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== Power Management ==
## Have you tested Hibernation and/or
## Then explain how to get it working
 (not covered yet)

== WiFi ==
 (not covered yet)

== Modem ==
 (not covered yet)
== Bluetooth ==
The Bluetooth requires the proprietary firmware (ar3k/AthrBT_0x01020200.dfu) provided by the package [[https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firmware-atheros|firmware-atheros]].

Translation(s): none

DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owners would know how get the best out of that hardware.

The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware.

If you need help to get Debian running on your hardware, please have a look at our user support channels where you may find specific channels (mailing list, IRC channel) dedicated to certain types of hardware.

Models covered

ASUS N551JW-CN068H

CPU:

Intel i7-4720HQ

Integrated video card:

Intel HD Graphics 4600

Discrete video card:

Nvidia ?GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5

Screen:

15.6" 16:9 Full HD (1920x1080)

Wireless card:

Qualcomm Atheros AR9485

Disks:

2.5" SATA3 1TB HDD 7200 RPM

RAM:

DDR3L 1600 MHz SDRAM 16GB

Bluetooth:

Atheros AR3012

Overall Status in Debian Stretch

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{OK}

LAN network card:

{OK}

Detect CD/DVD:

{OK}

Detect hard drives:

{OK}

CPU:

{OK}

Extra Features

Shutdown

{OK}

Reboot

{OK}

Hibernation

{OK}

Sleep / Suspend

{OK}

Display

- Integrated Intel video card

{OK}

- Discrete Nvidia video card

X-(

Screen backlight

{OK}

Switch to External Screen (HDMI)

{OK}

Built-in Touchpad

{OK}

Bluetooth

X-(

Wifi

{OK}

Keyboard's Hotkeys

{OK} (not all keys)

Audio

- Built-in speakers and microphone

{OK}

- External headphone (combo audio jack)

{OK}

- External microphone (combo audio jack)

/!\

- ?SonicMaster external subwoofer

{i}

MicroSD card reader

{OK}

Built-in camera

{OK}

Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Configuration

Display

The integrated video card is an Intel HD Graphics 4600 and it does not require the i915 driver (if present, the xserver-xorg-video-intel package can be uninstalled).

The discrete video card is an Nvidia ?GeForce GTX 960M and it should be used with Bumblebee. This video card works well with the Nvidia proprietary drivers (bumblebee-nvidia, nvidia-driver) but it may not work with the free ones (xserver-xorg-video-nouveau).

Audio

The built-in speakers and microphone work out of the box. This model has a headphone/microphone combo jack but only headphones seem to work.

SonicMaster external subwoofer

A configuration of the sound subsystem is required in order to use the ?SonicMaster external subwoofer. Please read the official HD-Audio documentation to understand the procedure described in the following.

The HD-Audio setup can be modified by using a firmware file, a patch file in plain text (see HD-Audio early patching). The patch required to use the external subwoofer can be created in this way:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /lib/firmware/asus-n551jw-subwoofer.fw > /dev/null
[codec]
$(cat /sys/class/sound/hwC1D0/vendor_id) $(cat /sys/class/sound/hwC1D0/subsystem_id) 0

[pincfg]
0x1a 0x90170151
EOF

Please pay attention that in the above code, under the [codec] section, /sys/class/sound/hwC1D0 refers to the ALC668 codec and should not be confused with /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0, the HDMI codec, that requires no changes (see HD-Audio reconfiguration for more info). In the [pincfg] section the first string, 0x1a, is the subwoofer pin and the second one, 0x90170151, is its configuration as Internal Speaker (LFE) (Bass only information).

The patch file then has to be declared as an option for the snd-hda-intel module:

echo "options snd-hda-intel patch=,asus-n551jw-subwoofer.fw" | \
sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/asus-n551jw-subwoofer.conf > /dev/null

Please pay attention that the patch module option is specific to each card instance and it requires one file name for each instance, separated by commas (e.g. patch=hdmi-patch,on-board-patch). In this case the first file name, for the HDMI, is empty because it is not needed.

The last step is to configure PulseAudio (no tests were done for Alsa only setup), in this way:

cat << EOF > ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf
default-sample-channels = 3
enable-lfe-remixing = yes
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right,lfe
lfe-crossover-freq = 250
EOF

Please check man pulse-daemon.conf for detailed info. The last string is a suggestion given in this post:

  • The beer can size "?SonicMaster" subwoofer shipped with the N551 has a resonance at about 160 Hz, the internal speakers show a resonance at about 380 Hz: a 250 Hz crossover allows both to perform at their best. The Pulseaudio default at 120 Hz would cut off most of the output from the ?SonicMaster.

At this point the system has to be rebooted in order to apply the changes. Then it will be possible to choose two more configurations for the audio device: analogic sorround 2.1 (suggested) and analogic sorround 4.0 (the subwoofer acts as a rear right speaker).

Touchpad

The touchpad works out of the box but it lacks some functionalities with the default libinput driver. To solve this issue it is possible to make the synaptics driver take precedence over libinput (see Synpatics Touchpad - Change to libinput Xorg driver in Debian 9 "Stretch"):

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
sudo cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Bluetooth

The Bluetooth requires the proprietary firmware (ar3k/AthrBT_0x01020200.dfu) provided by the package firmware-atheros.


System Summary

lspci

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Credits