ASUS Zenbook UX51Vz

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This page contains instructions, tips, pointers, and links for installing and configuring Arch Linux on the ASUS Zenbook UX51Vz ultrabook.
See the page for its 13" variant
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A
that has mostly orthogonal information to those here (may be only partially applicable to UX51Vz)
Installation
The UX51Vz comes in a variety of configurations, most of those sold in western Europe come with two SSDs (2x128GB or 2x256GB) in an Intel Rapid Storage (aka Intel Matrix) RAID 0 configuration.
To install Arch Linux on the UX51Vz, you can follow the official
Installation guide
. Since the UX51Vz uses UEFI and GPT, make sure to also read the
UEFI
,
GPT
and
Arch boot process#Boot loader
pages. The only way to preserve the pre-installed Windows instance is to install Arch with RAID without breaking up the RAID 0 array. See
RAID
with the only difference that you should not create arrays, only assemble.
Note
As of BIOS version 207 on UX51VZH there is no option to reconfigure the Intel RST setup through BIOS. Once you break your array, you cannot set it up again. For Linux-only users, mdadm software raid should be a better option.
To report the RAID information from the Option ROM (for instance "Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager"):
mdadm --detail-platform
To get general details:
mdadm -D /dev/md127
To examine information (including members):
mdadm -E /dev/md127
This is the important part that uses imsm (Intel Matrix) metadata! To assemble the RAID array inside the container, and/or to start it (the -e option declares the style of RAID metadata (superblock) to be used):
mdadm -I -e imsm /dev/md127
To check the current state:
cat /proc/mdstat
To add it to the configuration file (to be activated automagically at boot):
mdadm --examine --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf
Then proceed with partitioning and file systems creation as usual.
Boot from USB medium
Press
Escape
to get into the boot menu. If the USB bootable device is not listed, enter the configuration menu and directly press
F10
to save. Press
Escape
again on reboot: This time the USB bootable device should appear in the menu.
Select 'Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)" and press
Enter
. The installation system will be booted and you will end up with a terminal.
Function keys
The function keys are largely the same as described in
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A
. This goes for both screen backlight (which actually works out of the box on KDE as of June 2013) and keyboard backlight.
Solid State Drive
Check
Solid State Drives
Touchpad
See
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A
, the touchpad is the same.
Powersave management
For automatic powersaving when on battery configure
Laptop Mode Tools
. For manual power saving see
Power saving
. Also check out
Powertop
.
The UX51Vz can run a little hot, this is especially true for the HiDPI variant (aka UX51VZH) because the discrete GPU is always on. Be sure to check out
Linux Thermal Daemon
[
dead link
2024-07-30—HTTP 404]
(available as
thermald
in the AUR), which proactively controls thermal using P-states, T-states, and the Intel power clamp driver. It can do wonders for temperature management while avoiding to spin up the fans.
Additional resources
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbookPrime
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2005999
Wikipedia:Zenbook#UX32.2C UX42 and UX52
https://bertrandbenoit.blogspot.it/2011/07/manage-intel-raid-under-gnulinux-using.html