Qualcomm Snapdragon 410/412 (MSM8916)

From postmarketOS
Qualcomm MSM8916
MSM8916 in ceramic BGA package
MSM8916 in ceramic BGA package
Manufacturer Qualcomm
Name MSM8916
Architecture aarch64
CPU 4x 1.2/1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
GPU Adreno 306
Year 2014
Process 28nm
Mainline yes
Community Page https://github.com/msm8916-mainline
Components
CPU
Partial
UART
Works
Storage
Works
USB
Works
Display
Works
GPU
Works
Pinctrl
Works
I²C
Works
SPI
Audio
Works
Video
Works
Thermal
Works
WiFi
Works
Bluetooth
Works
Modem
Works
GPS
Works
Camera
Partial
NPU
Suspend
Ethernet


MSM8916/APQ8016 (or Snapdragon 410) is Qualcomm SoC released in 2014, with great mainline Linux support originally added for the Dragonboard 410c. There is a slightly higher clocked variant (CPU cores up to 1.4 GHz) available as Snapdragon 412.

Devices

MSM8916 (Snapdragon 410)

Device Codename Mainline Category
Acer (Quanta) Iconia Talk S A1-724 acer-a1-724 Y testing
AGM A8 agm-grip testing
Alcatel Idol 3 (4.7") alcatel-idol347 Y testing
Alcatel Pop 2 (4.5) alcatel-alto45 testing
ARK Benefit A3 ark-peach Y testing
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser asus-z00ed, asus-ze500kl testing
Asus ZenFone 2 Laser ZE550KL (720p) asus-z00l Y testing
Asus Zenfone Max asus-z010d Y testing
Asus ZenPad 8.0 (Z380KL) asus-p024 testing
BLU Win HD LTE blu-ql850 testing
Coolpad Y80D coolpad-coolpady80d Y testing
Generic Zhihe-series LTE dongles generic-zhihe Y testing
HTC Desire 620 htc-a31ul testing
Huawei Ascend G620S/Honor Play 4x qualcomm version huawei-cherry testing
Huawei Ascend G7 huawei-g7 Y testing
Huawei Mediapad T1 10 huawei-hwt1a21l testing
Huawei Mediapad T1 8.0 Pro huawei-t18p0 testing
Huawei Y635 huawei-y635 Y testing
Lenovo A6000 lenovo-a6000 Y community
Lenovo A6010 lenovo-a6010 Y community
Lenovo PHAB lenovo-phab Y testing
LG K10 lg-m216 Y testing
LG Leon LTE lg-c50 Y testing
LG Spirit 4G LTE lg-c70n P testing
Marshall London marshall-london testing
Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) motorola-surnia Y testing
Motorola Moto G 2015 motorola-osprey Y testing
Motorola Moto G4 Play motorola-harpia Y community
Oppo A31 oppo-a31t testing
Oppo A37 oppo-a37f testing
Oppo Mirror 5s oppo-a51f Y testing
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 qcom-msm8916 Y testing
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2015) samsung-a3 Y community
Samsung Galaxy A5 samsung-a5 Y community
Samsung Galaxy Ace 4 samsung-heatqlte Y testing
Samsung Galaxy Core Prime LTE samsung-cprime Y testing
Samsung Galaxy E5 samsung-e5 Y testing
Samsung Galaxy E7 samsung-e7 Y community
Samsung Galaxy Grand Max samsung-grandmax Y community
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime samsung-gprimeltexx Y testing
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (SM-G530H) samsung-fortuna3g Y testing
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (SM-G530W) samsung-gprimeltecan Y testing
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (SM-G530Y) samsung-fortunaltezt Y testing
Samsung Galaxy J3 2016 samsung-j3ltetw Y testing
Samsung Galaxy J3 2016 samsung-j3ltespr testing
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2015) samsung-j5 Y testing
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) samsung-j5x Y testing
Samsung Galaxy On7 (2015) samsung-o7 Y testing
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition samsung-serranove Y community
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2015) samsung-gt58 Y community
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 (2015) samsung-gt510 Y community
Vivo Y21L vivo-y21l Y testing
Wileyfox Swift wileyfox-crackling Y community
Xiaomi Redmi 2 xiaomi-wt88047 Y community

APQ8016 (Snapdragon 410, WiFi-only)

Device Codename Mainline Category
Arrow DragonBoard 410c arrow-db410c Y community
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 (2015) samsung-matisseve Y testing
Samsung Galaxy Tab E 9.6 samsung-gtelwifiue Y testing

The WiFi-only variant gt58wifi of samsung-gt58 is APQ8016.

The WiFi-only variant gt510wifi of samsung-gt510 is APQ8016.

MSM8916v2 (Snapdragon 412)

Device Codename Mainline Category
BQ Aquaris X5 bq-paella Y community

Installation

All MSM8916 devices in postmarketOS use lk2nd as secondary bootloader. It does not replace the stock bootloader. Instead, it is flashed in place of an Android boot image, so that the stock bootloader will first load lk2nd instead of a regular Linux kernel. The advantage of this approach is that there is a consistent installation procedure for all MSM8916 devices (once lk2nd was installed), and various device-specific quirks can be handled within lk2nd.

Installing lk2nd

lk2nd fastboot screen example
Note: lk2nd makes some checks to show device status and capabilities of the firmware such as secure-boot status. Those are informational and you shouldn't be worried if some are marked not as in the screenshot above.

The instructions for installing lk2nd vary from device to device, so please check your device wiki page for instructions. Once you have lk2nd installed and working, you can proceed with the common installation procedure documented below.

Note Please make sure that you are always updated to the latest lk2nd. It makes various preparations to boot upstream Linux kernel and often gets changed alongside the kernel releases as development continues. Your device may have degraded support if you boot newer kernel version on an outdated lk2nd so it's advised to check for new lk2nd updates whenever you see new kernel package release.


Installation from pre-built image

Download a pre-built image as explained in the Installation article.

Unpack the compressed rootfs image (unxz *-<device>-*.img.xz) and with phone in "lk2nd mode" flash it to userdata partition. Do not forget to erase system partition to prevent accidental booting from it. For example:

$ unxz --keep 20210202-0502-postmarketOS-edge-plasma-mobile-3.2-samsung-a5lte-mainline-modem.img.xz
$ fastboot flash userdata 20210202-0502-postmarketOS-edge-plasma-mobile-3.2-samsung-a5lte-mainline-modem.img
$ fastboot erase system
$ fastboot reboot

Enjoy postmarketOS! (If the image has a pin on it try 0000, 1111, 1234 or 147147)

Installation using pmbootstrap

Follow the pmbootstrap article to build your own fully customized image, with many more UIs to choose from and other options. Below are MSM8916 specific notes.

During pmbootstrap init you may get prompted to select a provider for soc-qcom-msm8916-rproc: If you don't want to use the modem on your device (e.g. if your device is a tablet with APQ8016), you may want to pick no-modem.

Large phone UIs like Plasma Mobile or Phosh are too big for the system partition, so either install to the SD card:

$ pmbootstrap install --sdcard=/dev/mmcblk...

Or put your phone into lk2nd mode and flash to the userdata partition. Ignore the hint in the pmbootstrap output that pmbootstrap flasher flash_kernel should be used, this is not necessary. lk2nd will boot the kernel image from the installed rootfs.

$ pmbootstrap install
$ pmbootstrap flasher flash_rootfs --partition userdata
$ fastboot erase system
$ fastboot reboot

Enjoy postmarketOS!

Switching rproc mode

On msm8916 devices it's possible to choose if you want the remote processors (such as wifi and modem) to be enabled or not. You can change the mode by installing one of those packages by running sudo apk add soc-... on your device. (You may need to uninstall other rproc mode package first.)

Disabling the remote processors frees up a bit of RAM that they would otherwise use (~80 MB of ram for modem) so you may want to disable the modem if you install the system on an APQ8016 device where the modem core is currently unused.

Display

Note The following issue was solved in postmarketOS "edge" channel when upgrading kernel "linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916" to version 6.5.2-r0. In the postmarketOS "stable" channel v23.06 this issue still persists as it uses kernel "linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916" version 6.3-r0.


Some devices is known to has this common issue where in X11 user interfaces like Xfce4 and MATE, when the screen blacks out after a while of inactivity it can't be woken up anymore. As a workaround, set display sleeping time to "never" in the power managament settings. To solve this issue properly, work on the Quclcomm DRM Driver is needed. See the github issue on the our msm8916 kernel fork for learn more.


Known Device that has this issue

Device Confirmed By Reference
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Edition (samsung-serranove) Jakko pmaports#1570
Xiaomi Redmi 2 (xiaomi-wt88047) exkc,JulianGro pmaports#1080
Samsung Galaxy A5 2015 (samsung-a5) exkc [1](It might not be a good reference but it is the initial report for this deivce to have this issue),[2]
BQ Aquaris X5 (bq-paella) Github User iamdavidcz [3]
ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (720p) (asus-z00l) Github User Ro-Den [4],[5]

Battery

Unfortunately, the battery/charging drivers are device-specific and hard to validate without expert knowledge. The level of battery/charging support can be seen in the "Battery" status row on the device page:

  • Broken/Empty: Not supported, can not even check remaining battery capacity.
  • Partial: Can check remaining battery capacity, but not charging status. Charging may or may not work, and may or may not be dangerous on long-time use.
  • Working: Both battery/charging drivers are working. Charging works but is unlikely to be validated for safety.
Icon WARNING: Please be careful when charging the device in postmarketOS. Prefer charging the device using the downstream kernel (e.g. TWRP recovery) since this is more close to the code validated by the manufacturer. DO NOT LET THE DEVICE CHARGE UNATTENDED IN POSTMARKETOS! Remove the charger when the battery is full.


Audio

Pipewire

Seem to be broken

PulseAudio

Audio should work out of the box with PulseAudio. In your favorite PulseAudio mixer (e.g. pulsemixer on the command line) you can select the output port to use (e.g. Speaker, Earpiece, ...).

Note: If you use pulsemixer you can switch between output/input configuration with F1/F2, or loop with Tab/Shift+Tab. To select a particular output/input device press Enter and choose Set port.

ALSA

Everything is muted by default and must be enabled through alsaucm. Unfortunately, the tool is not very user-friendly.

$ alsaucm -i -c hw:0
set _verb HiFi
set _enadev <device>

where <device> is one of Speaker, Earpiece, Headphones, Mic1, Mic2 or Headset. alsaucm does not track which devices are already enabled, therefore it is possible to produce combinations that won't work properly (e.g. Headphones+Earpiece). To switch between devices, the old device first needs to be re-enabled and then disabled:

$ alsaucm -i -c hw:0
set _verb HiFi
set _enadev OLD
set _disdev OLD
set _enadev NEW
Icon WARNING: alsaucm sets the volume to maximum by default. It is possible to increase the volume even further, however, this may lead to permanent damage to your speaker!


Modem

If you install via pmbootstrap, pick "all" as rproc provider and make sure to agree to the usage of non-free firmware (required for the modem). Prebuilt images should have the modem working out of the box.

Note that this changes the way audio is routed on the device:

  • Without modem, audio is routed directly to the audio hardware, and works without the need for non-free firmware.
  • With modem running, audio must be routed through the audio DSP, which requires non-free firmware.

Therefore you should choose the kernel depending whether or not you would like to run the modem.

For usage instructions, see Modem.

GNSS (GPS)

On Qualcomm devices GNSS is usually part of the modem. ModemManager and libqmi (with qmicli) can configure and use the modem Location service. Applications like Pure Maps can use ModemManager interface directly, however you may need to enable the gps module:

$ mmcli -m any --location-enable-gps-nmea

Alternatively you can run gpsd to read NMEA output from qmicli. An example of that would be the following (you still need ModemManager to run as it will keep the connection with the modem open):

First command will enable the location service on the modem and give you CID to attach to in the second command.

$ sudo qmicli -pd /dev/modem --loc-start --client-no-release-cid
$ sudo qmicli -pd /dev/modem --loc-follow-nmea --client-cid=2 | gpsd -bnN /dev/stdin

There is a WIP merge request to the gpsd that adds the support for GNSS via Qualcomm modems.

GPS operation without a sim-card does not seem to be supported. The following test (assuming mmcli; ofono untested) shows the problem. It has been confirmed with various community and testing MSM8916:

No APQ8016 devices offer GPS capability at present. The samsung-gt58 (/gt58wifi) unified MSM8916/APQ8016 device may be a useful test case.

Test procedure:

  • power-off; remove sim card; power-on.
  • attempt to enable location services:
$ mmcli -m any --location-enable-gps-nmea
error: modem not enabled yet
  • attempt to enable modem:
$ mmcli -m any  --enable
error: couldn't enable the modem: 'GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ModemManager1.Error.Core.WrongState: modem in failed state'
  • check failure status:
$ mmcli -m any status | grep fail
  Status   |             state: failed
           |     failed reason: sim-missing

GPU

Snapdragon 410 uses Adreno 306 GPU and it's supported by the Freedreno driver in Mesa. While many applications work as-is, the driver isn't perfect and some applications may crash it. In some cases the GPU crash can lead to full system restart. If you see such behavior, you can try following workarounds:

  • OpenGL ES 3.0 seems to cause system crashes in some cases (e.g. in SuperTuxKart). You may try to override the GLES version with an environment variable. For example: MESA_GLES_VERSION_OVERRIDE=2.0 supertuxkart
  • If no other workaround works, you may have to use fully software rendering. Use like: LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true supertuxkart.

You can find a full list of environment variables in the Mesa documentation.

Troubleshooting

  • Screen doesn't work in Linux but works in lk2nd.
    Your device may have a display panel that wasn't enabled yet as msm8916 team only enables known working display panels. You can check the config files in linux-panel-drivers repository to see if the panel that is listed on lk2nd screen is enabled there. Contact msm8916 maintainers via Matrix. You can also build the panel driver yourself, consult the MSM8916 Mainlining guide for that.
  • CPU runs at most at 998 MHz but it should be capable of running at 1200 MHz.
    While the specifications of MSM8916 have 1200 MHz as max clock speed, currently the max MHz the CPU will operate with pmOS is 998 MHz. There are WIP changes available to make it work (https://github.com/TravMurav/linux/tree/cpr).
  • Device is slow to turn display on after it was left for a while. Calls don't wake it up as well.
    Suspend is not yet fully implemented, please see the "Suspend" section below.
  • I've put a SIM into the device, but it's not detected.
    Check, if your sim works with original OS and can register on a 4G network. Check if increasing sim_wait_time in /etc/conf.d/msm-modem-uim-selection fixes the issue.

Suspend

Note As of linux-postmarketos-qcom-msm8916 v6.1 the suspend is disabled in the kernel due to cases where devices will not wake from sleep.


Suspend is not yet fully implemented. For example, incomming calls do not wake up the phone (see pmaports issue #1157). It's recommended to disable suspend.

Kernel config

To make sure you have suspend disabled in kernel config:

$ grep CONFIG_SUSPEND /boot/config 
# CONFIG_SUSPEND is not set

Phosh

In Phosh, it can be disabled in Tweaks -> Power.

Or you can execute this in a terminal:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'nothing'
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'nothing'

For SSH sessions:

$ DISPLAY=:0 gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'nothing'
$ DISPLAY=:0 gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'nothing'

Plasma Mobile

For Plasma Mobile, disabling suspend in the settings currently doesn't work. Use command kcmshell5 powerdevilprofilesconfig in the terminal to call another settings page that works.

Mainlining

  • MSM8916 is a great platform to get started with mainlining! It has a dedicated MSM8916 Mainlining guide that explains how to get started.

See also