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Models covered
ASUS UX305FA / UX305F / UX305CA / UX305C

Overall Status

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

Important Note

Before installing Debian, Secure Boot needs to be disabled in BIOS, and CSM feature enabled.

Configuration

Display

X.org works flawlessly with version 2:2.99.917-1 of Intel video drivers.

With standard Jessie kernel (Linux 3.16), the nomodeset option is required to get X server displaying things. And in this case the DRI is software emulated, resulting in poor performances, such as no fluid full screen video playing. You get hardware DRI with kernel Linux 4.0 and corresponding Intel drivers.

To get the kernel Linux in version 4.0 starting from a standard Jessie, you need to set some APT preferences :

Package: *       
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release a=jessie-backports
Pin-Priority: 660

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 90

And edit  /etc/apt/sources.list  to add :

# jessie-backports
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

# Sid unstable
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

As explained here : https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/kernel-backport-for-debian-jessie-4175542797/#post5364663

Hardware acceleration

VLC

Then, to get hardware coding in VLC, open the preferences dialog :

• select "video output GLX XCB" in the Video tab ;
• and "VA API via DRM" in the Codec tab.

Flash

As explained here : https://askubuntu.com/questions/500911/ubuntu-14-04-not-recognizing-installed-intel-graphics-driver

You can get in-Iceweasel flashplayer to be hardware accelerated, and so being able to stretch video into full screen mode. First, install libvdpau-va-gl1 version 0.3.4-2 :  sudo apt-get install libvdpau-va-gl1 

Then create a file /etc/adobe/mms.conf :

sudo mkdir -p /etc/adobe
echo "EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1" | sudo tee /etc/adobe/mms.cfg
echo "OverrideGPUValidation=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

Then, add :  export VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl  ; to your /usr/bin/firefox shell script file. Restart Iceweasel, you'll get full screen video.

HiDPI

The ux305fa screen is 293x165 mm, for a resolution of 3200x1800px, which represents a high dot-per-inch value as of 2015. In consequence, all writings are very small on the screen as long as you set some parameters.

XFCE

Using XFCE, you'll be able to set a DPI value in the Appearance settings, tab Police. Values upper than 125 are workable, I use 166 and 192 is recommended :

$ xdpyinfo | grep -B 2 resolution
screen #0:
  dimensions:    3200x1800 pixels (846x476 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

96 x 2 = 192.

Nevertheless I also recommend to activated anti-aliasing of the fonts, and Inconsolata as xfce4-terminal font (from  fonts-inconsolata  Debian package).

QT based applications

QT based applications should accept the  -style gtk  parameter, when started from command line interface. This tells QT-based applications to follow the look-and-feel of GTK based application. As XFCE is GTK based, XFCE settings will apply (tested with FreeCAD and ?GridcoinResearch wallet).

Iceweasel / Firefox-esr

Iceweasel 31 can't take advantage of this setting. To comfortably use it, you may open the about:config tab and set :  layout.css.devPixelsPerPx=1.75 

Another solution is to use Iceweasel module Zoom Page, which automatically zooms to optimal width, removing margins : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zoom-page/

Firefox 63 is able to set its DPI from XFCE parameter.

gkrellm

You can set specific fonts and sizes in gkrellm, but also play with a zoom factor in Configuration, Themes, tab Options, Scale setting on the bottom of the tab. A value of 200% is a working setting.

VLC

Unfortunately, VLC don't seems to offer a way to tweak its font sizes.

Audio

Works out of the box, even function keys, but the mute key mutes Master and Speaker channels while unmute only unmutes Master…

Touchpad

Works out of the box. Tap-clicks (single, double for right click, triple for middle) can be setup through XFCE mouse parameters. Feels much better than HP Folio¹³ one's.

Hotkey F9 is not disabling it.

UX305C : As stated in ?ArchLinux wiki, touchpad also needs a kernel Linux 4.5.0-rc1 or later to work with Debian.

Power Management

Sleep and hibernate

Sleep and Hibernate both do work without problems.

Screen backlight

Linux 4.11 - Stretch

With Linux 4.11, fn+F5 and fn+F6 are respectively decreasing and increasing screen backlight.

fn+F7 is not anymore cutting it.

Linux 4.0 - Jessie

Screen backlight control needs at least Linux 4.0 (from unstable back in 2015) to work, through power management icon' slider.

Screen backlight extinction hotkey is working, but not the mode-auto one with logo (fn+A with qwerty keyboard, fn+Q with azerty one).

The increase / decrease keys do exist, but they are not F5 and F6 as the physical keyboard would let you guess, but rather F3 and F4. This can be discerned with  xev , but cannot be used by XFCE keyboard settings tool (which is able to select those keys but won't trigger any action when pressed).

To adjust screen backlight from keyboard shortcuts, with kernels previous to the 4.11 one, I used xbacklight with the following binding :

• xbacklight -inc 10 -> Super + F6

• xbacklight -dec 10 -> Super + F5

Power consumption measures

Information gathered with  powertop , on battery discharging. Three scenarios with wifi on and bluetooth off :

• Intensive usage (Backlight 100%, CPU 50%) : 12W - 4h of autonomy

• Medium usage (Backlight 50%, CPU <10%) : 7W - 6h of autonomy

• No usage (Backlight 0%, CPU <1%) : 3,4W - 12h of autonomy

Hardware battery saving mode = CPU at 500MHz

When battery level becomes under 10%, the CPU slows down under 800MHz to reach, according to gkrellm2 measures : 500MHz and stays at this slowness.

It can helps when watching a movie on battery, as VLC has all the chances to stop decoding images on time in fullscreen mode with only 500MHz of CPU, hence warning you to plug the laptop.

UX305C : The scaling frequency range of Intel 6Y75 CPU is 400MHz - 3100MHz, which means that the CPU is falling to 400MHz when idle with no further configuration needed.

WiFi

Needs firmware-iwlwifi and fimware-linux-nonfree 0.44 to work with kernel Linux 4.0. Plane mode hotkey (F2) effectively cuts it even if key's built-in light is lighting or not.

Bluetooth

Install Blueman to get control over Bluetooth functionalities through an icon :  sudo apt-get install blueman 

Surprisingly, the plane mode hotkey (F2) is unable to hide the peripheral once it has been set to be visible during one minute, despite the deactivated bluetooth icon.

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System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Host Bridge -OPI [8086:1604] (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics [8086:161e] (rev 08)
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Audio Controller [8086:160c] (rev 08)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Camarillo Device [8086:1603] (rev 08)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB xHCI Controller [8086:9cb1] (rev 03)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP MEI Controller #1 [8086:9cba] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller [8086:9ca0] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 [8086:9c90] (rev e3)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #4 [8086:9c96] (rev e3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP LPC Controller [8086:9cc7] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] [8086:9c83] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SMBus Controller [8086:9ca2] (rev 03)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 [8086:095a] (rev 59)

lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         3 
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:9700 Suyin Corp. 
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  iProduct                1 USB2.0 UVC HD Webcam
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0a2a Intel Corp. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller

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Further readings

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ASUS_Zenbook_UX305

• http://www.grimoire-command.es/2018/memo_10.html

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CategoryLaptopComputer CategoryDebianOn