BSP Tracker / BSP Status / Qualcomm
Qualcomm QCS6490 (RB3 Gen 2)
The strongest mainline story of the long tail: GPU, video codec and camera all have upstream drivers. What you lose by shipping mainline is the AI stack (the Hexagon DSP boots, but inference needs Qualcomm's proprietary runtime), camera 3A and tuning, and the tuned power and thermal profiles.
Mainline instead of the vendor BSP
Can you ship mainline instead, and what exactly do you lose if you do?
Mainline, with named losses
| Block | IP | Upstream | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | Adreno 643 | upstream | qcom,adreno-635.0 in sc7280.dtsi; drivers/gpu/drm/msm (freedreno). |
| VPU decode | Venus / Iris2 | upstream | qcom,sc7280-venus binding. |
| VPU encode | Venus / Iris2 | upstream | The same binding declares both decoder and encoder children. |
| NPU | Hexagon cDSP (AI Engine) | vendor | The DSP boots upstream (qcom,sc7280-cdsp-pas), but inference requires Qualcomm's proprietary fastrpc userspace plus QNN/SNPE. |
| ISP | CAMSS | upstream | qcom,sc7280-camss. A bare CSI/VFE pipeline: no 3A or tuning in mainline. |
Vendor BSP
Repository. https://github.com/qualcomm-linux/kernel
Newest branch that actually exists. qcom-6.18.y, tracking Linux 6.18. Last commit 2026-07-14.
Cadence. A mainline-based tree (Qualcomm Linux), not a legacy msm-x.y fork. A qcom-6.19 branch also exists, but its HEAD is 2026-03-11 and its last commits are FROMLIST patches; qcom-6.18.y is the branch that is actually being fed. Do not switch on the higher number alone.
Silicon longevity
Committed until 2036-07. Named in Qualcomm's IoT Product Longevity Catalogue: launched July 2021, longevity period 15 years. Conditional: commercially reasonable efforts, an annual minimum order quantity, and subject to change.
Yocto
Layer. meta-qcom. A branch for the current LTS exists: wrynose.
The wrynose branch genuinely carries qcs6490-rb3gen2 machine configs — verified by listing conf/machine on that ref.
Hardware you can buy
Evaluate on. Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Development Kit, Lantronix Open-Q 6490CS SOM dev kit
Production modules.
- TurboX C6490P SOM — Thundercomm
- Open-Q 6490CS SOM — Lantronix
- SG560D smart module (LGA) — Quectel
Notes
The qcom DTS layout changed after v6.18; any scraper must pin to release tags, not master.
What to do about it
Qualcomm QCS6490 (RB3 Gen 2): upstream fixes stop December 2028. That leaves 29 months. After that date the kernel this BSP is based on receives no further security fixes from upstream, and maintaining it becomes your team’s responsibility.
There are three options:
- Backport the fixes yourself. Your team maintains a kernel that nobody else maintains: tracking each CVE, applying the patch to a tree that has diverged from upstream, and testing the result, for as long as the product ships.
- Move to the vendor’s newer BSP. This gives you a few more years of upstream fixes, and it costs a second bring-up: a new kernel, your patches forward-ported, drivers re-validated, and the product re-tested.
- Move to mainline. Mainline supports part of this SoC. The blocks marked above are the ones a migration has to solve or replace. It is the only option that does not have to be repeated when the next vendor kernel reaches end of life.
All three are engineering work, and all three are work we do: reading vendor kernel trees, checking what mainline actually supports, and moving products from one to the other. This page is built from the same work.
Get the updates
An email when a kernel series reaches end of life, a board row changes, or a layer picks up a release branch. Nothing else.
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