MSI Modern 15 A5M

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
Touchpad	`06cb:7e7e`	Yes
Keyboard	PS/2	Yes
GPU	`1002:164c`	Yes
Webcam	`04f2:b695`	Yes
Bluetooth	`0e8d:0608`	Yes
SD Card reader	`10ec:525a`	Untested
Audio	`1022:15e3`	Yes
WiFi	`14c3:0608`	Yes
TPM	`1022:15df`	Yes

Installation

Secure Boot needs to be disabled at first startup and after UEFI updates.

Sometimes Wi-Fi may not work properly (not connecting to networks). That issue can be solved by powering off laptop and holding power button for 60 seconds to reset BIOS settings.

Firmware

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: This section needs to explain if/what is supported by fwupd. (Discuss in Talk:MSI Modern 15 A5M)

Secure Boot functions well with custom keys, make sure to disable automatic reverting to factory keys.

Accessibility

The BIOS interface is keyboard driven and does not require the use of a mouse.

Thermals

Fan control can be tuned by installing isw^AUR.

Battery

Battery charge limit can be tuned by isw^AUR (PR: https://github.com/YoyPa/isw/issues/41).

According to MSI Center Pro there is 3 modes:

Mode "Best for Mobility" (Charge the battery to 100% all the time)

# isw -s 0xef 228

Mode "Balanced" (Charge the battery when under 70%, stop at 80%)

# isw -s 0xef 208

Mode "Best for Battery" (Charge the battery when under 50%, stop at 60%)

# isw -s 0xef 188

Keyboard

Toggle Fn key always on with Fn+Esc. The keyboard backlight works properly. The LEDs on the F1 (Audio mute) and F5 (Microphone status) keys do not work.

It is possible to control keyboard backlight with powerdevil-git^AUR widget after installing msi-ec-git^AUR.

Function keys

Key	Visible?¹	Marked?²	Effect
`Fn+Esc`	Yes	Yes	`XF86Fn_Esc`
`Fn+F1`	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioMute`
`Fn+F2`	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioLowerVolume`
`Fn+F3`	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioRaiseVolume`
`Fn+F4`	Yes	Yes	`XF86TouchpadToggle`
`Fn+F5`	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioMicMute`
`Fn+F6`	Yes	Yes	`XF86WebCam`
`Fn+F7`	Yes	Yes	`XF86Launch1`
`Fn+F8`	No	Yes	Keyboard brightness change
`Fn+F9`	Yes	Yes	`XF86MonBrightnessDown`
`Fn+F10`	Yes	Yes	`XF86MonBrightnessDown`
`Fn+F11`	Yes	Yes	Screen projection
`Fn+F12`	Yes	Yes	`XF86Launch2`

The key is visible to xev and similar tools
The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function

Screen overclocking

Laptops with the 089RU model number have a B156HAN02.1 panel that can be stably overclocked from 60 Hz to 90 Hz by modifying edid settings.

Troubleshooting

This article or section is a candidate for merging with #Battery.

Notes: Could be condensed into a single sentence explaining to load the ec_sys kernel module. (Discuss in Talk:MSI Modern 15 A5M)

Using commands such as:

# isw -cp MSI_ADDRESS_DEFAULT
# isw -s 0xef 228

may fail showing the following error:

/sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io: No such file or directory

The solution is the following command:

# modprobe ec_sys