ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530 - ArchWiki

# ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530

From ArchWiki
< ASUS Zenbook UX430

Device | Status
Intel | Working
Nvidia | Working
HDMI (USB cable) | Working
Ethernet (USB cable) | Working
Wireless | Working
Audio | Working
Touchpad | Working
Camera | Working
Card Reader | Working
Bluetooth | Working
Function keys | Working
Ambient Light Sensor | Not working
Fingerprint Sensor | Not working

ASUS announced UX430 and UX530 models. Since these models share almost the same hardware (the only difference is screen size and discrete NVidia graphics card), this article covers hardware specific configuration for all UX430UA/UQ and UX530UQ/UX models.

# Configuration

## Secure Boot (option)

In order to boot any Linux operating system, navigate to BIOS, then hit F7 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.

## Video

See Intel Graphics and Hardware Acceleration. For models with discrete NVidia graphics card, also see Bumblebee.

## Audio

See PulseAudio.

## Touchpad

See Libinput.

# Troubleshooting

## Linux kernel 4.13 issues

Bug references: 197469 and 197449

Description: Unstable CPU frequencies staying at minimum of 800Mhz-1600Mhz instead of 400-700Mhz. This wastes battery and generates heat, causing fan to spin more aggressively. Also KVM crashes running Windows 10 VM with all available VirtIO features.

Fix: Use kernel version 4.12.* (or earlier) or 4.14.4 (or further). Avoid any 4.13.* versions.

## Headphones audio is too low

You may notice that the audio through the headphones is too low (upstream bug).

In order to fix it, install alsa-tools or hda-verbAUR and create the file:

    /usr/local/bin/fix_headphones_audio.sh

    #!/bin/bash
    while true; do
    	DEVICE=`ls /dev/snd/hwC[[:print:]]*D0 | head -n 1`
    	if [ ! -z "$DEVICE" ]; then
    		hda-verb "$DEVICE" 0x20 SET_COEF_INDEX 0x67
    		hda-verb "$DEVICE" 0x20 SET_PROC_COEF 0x3000
    		break
    	fi
    	sleep 1
    done

Then create a systemd script with the following content:

    /etc/systemd/system/fix_headphones_audio.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Fix headphones audio after boot & resume.
    After=multi-user.target suspend.target hibernate.target

    [Service]
    Type=oneshot
    ExecStart=/bin/sh '/usr/local/bin/fix_headphones_audio.sh'

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target suspend.target hibernate.target

And finally, start and enable `fix_headphones_audio.service`.

## Fan spins all the time

See Fan speed control#NBFC. Also see #Linux kernel 4.13 issues

## Microcode

During boot you might get the message `[Firmware Bug]: TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata; please update microcode to version: 0x52 (or later)`. See Microcode to resolve it.

## Nvidia issues with Bumblebee

It is likely that it's one of these issues:

- You used a power management application (especially Powertop). See bumblebee#Broken power management with kernel 4.8 for more information.
- You suspended your laptop and resumed, and are now unable to start your GPU. This can be fixed by rebooting the system, or by using `lspci` to find your NVIDIA card's bus id (usually `01:00.0`), then executing the following commands (with the driver unloaded) to remove and rescan the graphics card: `sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:<busid>/remove <<<1; sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/rescan <<<1`, replacing `<busid>` with the bus id from earlier.

## Headset Microphone

You may encounter an issue in which your headset microphone is not detected. The solution is to append

    options snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-multi

to a file in `/etc/modprobe.d/`.

# Tips and tricks

## Power saving and performance

As advertised by ASUS, both 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. Both laptops ship M.2 SSD by default.

## Extract Windows 10 license key

The laptop comes with Windows 10 preinstalled and the activation key is hardcoded into the firmware. If you replace Windows with Linux, then hardcoded activation key is useless. You might want to extract it and use somewhere else (e.g. virtualized Windows 10):

    # grep -aPo '[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}' /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

Note: Microsoft online support confirmed that the code is valid, but because you are unable to activate it (Windows fails to activate and asks for another code), they offered 2 options - replace activation code with another one for 40$ or contact OEM (ASUS) about this issue.

ASUS confirmed, that in order to "use" this activation key, you need to bring this laptop to repair service so they can "restore" system using ASUS OEM Windows 10 image. They do not provide this image for download.
Category:

- ASUS