Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 - ArchWiki

# Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3

Device | Status | Modules
Video | Working | i915
Wireless | Working | iwlwifi
Bluetooth | Working | btusb
Audio | Working | snd_hda_intel
Touchpad | Working | ?
Webcam | Working | uvcvideo
USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 | Working | ?
Function/Multimedia Keys | Working | ?

The Mi Notebook Air 13.3 is an aluminuim Ultrabook. It is a product by the Chinese Company Xiaomi and is currently only available in China or through import online-shops. Using the Intel Core i5 6200U @ 2.3 Ghz and the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX, it provides good power for a decent price.

The installation should be going without any problems, if you follow the following steps.

## Pre-Installation System Settings

It is actually very easy getting the Arch Installation Medium to boot properly. Prior to booting the Arch installation ISO enter the UEFI menu by pressing F2 during Boot.

- Security -> set password
- Security -> Disable Secure Boot
- reset the password by setting the password again but letting the "New Password" fields blank

Installation of Arch can proceed normally. Refer to the Installation guide for more info.

Note: Remember that your SSD is called `nvme0n1`, not `sda`.

## Grapahics Card Configuration

The Mi Book has an Intel, as well as a Nvidia GPU.

### Intel Only

If you want to completely disable the Nvidia GPU and save batterylife, do the following:

- Installing the xf86-video-intel package
- Blacklisting the nvidia and xf86-video-nouveau kernel modules Kernel modules#Blacklisting

    /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf

    blacklist nouveau
    blacklist nvidia

### Intel/Nvidia Hybrid Configuration

You can enable hybrid GPUs by either using Bumblebee or NVIDIA Optimus. Bumblebee is generally better for battery-life and compatibility but not officially supported by NVIDIA.

Refer to the respective articles.

## Input

### Touchpad

To use the touchpad like a normal one, you have to use xf86-input-libinput. If you use xf86-input-evdev, your touchpad acts like a touchscreen (e.g it maps your movements directly to your screen). But if you are using xf86-input-synaptics (although you really shouldn't, because it is deprecated (see Synaptics)) things are only working sporadically. This configuration of libinput using XOrg configuration files enables two finger gestures, tap-to-click and 2-and 3-finger clicks (for right- and middle-click respectively).

    /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-touchpad.conf

    Section "InputClass"
            Identifier "libinput touchpad"
            Driver "libinput"
            MatchIsTouchpad "on"
            MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
            Option "Tapping" "on"
            Option "ClickMethod" "clickfinger"
            Option "NaturalScrolling" "true"
    EndSection

### Fn-Keys

On this notebook the Fn-keys are enabled as default (e.g. pressing F1 mutes the sound). If pressing the keys does nothing you are most likely using a Window manager and not a Desktop environment. Use the respective configuration files to bind the keys to their use. For example Xbindkeys or i3's `bindsym`.

Most Fn-keys return the correct keycodes. Here is a table containing that information:

Fn-F-Key | Keycode
--- | ---
`F1` | `XF86AudioMute`
`F2` | `XF86AudioLowerVolume`
`F3` | `XF86AudioRaiseVolume`
`F4` | `XF86MonBrightnessDown`
`F5` | `XF86MonBrightnessUp`
`F6` | `Super_L + P`
`F7` | `Nothing`
`F8` | `Super_L + Tab`
`F9` | `Nothing`
`F10` | `Turns Keyboard backlight on/off`
`F11` | `Print`
`F12` | `Insert`

## Troubleshoothing

### Backlight

If you use a tool like xorg-xbacklight in its default configuration, nothing happens, because the path to the backlighting variable is not standard. To fix this issue, you have to use a X-Org configuration file:

    /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-backlight.conf

    Section "Device"
            Identifier "Card0"
            Driver     "intel"
            Option     "Backlight"  "intel_backlight"
            BusID      "PCI:0:2:0"
    EndSection

### WiFi

If you are having issues with the auto-detected WiFi drivers, that's because there's a conflict between two of them, as you can see using `rfkill list` To solve it, block the wrong driver:

    /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

    blacklist acer-wmi

Note, this issue is fixed in kernel version 4.9 and above.

Category:

- Xiaomi