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This conference talk explores the evolution of Qualcomm support in U-Boot via mach-snapdragon over an 18-month period, transforming from a near-unused system with downstream dependencies to one of the most modern and generic architectures in U-Boot. Learn how this bootloader now supports more than 8 generations of SoCs and over a dozen devices with a single binary. Discover how Linaro's initial efforts to create a familiar bootloader for Qualcomm's "Robotics" IoT reference boards evolved into a Qualcomm-funded project, where developers modernized mach-snapdragon, updated drivers to support upstream Device Tree (DT) and newer SoCs, and shifted configuration to runtime. The presenters explain how synchronizing Linux DT into the U-Boot tree enabled easy support for any SoC, including modern platforms like Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 & 3 with extended UFS & USB Gadget support. The talk covers the history of Qualcomm support in U-Boot, current use cases from development boards to phones and laptops, platform status, and challenges faced when running U-Boot on large Edge platforms.
