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 Zenbook prime

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{OK}

LAN network card:

{OK}

Detect CD/DVD:

[-]

Detect hard drives:

{OK}

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

{OK}

Hibernation

{OK}

Sleep / Suspend

{OK}

Xorg

{OK}

- OpenGL

{OK}

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

{OK}

Switch to External Screen (VGA)

{OK}

Switch to External Screen (HDMI)

{OK}

Mouse

- Built-in (Touchpad)

{OK}

Wireless/Wifi

{OK} X-(

Keyboard's Hotkeys

{i}

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

Important Note

Configuration

Most of the information contained in this page was taken from: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/laptop/478335-asus-ux31a-opensuse-12-2-a.html http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2005999&page=3 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ASUS_Zenbook_Prime_UX31A

Grub.cfg

According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ASUS_Zenbook_Prime_UX31A, “these kernel parameters offer some speed optimizations and longer battery life. It is recommended to enable them”. Add the following kernel parameters to GRUB2 by editing the file /etc/default/grub on the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line.

add_efi_memmap i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 pcie_aspm=force drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1 

1 - add_efi_memmap - include EFI memory map of available physical RAM (from: http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/x86/x86_64/uefi.txt)

2 - i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 - RC6 was enabled by default for a while, but then it ended up being too buggy for some hardware configuration so it had to be disabled. For affected systems on the current code-base, enabling RC6 can cause GPU hangs. The Intel RC6 feature allows the GPU to enter a lower power state when the GPU is idling (from http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_i915_power&num=1)

3 - pcie_aspm=force enables ASPM, even on devices that do not support ASPM. If pcie_aspm=force is set, hardware that does not support ASPM can cause the system to stop responding. Before setting pcie_aspm=force, ensure that all PCIe hardware on the system supports ASPM (from: https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Power_Management_Guide/ASPM.html)

4 - drm.vblankoffdelay = 1 - Setting a delay blanking retrace the beam vertical deflection (DRM vblank off) reduces the number of wakeup events of CPU and possibly save a little energy (from: http://linuxconfig.net/manual-howto/increase-battery-life-with-the-debian-ubuntu-laptop.html)

5 - nmi_watchdog=0 - When the NMI watchdog is enabled, the system hardware is programmed to periodically generate an NMI. Each NMI invokes a handler in the Linux kernel to check the count of certain interrupts. If the handler detects that this count has not increased over a certain period of time, it assumes the system is hung. It then invokes the panic routine. If Kdump is enabled, the routine also saves a crash dump. (from: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/lnxinfo/v3r0m0/index.jsp?topic=/liaai/crashdump/liaaicrashdumpnmiwatch.htm)

Display

The laptop uses an Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 4000 that works with i915 driver. It has two outputs: one VGA (that works fine with the supplied adaptor) and one micro HDMI. I could only get it to work with the Asus micro HDMI to HDMI cable (tested it with another cable and it didn't work).

Audio

The Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller works with the kernel driver snd_hda_intel. The codec in use is the Realtek ALC269VB. The internal mic works out of the box, as well as the speakers. The laptop also has a combo jack (headphones output + mic input). To make it work, type the following code in a terminal window and hit 'Enter':

echo options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-dmic | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Then restart ALSA:

sudo alsa force-reload

Audio output through HDMI works with Asus micro HDMI to HDMI cable.

SSD

This laptop uses a SATA III SSD 256GB (ADATA XM11 256GB-V2) disk. Other Zenbooks might have a Sandisk U100 (check: http://www.pcper.com/news/Mobile/Be-careful-which-ASUS-Zenbook-SSD-you-pick) The fine tuning for using a SSD disk with Debian was copied mostly from: http://wiki.debian.org/SSDoptimization.

Touchpad

Uses a Elantech made touchpad. Pointer motion works fine out of the box.

Some features do not work out of the box. Right-click is not recognized, but one can use a two-finger tap on the touchpad to emulate the right-click. Left-click+drag does not work. A double tap + drag allows dragging features in some situations, but it's not always easy, specially when selecting long sections There is plenty of available information on ways to improve/fix these items. Check the pages mentioned on top of the Configuration section.

Disable Trackpad while Typing: For KDE: (KDM) Goto System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Autostart, then click Add Program, enter:

 syndaemon -d -i 1 &

Then check "Run in terminal".

Power Management

Both suspend and hibernation works out of the box.

WiFi

This laptop has an Integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n card with BT 4.0 support. Wifi works with the iwlwifi kernel module. You'll need to install the firmware-iwlwifi package.

Bluetooth

Works out of the box. On KDE, install bluedevil. See http://wiki.debian.org/BluetoothUser

Webcam

Works out of the box.

Card reader

Works fine out of the box with the rts5139 kernel module.

Sensors

Ethernet

Works out of the box with kernel module asix.

USB 3.0

Works out of the box with the xhci_hcd kernel module.

FN Keys

You mileage may vary according to the kernel version you're running, by default :

sleep/suspend

fn+f1

{OK}

toggle wifi

fn+f2

{OK}

keyboard backlight control

fn+f3 & fn+f4

{X}

screen brightness

fn+f5 & fn+f6

{OK}

switch off display

fn+f7

{OK}

toggle between displays

fn+f8

{OK}

switch off touchpad

fn+f9

{X}

audio Mute

fn+f9

{OK}

reduce volume

fn+f10

{OK}

increase volume

fn+f11

{OK}

However for linux kernels >= 3.7 you can have fully functionnal FN keys. Add the following kernel parameters to GRUB2 by editing the file /etc/default/grub on the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line.

acpi_osi= acpi_backlight=intel

The kernel module asus-nb-wmi usually fails with error (see dmesg output).

probe of asus-nb-wmi failed with error -5"

This error can be solved by appending to the file /etc/modules the following lines.

asus-wmi
asus-nb-wmi


System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:0153] (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1e12] (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM76 Express Chipset LPC Controller [8086:1e59] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family Thermal Management Controller [8086:1e24] (rev 04)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6235 [8086:088e] (rev 24)

lsusb

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

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
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         3 
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  iProduct                2 Microsoft� Nano Transceiver v2.0
      (Bus Powered)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  (Bus Powered)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  iProduct                0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  iProduct                0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0bda:0139 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Card reader                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  bDeviceProtocol       255 Vendor Specific Protocol                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
  iProduct                2 USB2.0-CRW                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
      (Bus Powered)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  bDeviceProtocol         0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  (Bus Powered)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 04f2:b330 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  iProduct                1 USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
      (Bus Powered)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 004 Device 004: ID 8087:07da Intel Corp. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0 

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

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Credits