Please share your feedback on this laptop with linux

[BF-man]

Hello! This laptop looks like a perfect match for my needs, except OS part. Personally, I prefer ubuntu. But I worried about second screen and other possible issues. I would instantly order it with all the worries resolved :)

Could you please share your feedback on it with linux:

• What distro do you use?
• Have you tried any ubuntu?
• Does the second screen work?
• Does the screen touch work?
• What doesn't work? Bluetooth? nvidia drivers? touchpad and touchpad backlight?
• Any issues with scree flickering?
• Any other issues?
• How do you rate it?
• Have you tried windows + virtualbox(or something similar) * ubuntu ?

I would really love to hear your story with this great laptop. Thanks in advance.

[artur-w]

Hi, Ubuntu Budgie 20.04 LTS kernel 5.8.18 Second screen works fine. I had to use some scripts to control brightness. Touch screen works. Touchpad backlight doesnt work. Functional keys must be enabled with some patches. Screen dont flicker. I use Asus SimPro Dock with two FullHD monitors connected. After connection i must set xrandr script to make them work properly. Its probably because of some scaling i use. I'm sure this configuration could be persisted but I do not have time to work on that ;) On the same machine I have also Windows installed beside of Ubuntu. No issues at all. I also use Virtualbox with windows on Ubuntu - I have some issues to display virtualbox window properly because of scaling. This issue cause that Virtualbox works fine only on one of four monitors available :) At the end I see two issues of using Ubuntu: 1) Cant turn on numpad backlight on touchpad - It is not SO important but I miss that function 2) Ubuntu dont manage with power so good as windows does or maybe I don't know how to control it properly

But that is not so important - everything is cool.

Hope it helps

[BF-man]

Sounds promising, thank you! Have you tried WSL 1/2? Also, what is your opinion about the laptop? Is the second screen useful?

[artur-w]

@BF-man nope, I haven't

[Ngorror]

Hi apologies for my late reply here is my data and I also will like to fix some of my issues that @ekosystem didn't have What distro do you use? Mint 20.1 (Ulyssa) Have you tried any ubuntu? it is ubuntu based Does the second screen work? yes Does the screen touch work? in a weird way. you can move the mouse with it as touch pad. and where is your finger - the cursor is not there :) but somewhere north east of it What doesn't work?

• Bluetooth - works perfect - I'm using it daily with Sennheiser PCX-II headphones
• nvidia drivers - works perfect - I had some problems with one of the oldest versions but with the latest one it is good and I can use all hardware video compressing etc
• touchpad - works
• touchpad backlight - doesn't work

Any issues with scree flickering - nope so far Any other issues - I cannot use my cable headphones. When I plug them - the OS doesn't recognize them. I tried lots of hacks in alsa-config, different kernels even 5.9.x - no luck. How do you rate it?- MEGA COOL! I have somewhere a video in twitter how I split the screens to debug with VS Code and Chrome. I will try to find a link and share here Have you tried windows + virtualbox(or something similar) * ubuntu - yes I have dual boot - mint + win 10 I agree with @ekosystem - linux cannot control well the power usage and on battery with mine way of working I can use it only for an hour. Please note I set my battery through my kernel to not charge more than 60% I didn't test it yet with 100% charged battery in Mint.

I tried WSL2 but for me it is way to weird - I prefer pure linux.

in Windows I like to order Spotify on the right side on the ScreenPad - so I can directly touch the <3 (heart) icon on song that I like, instead of opening Spotify and clicking like.

@ekosystem do you have working combination of settings for wired headset? I've added in my Readme page here explanation how you can configure your battery threshold - it's not specific for this laptop but it is useful for me to keep the battery in good condition.

Also gaming CS:GO in 300 FPS screen is amazing :) I have 300 FPS FHD monitor. The laptop has enough power to run any modern game. It is just a little bit louder.

first twitter link https://twitter.com/TejasKumar_/status/1296089711879106560 second one https://twitter.com/Ngorror/status/1296371746036232194

Although I will advise you to buy the new version with AMD cpu if you are not a hardcore fan of Intel. It must be available in Europe probably this Spring

[remisphere]

Hello, @ekosystem, could you elaborate on what you meant by 'Functional keys must be enabled with some patches' ? I run Manjaro, and most of FN+function combinations don't work: F1 to F3 are OK (sound control) F6 and F9 give some response when running xev but others are completely silent (that's also the case of the three special keys above the touchpad).

• I had to play a bit with xrandr to get the bottom screen to behave the same as in Windows, by default they don't align.
• The touchscreen works but maps to both screens, so I can only use it as a giant touchpad (I didn't try to find where to tweak this yet).
• I couldn't get my hands on the brightness controls. Same issue as Ngorror with the jack not detected.
• Enabling v-sync in games sometimes strangely produces a constant screen tearing near the top of the top screen

Setting up a dual boot was a bit of a hassle, my config went with two SSDs in RAID-0, witch Linux installation media could not detect. There might have been a better way to do it, but as disabling RAID in the BIOS would make all existing partitions disappear, including Windows and EFI, I had to reinstall Windows (fortunately the licence was bound to the hardware).

I use the bottom screen for supervision, like running htop, or for YouTube picture-in-picture with a maximized window. I think that despite the hinges, the bottom screen is still too flat, unless you have a low desk you still have to bend over to see clearly.

[artur-w]

@remisphere all of my FN keys work. I can't remember what solution I used to make it work - I did plenty things about half year ago. For sure I did switch to kernel 5.8.x and use some solutions published in internet for Asus Zephyrus line.

Keys above touchpad also works. I had bound ROG key to display calc app :) I also had to play with xrand since I have 2 extra HD monitors connected via dock station so:

• main laptops display is in 4K with 200% scaling factor
• secondary laptops display is in 4k with 200% scaling factor
• one HD monitor is on the left of main - HD 100% scaling factor
• second HD monitor is on the right of main - HD 100% scaling factor Just after loging to Ubuntu and connecting Dock Station I have to enter xrandr script to make it work - without it HD monitors are some kind of blured.

Touchscreen works fine also, but I do not use it.

Try https://github.com/Plippo/asus-wmi-screenpad with controlling brightness control. It was easy to fix. It was harder to make second laptops display work. But I did some scripts and bound them into some key mapping and works fine.

Phone jack does not work for me either but since I dont use it its fine by me. I also do not play games on Ubuntu so I cant tell you anything about VSync etc.

Default bios configuration make unable to install Linux so I had to change settings and reinstall Windows also. Now everything works fine.

I agree that bottom screen is a bit flat so I bought somke kind of support: