxedo machine, the [37]Stellaris AMD Gen 4 . It wasn't without peculiarities – the 2.2 kg (5 lb), 2 cm (nearly 1 inch) thick machine had just four USB ports and a slimline fold-up Ethernet connector – but the feel of its mechanical keyboard was superb. Everything worked, even setting the color of the underlit keyboard. We sympathize with the company if it wasn't able to deliver that level of integration with Arm-based hardware, and respect the decision not to ship it.
[38]
Tuxedo has contributed its custom devicetree and other patches to the upstream kernel. What this means is that soon, you will be able to buy an inexpensive Medion SPRCHRGD Snapdragon model laptop and put Linux (or [39]come to that, OpenBSD ) on it yourself with the reasonable expectation that most things will work fairly well. We suggest dual-booting with Windows so you still can upgrade the firmware – but then, [40]we always do .
An even cheaper route is to buy an [41]Arm-based Chromebook – various vendors offer those, [42]including Lenovo . As we [43]reported in July , Google plans to merge ChromeOS with Android, and there will be [44]next-gen Snapdragon models . Thanks to a Google [45]job ad on LinkedIn (archived [46]here should it disappear), it looks like this will be called Aluminium OS, or ALOS for short. ®
Get our [47]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Discontinuation-of-ARM-notebooks-with-Snapdragon-X-Elite-SoC.tuxedo
[2] https://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/laptops-and-tablets/laptop-device-finder/medion-sprchrgd-14
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/qualcomm_x_elite/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/13/ubuntu_for_arm64_laptops/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/24/arm_linux_x86/
[6] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-on-ARM-is-coming.tuxedo
[7] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/How-is-TUXEDOCOes-ARM-Notebook-Coming-Along.tuxedo
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/15/qualcomm_linux_support/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/samsung_korea_copilot_plus_pc_compatibility/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/17/qualcomm_kills_xelite_dev_kit/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/qualcomm_details_x2_elite/
[15] https://www.linaro.org/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/31/apple_m3_cpus_macbook_pro_imac/
[17] https://asahilinux.org/2025/10/progress-report-6-17/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/21/mobian_trixie/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/03/armbian_project_releases_version_2202/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2012/06/18/torvalds_curses_nvidia/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/08/linux_on_the_thinkpad_x13s/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/lenovo_thinkpad_x13s_the_stealth/
[24] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/lenovo-thinkpad-t14s-gen-6-14-inch-snapdragon/len101t0099
[25] https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1m69945/linux_on_arm_t14s_snapdragon/
[26] https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t14s_gen6_c24_linux_ug_en.pdf
[27] https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/lenovo-thinkpad-t14s-gen-6-14-inch-intel/len101t0134
[28] https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-medion-sprchrgd-14-s1-elite-28k-wqxgaplus-120hz-snapdragon-x1e-78-100-16gb-ddr5-512gb-nvme-ssd-ad
[29] https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/medion-akoya-qualcomm-purwa-8c-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-11-home-l-30038761/version.asp
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/lisagui_lisaos_apple/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/cranberry_soss_campaign/
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/21/adafruit_makers_unhappy_with_arduino/
[33] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/20/thunderbird_microsoft_exchange_support/
[34] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/slimbook_linux_laptop_update/
[35] https://www.clevo.com.tw/
[36] https://www.theregister.com/1999/06/23/wanna_know_which_firms_made/
[37] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/08/tuxedo_stellaris_amd_gen_4/
[38] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[39] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/23/openbsd_78_and_9front_release/
[40] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/linux_nonapproved_laptop/
[41] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/mediatek_wants_to_make_chromebooks/
[42] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/chromebook_plus_kompanio_ultra_lenovo/
[43] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/16/android_replacing_chromeos/
[44] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/google_android_chromeos/
[45] https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/senior-product-manager-android-laptop-and-tablets-at-google-4302767236/?skipRedirect=true
[46] https://archive.ph/fQ81M
[47] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
After a year and a half of work, Tuxedo announced that it is [1]discontinuing work on its planned Arm laptop based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon System-on-Chip. There is some good news mingled in with the bad, though. The company is planning to submit its support code upstream to help others trying to support computers based around the device – and in a somewhat unusual move, it hinted that the [2]Medion SPRCHRGD 14 was the model it aimed to OEM.
The device was to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, whose release The Register [3]covered in October 2023 . In November that year, that specific SoC was [4]mentioned at the Ubuntu Summit as a target platform. We [5]reported that Tuxedo's machine was coming in June 2024. Back then, the vendor said [6]TUXEDO on ARM is coming , and another update [7]followed in March 2025 .
[8]
Although [9]Qualcomm was talking about Linux support back in May 2024, there were already some caveats and red lights. In June 2024, [10]Samsung warned about compatibility issues , and in October 2024, Qualcomm [11]stopped offering its desktop Windows Dev Kit devices .
[12]
[13]
As we near the end of 2025, Tuxedo says that it couldn't overcome multiple issues:
In particular, the long battery runtimes – usually one of the strong arguments for ARM devices – were not achieved under Linux. A viable approach for BIOS updates under Linux is also missing at this stage, as is fan control. Virtualization with KVM is not foreseeable on our model, nor are the high USB4 transfer rates. Video hardware decoding is technically possible, but most applications lack the necessary support.
A core problem is that with this whole list of outstanding issues yet to fix, the core SoC is getting relatively old now. It's a two-year-old part, and Qualcomm announced its successor back in September: the [14]Snapdragon X2 Elite . One of the big unspoken problems with a next-generation replacement Arm SoC is that, because Arm hardware lacks much of the baseline firmware-level intercompatibility of x86 devices, a new SoC version means largely having to restart development.
This stuff is considerably harder on Arm, even if the vendor does help. Tuxedo also calls out Linux-on-Arm specialists [15]Linaro for their assistance. If the vendor doesn't chip in, of course, it's harder still. Around the same time as the Snapdragon X Elite, [16]Apple announced its M3 SoCs , and two years later, the Asahi Linux team is [17]still working on M3 support .
We discussed the longstanding Linux-on-Arm compatibility problems and things like devicetree support when we [18]looked at the Mobian Linux project last month. Arm hardware tends to be inexpensive and very power-efficient, and as a result, there is a lot of small, cheap Arm devices out there. Many ship with one specific version of the bootloader, kernel, and various device drivers, and many never get updated again. As we covered in some depth in 2022, this is the problem that [19]Armbian exists to help with .
[20]
Although they confound newbies, long-term Linux users are used to compatibility issues. Battle-scarred veteran penguin-wrestlers know that you tend to be better off with older kit – and to [21]avoid Nvidia . We looked at getting [22]Linux on a Lenovo ThinkPad X13S in late 2023, and with some issues – like no camera – it did work. The observant will note, though, that there was a long gap between when we [23]first looked at the machine in March and when we got Ubuntu installed – in September.
The X13S used a Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3. A later model, the [24]ThinkPad T14S Gen 6 , uses the same Snapdragon that Tuxedo hoped to sell. It [25]reportedly works , and Lenovo even offers [26]some documentation [PDF] – but the ThinkPad is a $1,721 (or [27]£1,165 ) gadget. The Medion doesn't seem to be on sale in the US, but in the UK, it's [28]somewhere in the [29]region of half the price.
[30]LisaGUI recreates Apple's innovative computer OS, without emulating it
[31]This Thanksgiving, top your turkey with Cranberry sOSS to fund open source
[32]Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino
[33]Thunderbird 145 finally adds 'native' Exchange support
As we have [34]mentioned before , many vendors of pre-installed Linux laptops resell existing Linux-compatible models from original equipment manufacturers such as Taiwanese builder [35]Clevo . This is a common practice, and Clevo has been around for a long time – the then-youthful Reg [36]mentioned the company in 1999 .
There are some big differences here that many in the industry don't like to discuss. Even among Lenovo's own offerings, the gap between, say, the premium ThinkPad and budget consumer IdeaPad ranges is substantial. The Reg FOSS desk owns rather more elderly ThinkPads than is strictly necessary, and exchanging, say, a Danish keyboard for a UK one in a W520 is a simple five-minute job. Last year, we repaired and upgraded an older IdeaPad 510 for a friend's son, and it was an experience we are not keen to repeat – for example, fitting a new keyboard meant either snapping off and re-melting plastic clips, or replacing the entire top cover of the machine, trackpad and all. There's also a big difference between buying a pre-installed machine, where you can reasonably expect everything to work well, and putting your own OS onto a machine, where the odd glitch might be perfectly acceptable.
We reviewed one Tuxedo machine, the [37]Stellaris AMD Gen 4 . It wasn't without peculiarities – the 2.2 kg (5 lb), 2 cm (nearly 1 inch) thick machine had just four USB ports and a slimline fold-up Ethernet connector – but the feel of its mechanical keyboard was superb. Everything worked, even setting the color of the underlit keyboard. We sympathize with the company if it wasn't able to deliver that level of integration with Arm-based hardware, and respect the decision not to ship it.
[38]
Tuxedo has contributed its custom devicetree and other patches to the upstream kernel. What this means is that soon, you will be able to buy an inexpensive Medion SPRCHRGD Snapdragon model laptop and put Linux (or [39]come to that, OpenBSD ) on it yourself with the reasonable expectation that most things will work fairly well. We suggest dual-booting with Windows so you still can upgrade the firmware – but then, [40]we always do .
An even cheaper route is to buy an [41]Arm-based Chromebook – various vendors offer those, [42]including Lenovo . As we [43]reported in July , Google plans to merge ChromeOS with Android, and there will be [44]next-gen Snapdragon models . Thanks to a Google [45]job ad on LinkedIn (archived [46]here should it disappear), it looks like this will be called Aluminium OS, or ALOS for short. ®
Get our [47]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Discontinuation-of-ARM-notebooks-with-Snapdragon-X-Elite-SoC.tuxedo
[2] https://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/laptops-and-tablets/laptop-device-finder/medion-sprchrgd-14
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/qualcomm_x_elite/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/13/ubuntu_for_arm64_laptops/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/24/arm_linux_x86/
[6] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-on-ARM-is-coming.tuxedo
[7] https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/How-is-TUXEDOCOes-ARM-Notebook-Coming-Along.tuxedo
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/15/qualcomm_linux_support/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/samsung_korea_copilot_plus_pc_compatibility/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/17/qualcomm_kills_xelite_dev_kit/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/qualcomm_details_x2_elite/
[15] https://www.linaro.org/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/31/apple_m3_cpus_macbook_pro_imac/
[17] https://asahilinux.org/2025/10/progress-report-6-17/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/21/mobian_trixie/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/03/armbian_project_releases_version_2202/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2012/06/18/torvalds_curses_nvidia/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/08/linux_on_the_thinkpad_x13s/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/lenovo_thinkpad_x13s_the_stealth/
[24] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/lenovo-thinkpad-t14s-gen-6-14-inch-snapdragon/len101t0099
[25] https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1m69945/linux_on_arm_t14s_snapdragon/
[26] https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t14s_gen6_c24_linux_ug_en.pdf
[27] https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/lenovo-thinkpad-t14s-gen-6-14-inch-intel/len101t0134
[28] https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-medion-sprchrgd-14-s1-elite-28k-wqxgaplus-120hz-snapdragon-x1e-78-100-16gb-ddr5-512gb-nvme-ssd-ad
[29] https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/medion-akoya-qualcomm-purwa-8c-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd-14-inch-windows-11-home-l-30038761/version.asp
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/lisagui_lisaos_apple/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/cranberry_soss_campaign/
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/21/adafruit_makers_unhappy_with_arduino/
[33] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/20/thunderbird_microsoft_exchange_support/
[34] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/slimbook_linux_laptop_update/
[35] https://www.clevo.com.tw/
[36] https://www.theregister.com/1999/06/23/wanna_know_which_firms_made/
[37] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/08/tuxedo_stellaris_amd_gen_4/
[38] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aSbdyG77M6UudVc5rq9h2QAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[39] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/23/openbsd_78_and_9front_release/
[40] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/linux_nonapproved_laptop/
[41] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/mediatek_wants_to_make_chromebooks/
[42] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/chromebook_plus_kompanio_ultra_lenovo/
[43] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/16/android_replacing_chromeos/
[44] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/google_android_chromeos/
[45] https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/senior-product-manager-android-laptop-and-tablets-at-google-4302767236/?skipRedirect=true
[46] https://archive.ph/fQ81M
[47] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/