ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530 - ArchWiki

# ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530

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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
Fingerprint Sensor | Partially working
Ambient Light Sensor | Partially working
Battery charge threshold | Working

ASUS announced UX430 and UX530 models. Since these models share almost the same hardware (the only difference is screen size and discrete NVidia GPU), this article covers hardware specific configuration for all UX430UA, UX430UQ, UX530UQ and UX530UX 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 NVIDIA Optimus.

## Audio

See PulseAudio.

## Touchpad

See Libinput.

## Fingerprint sensor

Note: This is likely not going to work at all. See Talk:ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530#Fingerprint Reader.

The fingerprint sensor is supported since Fprint v0.99.0, even through it is supported it doesn't work reliably. This is due to the fingerprint small sensor[1].

## Ambient Light Sensor

The Ambient Light Sensor should work on UX430UQ[2] and a patch for UX430UNR is available[3].

## Battery charge threshold

Note: The following has been tested on a Zenbook UX430UNR with BIOS version 308.

Most newer Zenbooks supports specifying a charge stop threshold (see ASUS Battery Health Charging for more information).

The battery charge stop threshold can be set by modifying the EC registers, which can be done with acpi_call. Finding the correct EC register to modify, is the tricky part.

You can check the current threshold and battery percent, with the following commands:

    $ read () { echo "${1}" > /proc/acpi/call; printf "%d\n" $(sed 's/\x0.*//g' /proc/acpi/call); }
    $ read "\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.RRAM 0x3af"
    100 # Percent at which the battery will stop charging (default is 100)
    $ read "\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.RRAM 0x3b0"
    80 # current battery percent, should match: cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity

Warning: Do not proceed if the commands don't return the expected values!

The threshold can be changed with the following command (the threshold is reset when the computer is power cycled):

    $ echo "\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.WRAM 0x3af <battery percent in hex, ex: 0x50 for 80%>" > /proc/acpi/call

The hex value can be found with `printf "0x%x\n" 80`.

To change the threshold at boot it is possible to use systemd-tmpfiles.

    /etc/tmpfiles.d/battery.conf

    w /proc/acpi/call - - - - \\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.WRAM 0x3af 0x50 # 80%

# Troubleshooting

## Headphones audio is too low

Linux kernel version 4.14 and earlier has a bug, where you may notice that the audio through the headphones is too low (upstream bug). In kernel version 4.15 you have to pull out and plug in back your headset after resume in order to fix the low audio.

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`.

## 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, see Bumblebee#Failed to initialize the NVIDIA GPU at PCI:1:0:0 (Bumblebee daemon reported: error: [XORG] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0)).

## Headset Microphone

You may encounter an issue where your headset microphone is not being detected. To fix this, create this file and restart your system:

    /etc/modprobe.d/fix_headset_microphone.conf

    # Fix an issue where your headset microphone is not being detected:
    options snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-multi

## No sound (after Windows)

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: Someone please check and confirm if this is working alternative solution. (Discuss in Talk:ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530#)

There seems to be a bug in the firmware that prevents the embedded sound card from working in Arch after Windows has been restarted. A complete shutdown of the laptop is required to get the sound card working again.

## Suspend

Linux (4.17 at least) default to suspend-to-idle which isn't 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.

## Fan always active

See Fan speed control#NBFC.

# 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.

- Undervolting CPU - Decrease voltage for Intel CPU (reduce battery drain, reduce heat and therefore - reduce fan speed)

## 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

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