ASUS UX301LA

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Reason: Needs a hardware table and a function keys section (Discuss in Talk:ASUS UX301LA)

This page contains information specific to the ASUS Zenbook UX301LA. Some of it may also be applicable to similar models, depending on the specific configuration. You might also want to look at ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A.

Installation

The UX301LA and similar models come with Windows 8 pre-installed, using UEFI and a GUID Partition Table scheme.

Booting from USB

Boot the machine with the USB medium plugged in. You can try pressing Escape to get a boot menu and select your USB device. If it is not showing, then try booting while pressing F2. You will be booted into a BIOS menu. Go to Boot > Create a boot device and select your USB medium. You will have to choose a specific .efi file - for an Arch bootable USB it is /EFI/boot/bootx64.efi. Then under the Boot tab, change the boot device you just made to be higher priority than Windows Boot Manager. Make sure to save your changes on exit, and the system should reboot into the device.

Partitioning

Whatever partition scheme you desire, make sure to use parted if you want to keep any of the other existing partitions since fdisk does not support the GPT scheme already on the machine. If you want to use a GParted live CD/USB, you will need to run kpartx -a /dev/mapper/xxx_ASUS_OS as root where the xxx_ASUS_OS is the node in /dev/mapper other than control before you start the GParted application.

Note: In Arch, if you have RAID 0 your hard drive device will look something like /dev/md126 and the partitions will look like /dev/md126p1.

Installing Arch

See Installation guide.

If your machine comes with RAID 0 then add mdadm_udev to your HOOKS in mkinitcpio.conf and rerun mkinitcpio -p linux.

When you install GRUB, follow the instructions for UEFI Systems. Your ESP (EFI system partition) should be the first partition in your scheme.

Function Keys

All function keys except the backlight seem to work out of the box (as of Arch default kernel 3.12.7). To fix the backlight keys, add acpi_osi= as a kernel parameter. Example line from /etc/default/grub: 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi="

KDE and Keyboard Backlight

You may need to run the following command on login to fix keyboard backlight control. 

qdbus org.kde.kded /kded unloadModule powerdevil
qdbus org.kde.kded /kded loadModule powerdevil

Display

Check HiDPI.

Touchpad

xinput lists it as "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" but it works with a xf86-input-synaptics driver. See Touchpad Synaptics for detail.

Wi-Fi

See Wireless network configuration#iwlwifi

Battery Issues

Many have been experiencing an issue with the battery not properly charging under Linux. There is a thread about this on the Ubuntu Forums. Holding down the power button to do a clean reboot seems to be a workaround, but the issue has not been resolved yet, and those who have sent their laptops in for repair have reported that it did not resolve the issue.

Heat

As you have probably noticed, the UX301 family of laptops will reach 80° Celsius doing the most remedial of tasks, and upwards of 90° while watching videos. You may want to consider installing and configuring thermald from the AUR.

Helpful Links