ASUS Zenbook UX534
Device | Status |
Intel | Working |
Nvidia | Working |
HDMI | Working |
Ethernet (USB cable) | Working |
Wireless | Working |
Audio | Not Working |
Touchpad | Working |
Camera | Working |
Card Reader | Working |
Bluetooth | Working |
Function keys | Working |
Face recognition sensor | working |
Battery autonomy | 6.5-10+ hours |
Battery charge threshold | Working |
ASUS UX334, UX434 and UX534 models with ScreenPad™ 2.0. These models most probably share almost the same hardware (the only difference is screen size and discrete NVidia GPU, and missing Display Port Alt-Mode on some models, even 15 inch seems to not include USB-C DP Altmode -), this article covers hardware specific configuration for all ZenBook 13 (UX334), ZenBook 14 (UX434) and ZenBook 15 (UX534).
However the first author is testing on an UX534FTC Full HD (no 4K), with NVidia GTX1650 Max-Q and a 10th generation 10510U Core I7.
Contents
Configuration
Secure Boot (option)
In order to boot any Linux operating system, navigate to BIOS, then hit F7 (or ESC) or click on "Advanced Menu", then the "Security" tab and set "Secure Boot" to Off
.
If the aforementioned "Secure Boot" option is a menu rather than an on-or-off option, click on "Secure Boot", "Key Management", then "Reset to Setup Mode" and confirm in the dialog.
You may need to authorize entering the BIOS from the pre-installed Windows system.
Video
See Intel Graphics and Hardware Acceleration. For models with discrete Nvidia graphics card, also see NVIDIA Optimus.
The Screenpad is working as a secondary display (brightness is kept from the last windows setting), it can be easly deactivated using Gnome settings for example (thus lowering power consumption). It requires a 'Rotation Portrait Left' and it's most usefull with a scale factor of 200% (Wayland allows to set a different scale factor of 100% if your main screen in only the Full HD version). The screenpad and touchpad functionnality are totally separated under linux (you just has a 2nd screen under your fingers).
Audio
There is a bug affecting multiple Asus Zenbook models from 2019-2020 era that uses Realtek ALC294
chip. This includes all UX33*
, UX43*
and UX53*
models. There is no sound through integrated speakers, microphone is not capturing any sound, only headphones crackling at 100%. Bug references:
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1850439
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1784485
- https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206289
At the moment, there is no fix or workaround, but one can use the following alternatives:
- External USB audio card
- Bluetooth headphones
See PulseAudio.
Touchpad
See Libinput. See Screenpad in "Video"
Facerecognition login
This computer has built-in face recognition sensor. You can use it with the project Howdy [1]. See the howdy page for further informations.
Battery charge threshold
Kernel 5.4 brought the ability to set the battery charge threshold for Asus laptops by modifying the charge_control_end_threshold
variable exposed under /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/
[2]. By default, this value is set to 100
[3].
The effect of its change can be demonstrated as follows:
$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status Charging $ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity 74 # echo 60 > /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold $ cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status Not charging
In order to make this change permanent, create a corresponding udev rule such as:
/etc/udev/rules.d/99-battery-charge-threshold.rules
KERNEL=="BAT0", SUBSYSTEM=="power_supply", ATTR{charge_control_end_threshold}="60"
(source)
Troubleshooting
Suspend
Suspend is working out of the box, with the last version of Archlinux Linux 5.6.3-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:47:16 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Linux (4.17 at least) default to suspend-to-idle which is not very power effective. This is probably due to this change in 4.14-rc1. For better power effective you can use suspend-to-ram by adding mem_sleep_default=deep
to the kernel cmdline.
Tips and tricks
Power saving and performance
As advertised by ASUS, these laptops are capable to last up to 9 hours on battery. In order to achieve this, see:
- BIOS update - It is generally recommended to update BIOS, as it usually brings performance, power-saving and security features.
- Power Saving - List of general recommendations to increase battery life.
- Improving performance - List of general recommendations to increase performance.
- SSD - Tips and tricks for Solid State Drives. These three laptops ship M.2 SSD by default.
- Undervolting CPU - Decrease voltage for Intel CPU (reduce battery drain, reduce heat and therefore - reduce fan speed)
- Bumblebee - If using bumbleblee and optimus, install 'bbswitch' to allow a good shutdown of NVidia Card ('nvidia-smi' return error if NVidia is power off, or information if it's in use)
UX534FT FHD perfom perfectly with Gnome 3, Bumblebee (bbswitch activated), Konkor (Gnome-extension) with Governor 'Power Save' does :
- 10h+ (more than 10 hours probably arround 12h or more) watching a video from network using VLC with bluetooth audio, low brightness (not lowest)
- 7.5h+ with brightness arround 60% watching a Youtube Video and using Firefox
- ? h (TODO) in heavy duty task (for example 'optirun' task using discrete Nvidia GPU