# ASUS N56vj

This page is a set of instructions, known issues, tips and workarounds for installing and configuring Arch Linux on the ASUS N56-VJ/VZ amd ASUS N76-VJ/VZ Laptops

## Installation

Note: Since theese laptops' BIOS does not support legacy boot, please read UEFI, GPT and UEFI_Bootloaders pages before following further instuctions.
Note: To choose a boot device: please press `Escape` after machine starts and then choose the suitable installation source e.g. USB Installation Media.

An installation process is quite common. Please refer to Beginners' guide or Installation guide regarding installation on machines with UEFI motherboards. Please be advised that you do not need to create/format EFI partition in case you want to keep Windows 8 installed.

## Configuring

Thus, post-installation steps are very-well described in Beginners' guide and most features will work out of the box, there are some specific tips for ASUS N-series laptops (N56/76).

### Kernel

Note: Try to avoid 3.10.x kernels

Some Arch-users prefer to install linux-lts kernel as a backup alternative for a main system. However, it is likely to be not such a good idea for ASUS N-series laptops users. Current LTS kernel 3.10.X has a bug FS#36288 which does effect ASUS N56/N76 intel cards as of Feb 3, 2014. Since it is likely to be version related, the author of this article would not expect the situation to change in future, unless new LTS version appears. You will as well loose out-of-box keyboard Brightness shortcuts and Keyboard backlight will work quite unreliably. Also you are likely to suffer from hard-repeatable acpi bug (ASUS-N56-VZ-bug) which will randomly stop the battery from charging without any notification. The know workaround is: 1. Unplug a power cable 2. Deattach a battery

All that problems will not affect you in case of using Arch Linux main kernel linux (as of version 3.12.9-2)

### Video

Note: You may want to read more about benchmark tools in the Benchmarking article.

Disabling a discrete GPU is well-written described in Bumblebee article. However, there is a poorly explored issue with

    $ optirun command1

as well as with

    $ primus command1

An Nvidia card with nvidia or xf86-video-nouveau driver shows lower performance results than an integrated Intel HD4000 in both syntetic tests and real world applications (e.g. FPS in games).

You can check it by comparing (of course, you can use glxgears or any other benchmark instead of glxspheres)

    $ vblank_mode=0 primusrun glxspheres
    $ vblank_mode=0 optirun glxspheres
    $ vblank_mode=0 glxspheres

The latter which is an integrated Intel GPU shows the best results (as of primus-20131226-1), which is not intended by the very basic idea of dual graphics.

The nature of the issue is described in this article. Some ideas and a patch is here, thus no reliable workaround is known yet. The issue is proven to exist at least in Arch Linux and OpenSUSE.

Arch users on the Russian Arch Linux forum are also trying to come up with the solution. You may want to check this page.

Since the issue is not reloved, you will help the community if you post your workaround.

### Desktop Enviroment

As Arch Linux is all about an The_Arch_Way, you are free to choose whatever DE you want. However you should keep in mind that ASUS N56-xx laptops have a high pixel density for a 15,6" displays. In this case you may want to consider DE's supporting such density, e.g. GNOME 3.10.x or later.

### Sound

In development

Category:

- ASUS