ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530
| Device | PCI/USB ID | Working? |
|---|---|---|
| Intel | Yes | |
| GPU (nvidia) | Yes | |
| Ethernet (via USB) | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| Audio | Yes | |
| Touchpad | Yes | |
| Webcam | Yes | |
| SD-card reader | Yes | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| Fingerprint reader | Partially | |
| Ambient light sensor | Partially |
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
The fingerprint sensor is supported since Fprint v0.99.0, even through it is supported it does not work reliably. This is due to the fingerprint small sensor[1].
Ambient Light Sensor
The Ambient Light Sensor should work on UX430UQ[2] and UX430UNR[3].
Battery charge threshold
See Laptop/ASUS#Battery charge threshold.
Troubleshooting
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 is 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)
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 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.
Fan always active
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