Install (x)Ubuntu 18.04 on an Asus Zenbook 13

Recently I bought an Asus Zenbook 13 RX333FN. I removed Windows 10 and installed xUbuntu 18.04 on the laptop. However, not every feature I use works out of the box. In these notes explain how to fix this. Probably these notes will apply for similar Asus Zenbooks as well. I expect that these fixes become obsolete with never versions of Ubuntu. Don’t forget to check the ArchLinux wiki on the Asus Zenbook UX333 as well.

Enable deep suspend mode

The Zenbook doesn’t go into deep suspend mode automatically when I close the lid. To enable deep suspend mode open /etc/default/grub, and add to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT the line mem_sleep_default=deep. In my case I have

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep"

(partially) Reduce power usage and heat

The laptop overheats quickly. I followed the Most Effective Ways To Reduce Laptop Overheating In Linux. Still the cpu easily heats up to 40 to 50 Celsius. I’m guessing that this is the downside of having such a small laptop.

Fix sound

The sound card is supported in the Linux operating system 4.20 and onward. I installed the 4.20.17 kernel using ukuu.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ukuu
sudo ukuu-gtk  # Install Kernel 4.20.17

In order to boot the latest Linux operating system, navigate to BIOS, go to “Advanced Menu”, then the “Security” tab and set “Secure Boot” to Off.

Enable Nvidia CUDA support

To enable the Nvidia CUDA support, first disable the nouveau driver. Open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.confand add

blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Next open Software & Updates in the menu, go to Additional Driversand select nvidia-driver-418 (open source). Click on Apply Changes.

Go to the Nvidia home page and download CUDA Toolkit and cuDNN. To download cuDNN you’re required to create an Nvidia account. Install the packages:

sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-10-1-local-10.1.168-418.67_1.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i libcudnn7_7.6.0.64-1+cuda10.1_amd64.deb

Reboot your machine and check if CUDA works.

> nvidia-smi
Mon Jun 10 15:02:51 2019       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 418.67       Driver Version: 418.67       CUDA Version: 10.1     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  GeForce MX150       On   | 00000000:02:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   57C    P0    N/A /  N/A |    111MiB /  2002MiB |      0%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                       GPU Memory |
|  GPU       PID   Type   Process name                             Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0      3348      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                           109MiB |
|    0      6656      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox                       1MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Retrieve the Windows 10 license key

The zenbook comes with a Windows 10 license key hardcoded in the firmware. You can extract the license key as follows

sudo grep -aPo '[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}-[\w]{5}' /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

3 thoughts on “Install (x)Ubuntu 18.04 on an Asus Zenbook 13

  1. Karel Zengdurf

    So … in conclusion, are you happy with what is supported, what works, the power management, etc? I’m looking to buy pretty much exactly this laptop, wipe it and and put some sort of Linux on it.

    Reply
  2. Daniel

    sir maybe you can help me
    i was eyeing on the asus zenbook 13 rx333fn
    would you mind sending some of the laptop pictures its a bit confusing for me whether its the zenbook 14 or this 13 would you do me a favor sir? and where site did you bought it? thank you in advance sir

    Reply

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