Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A and UX32VD

[chicgeek]

Has anyone gotten their paws on the new Ivy Bridge models of the Zenbook? I believe there were issues with battery life and suspend on the Sandy bridge models, though I'm not sure if these could be fixed manually or not.

I'm particularly interested to see if ubuntu will play well with graphics switching for the Zenbook UX32VD-DB71. If not, I'll likely opt for the Zenbook Prime UX31a-DB71.

• Ubuntu on older Zenbook models:
  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1870893
• Asus Zenbook on Ubuntu help
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbook
• Spec comparison of different models
  http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus...ml#post8622617

[pchokola]

I am also interested on running Linux on this notebook (Ubuntu, Fedora and CentOS). I am looking at either this notebook or the Lenovo X230.

If someone gets their hands on one I would like to know if the Nvidia graphics can be disabled in BIOS so it runs on the Intel 4000 chip only. That way worst case scenario I could run Windows using Nvidia and Linux running Intel.

After Linus Torvalds gave Nvidia the finger last week I am not too "optimistic of optimus" running on Linux any time soon!

[bweber]

i own one. Most fn-keys dont work. NVidia isnt working. Bumblebee pm works. but pm isnt that good at all

[chicgeek]

i own one. Most fn-keys dont work. NVidia isnt working. Bumblebee pm works. but pm isnt that good at all

Check the links I posted above. I think there's a pretty common config fix for the fn buttons. Can you let us know if they work after this?

What's PM? Also, since you mentioned nvidia, it sounds like you have the UX32VD, correct?

Thanks in advance!

[bweber]

pm = powermanagement.
Yes I've the UX32VD. I didn't get the fn-keys working yet. The mentioned links didn't help me yet...

[dr.frankinfurter]

Bweber, how is everything else working? I'm really interested in putting Linux on this thing.

[quack]

nexero's DKMS package here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...6#post12054636 gave me mostly working function keys (UX32VD, Ubuntu 12.04). No screen brightness keys yet though.

[olanod]

Hello, I had kernel 3.5 using indicator-brightness to adjust brightness and updated to 3.8.3 to fix several issues including brightness keys but now neither of them work and now I'm stuck with 100% brightness level.

[Wolfgang Griech]

..and just to give an idea how low power consumption could be under kubuntu 12.10 64-bit on an i7 UX31A, here a screen shot of today, after applying about all what was said here in this thread and in the appropriate wiki https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbookPrime, average power consumption dropped below 5.5 W, of course BT and Wifi off, and screen at minimum brightness, and kbd backlite turned off, and ALPM activated:

powertop_ASUS-UX31A_2013-04-04.png

[Wolfgang Griech]

Hi,
am just using out-of-the-box kubuntu 12.10 64bit on an UX31A, BIOS 218, and about everything is working properly, even now the fn-f5+f6 for screen brighness control, found a simple fix for it on another thread here, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2006790&page=5 post #47:

UX31A -- A simple way to fix the brightness Fn keys

This does not involve changing the kernel.
I tested it with precise, using both the standard 3.2 kernel, or the upgraded 3.5 kernel.

Change kernel command lines in /etc/default/grub as follows

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash rootfstype=ext4 pcie_aspm=force nmi_watchdog=0"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='acpi_osi="!Windows 2006" acpi_osi="!Windows 2009" acpi_osi="!Windows 2012"'

Then run update-grub.

After rebooting, the screen brightness function keys work.