ASUS Zenbook UX301LA

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.
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Needs a hardware table and a function keys section (Discuss in
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This page contains information specific to the ASUS Zenbook UX301LA. Some of it may also be applicable to similar models, depending on the specific configuration. You might also want to look at
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A
.
Installation
The UX301LA and similar models come with Windows 8 pre-installed, using
UEFI
and a
GUID Partition Table
scheme.
Booting from USB
Boot the machine with the USB medium plugged in. You can try pressing
Escape
to get a boot menu and select your USB device. If it is not showing, then try booting while pressing
F2
. You will be booted into a BIOS menu. Go to
Boot > Create a boot device
and select your USB medium. You will have to choose a specific
.efi
file - for an Arch bootable USB it is
/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
. Then under the Boot tab, change the boot device you just made to be higher priority than Windows Boot Manager. Make sure to save your changes on exit, and the system should reboot into the device.
Partitioning
Whatever partition scheme you desire, make sure to use
parted
if you want to keep any of the other existing partitions since
fdisk
does not support the GPT scheme already on the machine. If you want to use a
GParted
live CD/USB, you will need to run
kpartx -a /dev/mapper/xxx_ASUS_OS
as root where the
xxx_ASUS_OS
is the node in
/dev/mapper
other than
control
before you start the
GParted
application.
Note
In Arch, if you have RAID 0 your hard drive device will look something like
/dev/md126
and the partitions will look like
/dev/md126p1
.
Installing Arch
See
Installation guide
.
If your machine comes with RAID 0 then add
mdadm_udev
to your
mkinitcpio HOOKS
and
regenerate the initramfs
.
When you install
GRUB
, follow the instructions for UEFI Systems. Your ESP (
EFI system partition
) should be the first partition in your scheme.
Function Keys
All function keys except the backlight seem to work out of the box (as of Arch default kernel 3.12.7). To fix the backlight keys, add
acpi_osi=
as a
kernel parameter
.
KDE and Keyboard Backlight
You may need to run the following command on login to fix keyboard backlight control.
$ qdbus org.kde.kded /kded unloadModule powerdevil
$ qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule powerdevil
Display
Check
HiDPI
.
Touchpad
xinput lists it as "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" but it works with a
xf86-input-synaptics
driver. See
Touchpad Synaptics
for detail.
Wi-Fi
See
Wireless network configuration#iwlwifi
Battery Issues
Many have been experiencing an issue with the battery not properly charging under Linux. There is a thread about this on the
Ubuntu Forums
. Holding down the power button to do a clean reboot seems to be a workaround, but the issue has not been resolved yet, and those who have sent their laptops in for repair have reported that it did not resolve the issue.
Heat
As you have probably noticed, the UX301 family of laptops will reach 80° Celsius doing the most remedial of tasks, and upwards of 90° while watching videos. You may want to consider installing and configuring
thermald
.
Helpful Links
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A
RAID
TLP
(Pre-configured power saving)
Ubuntu UX302 Page
Ubuntu Forums UX302 thread
InsanelyMac(OSX86) thread with hardware info, etc.