Talk:ASUS Zenbook UX430/UX530

From ArchWiki
Latest comment: 2 August 2021 by Goose121 in topic Ambient light sensor

Some highlights

  1. Note that version 4.13 causes higher minimum CPU frequencies - added note about it at #Fan spins all the time. 4.13 is a mistake IMO. My desktop computer sometimes does not wake up from sleep on this kernel version. Windows 10 VM on UX430UQ time to time freezes and makes it unusable (upstream bug) and finally - unstable CPU minimum frequencies on UX430UQ as well (upstream bug). 4.12 is completelly fine.
  2. NBFC config for UX430UQ has been pushed to upstream and available via nbfc-gitAUR package. Also see #Fan spins all the time...

Magentium (talk) 05:41, 10 December 2017 (UTC)Due to an upstream bug in Kernel 4.13, screen refresh rates can be pushed back to 40hz and stuck there. I'm currently on the LTS Kernel of 4.9 and it's working beautifully, so that could be something to add. Unfortunately I'm not very good at editing these pages so I'm not sure the best format to enter this in withReply[reply]

Power saving & performance optimisation list

Since this is draft (talk page), we can say whatever we want here. So let's figure out what things works the best for this laptop in order to save more juice on battery! -- Erkexzcx (talk) 21:59, 18 September 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply]

  • Improving_performance#Watchdogs - Watchdog is not needed on portable devices, like this laptop. It can be disabled.
  • Fan_speed_control#NBFC - Not spinning fan of course saves battery, but NBFC is written in C# and runs under mono in Linux, which uses more CPU than native C or C++ such application.
  • Kernel parameters - I personally use these and they seem to do really great job: quiet nowatchdog pcie_aspm=force i915.enable_rc6=1 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.semaphores=1.
  • TLP - It has some good optimised settings out of the box to increase battery life.
  • Undervolting_CPU - Reduce CPU heat and save battery as well.
  • Disable Intel's mitigations and make Linux blazing fast again.

Magentium (talk) 03:03, 27 November 2017 (UTC) I agree that NBFC uses more CPU than native C or C++, but unfortunately I lose a good hour of battery without running NBFC. I noticed that there is a UX430UA configuration on the NBFC page, but it wasn't fantastic for me. I can hit around 60 degrees before the CPU throttles, so I have mine set not to run until the CPU hits 58 degrees, and then for each 5 degree jump, it jumps 10% fan speed.Reply[reply]


As long as I understand - you are looking for a way to optimise config file for your usage. Is this correct? Please check sample of this config created by me:

https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc/blob/master/Configs/Asus%20Zenbook%20UX430UQ.xml
<TemperatureThreshold>
	<UpThreshold>0</UpThreshold>
	<DownThreshold>0</DownThreshold>
	<FanSpeed>0</FanSpeed>
</TemperatureThreshold>
<TemperatureThreshold>
	<UpThreshold>55</UpThreshold>
	<DownThreshold>50</DownThreshold>
	<FanSpeed>12.5</FanSpeed>
</TemperatureThreshold>
<TemperatureThreshold>
	<UpThreshold>60</UpThreshold>
	<DownThreshold>55</DownThreshold>
	<FanSpeed>25</FanSpeed>
</TemperatureThreshold>

And in human words it would look like this:

https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc/blob/master/Configs/Asus%20Zenbook%20UX430UQ.xml
<TemperatureThreshold>
	If temperature reaches 0c - start fan spinning at 0%.
	If temperature reaches 0c - Completelly turn it off (no lower step).
</TemperatureThreshold>
<TemperatureThreshold>
	If temperature reaches 55c - start fan spinning at 12.5%.
	If temperature reaches 50c - pass control to lower step (12.5% --> 0% in this case).
</TemperatureThreshold>
<TemperatureThreshold>
	If temperature reaches 60c - start fan spinning at 25%.
	If temperature reaches 55c - pass control to lower step (25% --> 12.5% in this case).
</TemperatureThreshold>

So basically you can just copy above configuration to your configuration and enjoy. Above configuration might not be perfect, but it works very well to me. UX430UQ rarely reaches 55c temperature and my colleagues at work thought my laptop has passive cooling. Results on Google shows that one of the major cons of this laptop - cooling system optimisation. No way - it's perfect with NBFC. -- Erkexzcx (talk) 23:57, 9 December 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Magentium (talk) 05:39, 10 December 2017 (UTC) - That is correct. I just modified mine to be how I wanted it to be. It works really well now.Reply[reply]

Klausenbusk (talk) 23:11, 4 August 2019 (UTC) Anther option is changing the default thermal tipping points [1][2], works very well for me.Reply[reply]

Keyboard Backlight

The keyboard Backlight (Fn+F3 and Fn+F4) doesn't work with my UX430UQ. It would seem the acpi returns an incorrect value to the asus_wmi driver. Does it work for you? Patsux (talk)

I am using too UX430UQ model. Yes, it works for me out of the box. I previously owned Asus N550JV and from my experience - I would guess you are trying to get it working on some "superb-simple & lightning fast" DE or WM (example - i3). It this is the case, see ASUS_N550JV#Brightness_2. :) -- Erkexzcx (talk) 11:38, 27 September 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I'm using cinnamon. I have just installed asus-kbd-backlight, but the problem is still present. I get the file /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightnessdoes not exist. I debugged the driver and It turns out It receives an acpi error when it is listing this device. If you or someone else could send me their DSDT table I will compare with mine (I know it is a tiresome task :)). For the complete story, the backlight worked well when I purchased the PC but after some hardware issues, Asus has changed the electronic. Since then, the PC works well except for the backlight. The bios is updated and I tested lot of acpi_osi parameters. Thanks for your help :) Patsux (talk)
If you could tell me here what is actually needed - I can provide you. By the way, we can share final answer here after all, but to speed things up - maybe contact me via email erikmnkl@gmail.com so we can sort this out faster? I just do not monitor this page every day :) -- Erkexzcx (talk) 21:23, 27 September 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply]
How is it going? -- Erkexzcx (talk) 07:45, 10 October 2017 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Fingerprint Reader

A fork of fprintb that supports the fingerprint reader (04f3:0903) can be found here. I've gotten the examples provided to work, however fingerprint-gui does not recognize it. Any ideas? --Elg (talk) 12:00, 19 July 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]


Quick search on google revealed libfprint-elantech-gitAUR package which uses your mentioned GIT repo. I will try to mess with it over night and report if I am able to get this thing working! Thanks for tips! -- Erkexzcx (talk) 17:53, 24 July 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]


Sharing my findings. Long story short - not working:
fprintd-enroll
Using device /net/reactivated/Fprint/Device/0
Enrolling right-index-finger finger.
Enroll result: enroll-stage-passed
Enroll result: enroll-retry-scan
Enroll result: enroll-retry-scan
Enroll result: enroll-unknown-error
Longer explanation and what I've done in order to get this working:
  1. Install libfprint-elantech-gitAUR.
  2. Install Fprint on top of that. This gives userspace tools.
  3. Finally - you can go ahead and install fingerprint-guiAUR.
I would suggest trying fprintd-enroll command to see if this works in the first place, then you might try with fingerprint-gui.

-- Erkexzcx (talk) 19:34, 24 July 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]


The comment of the libfprint-elantech-gitAUR maintainer from comments:

@prstoetzer
Unfortunately, the driver does not seem to work well with some of the single touch sensors. From what I've read, libfprint expects a higher resolution than some of these sensors provide, so while you might get a finger here or there to work, it won't be reliable. It's not actually the driver's fault, but the design of libfprint that's incompatible some of these low cost sensors.

Not quire sure if we ever get this touchpad working :) -- Erkexzcx (talk) 23:39, 9 August 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

FYI: The driver was upstreamed (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/merge_requests/10) and enrolling works, but verify doesn't. This is probably due to the small sensor as you mentioned and as explained here Klausenbusk (talk) 16:18, 4 August 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Battery threshold

Erkexzcx, I can see you have reverted my "Battery charge control" edit. Can you elaborate on why? Especially why you think it is a "software feature" and how it is different from ex: " Function keys"? Klausenbusk (talk) 21:30, 28 August 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Function keys are hardware thing (just like WiFi interface, bluetooth interface, camera, keyboard, display, fingerprint sensor etc...). As long as I understand, "ASUS Battery Health Charging" is a software solution (not hardware) developed by Asus for Windows OS. If there is a Linux application developed for exactly this purpose - please give me a link. Also please note that the information provided in the laptop's wiki page is intended only for UX430/UX530 and if such application is suitable for majority of laptops - it should be mentioned somewhere at Power_management and not here. -- Erkexzcx (talk) 22:51, 26 September 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]
"ASUS Battery Health Charging" only works because the battery controller supports specifying a stop and start threshold for charging (a hardware feature). AFAIK only Thinkpads battery driver support specifying a start/stop thershold: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/2801b9683f740012863f7f0b1f0bc770c417fe72. Klausenbusk (talk) 16:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I see, I see... Added to the main page. -- Erkexzcx (talk) 04:26, 27 October 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Ambient light sensor

I wrote the patch referenced in the article to support the UX430UQ, and I really wouldn't be surprised if it also works (with minimal tweaking to add another rule which matches the model in question) on other models with the ALS issue. If anyone has another 430 model where the ALS doesn't work, I would be happy to provide a patch for testing. goose121 (talk) 07:57, 2 August 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]