Work is underway to better support ASUS ROG laptops on Linux

I really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D

So they chose a $2000 laptop that almost no one can afford to start on? That makes perfect sense.

Usually when I install Linux on a Laptop most things already work out of the box. I've never bought an Asus before though.

They look really nice, but for the price they better be lol

So they chose a $2000 laptop that almost no one can afford to start on? That makes perfect sense.

They're quite clearly using what they have. We're also talking about ASUS ROG gaming laptops, none of them are cheap.

I really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D

I think the same. RGB lights are anti-gaming. It distracts from the action, it makes you worse, it's more expensive, and sometimes it decrises the performance.
I saw a video a sdd drive with lights that were so hot, that made the drive unusable (the chips has a minimum and maximum temperature).

There's a similar effort for the ASUS TUF Gaming series laptops:
https://github.com/hackbnw/faustus

Fan control by pressing Fn+F5 is the best thing I can get, which works on Linux

So they chose a $2000 laptop that almost no one can afford to start on? That makes perfect sense.

To be fair, I've been looking at a Zephyrus G14 and I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda want to help?

Fan control by pressing Fn+F5 is the best thing I can get, which works on Linux

Fans being controlled automatically is the best thing I can get.


Last edited by Eike on 20 April 2020 at 6:22 am UTC

Republic of Gamers? What a stupid name. I'd be ashamed to use something with that name.

I really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D

I think the same. RGB lights are anti-gaming. It distracts from the action, it makes you worse, it's more expensive, and sometimes it decrises the performance.
I saw a video a sdd drive with lights that were so hot, that made the drive unusable (the chips has a minimum and maximum temperature).

Being a gamer is not about playing games. It is about a culture and a community, and you can play games a lot without being part of it* or be part of it and barely play anything. One element is of course the aesthetic: RGB leds, ugly overpriced chairs with random neon colored patches, big monitors and custom rigs, styles of clothing, etc. There is also the general toxicity and politics, the internal jokes and memes, and etc. So, considering all that: products targeted at "gamers" aren't necessarily better for gaming, they just appeal to many people from a particular community.

*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

I've used Asus gaming laptops for years and swear by them (although, I need to build a desktop computer when I have the funds, specifically for music production and Nvidia is not the graphics processing I need for a RT kernel). I look forward to seeing this feature on my next laptop. It is nice to see companies giving Linux some love.

*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

Don't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.
(Well, I'm mostly a parent at the moment, but I would...! ;) )

*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

Don't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.
(Well, I'm mostly a parent at the moment, but I would...! ;) )

On the contrary, I prefer to avoid any association with "gamer culture". I play games; "gamer" is not an identity for me that I just "am a gamer".

I look forward to seeing this feature on my next laptop. It is nice to see companies giving Linux some love.

This isn't coming from Asus, this is users trying to reverse-engineer the hardware they've bought so that it actually works properly.

Being a gamer is not about playing games.

That's exactly what it's about.

Toxic people on the Internet latched onto "gamer" to describe themselves because "troll" and "incel" had negative connotations, and they thought that they'd be able to shield themselves from criticism by claiming to be part of a larger, better group. I'd prefer to think they were wrong in that assessment.

Don't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.

On the contrary, I prefer to avoid any association with "gamer culture". I play games; "gamer" is not an identity for me that I just "am a gamer".

That's exactly what I meant by letting them take away the word from you. People associate good general words with special things and spoil them. Let's keep the words. They're ours just as well.

I have never looked at an ASUS laptop after my last one, which was the worst thing I ever experienced. Its chassis literally fractured by itself, and the panel clips broke so the panel literally went skew in the screen... It was one of the earlier ultrabooks, forgot the exact name.

I currently am sticking to "business" laptops, just because they are reliable, have long battery life, good matt screen, have ample cooling so never trottles or burns my hands, have a great keyboard, is serviceable, and finally... is also cheaper than "gamer" laptops.

True, it doesn't come with some fancy GPU with complex switching that causes bugs even on windows/osx, but I can still play my awesome games on it if I feel like it.

I would really be interested in a ryzen 4000 notebook without an extra GPU, in a boring "business" laptop chassis. The performance looks pretty amazing and it seems to have pretty good battery life too.

I've got an ASUS ROG laptop for gaming and coding. It runs linux really well. A recent kernel update even fixed the backlit keys.

I got an ROG GL703VM.
Everything works like it should be.
There is only no manual fan control and no ROG control center like on windows.

It would be nice if these last things added :)

I really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D

Blinking is annoying while you are playing, indeed.
It does look nice during some idle or waiting time, but that's about it.

Programmable colors are fairly useful, though.
Especially if you game properly: In a somewhat darkened room (why do you think cinemas are dark?). Hard to see any keys without at least backlight.
Some games come with the hotkeys highlighted for your keyboard already (though that usually only works on Windows).

Personally, I have disabled all animations and just have WASD, F, J, F5, F9 and ß (German keyboard) highlighted in a different color than the rest.
Though I got the keyboard because it is so wonderfully silent while being mechanical and easy to clean (finding that combination was a nightmare). RGB was just a bonus (though it probably was what made it so expensive...).

Also... lots of people with "someone was mean to me on the internet! ;("-syndrome in this thread. Cute.
But, yes, let it all out. Very relieving, isn't it?


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 20 April 2020 at 7:32 am UTC

Republic of Gamers? What a stupid name. I'd be ashamed to use something with that name.

To be fair, ASUS is a Taiwanese company, and I think with that background the name is a bit more understandable.

Anyways, while not officially supported, I always had quite good results with Asus laptops on Linux. And build quiality relative to price at least used to be quite good (have not bought one in some years).

But I also think it is also worth considering buying a Taiwanese brand over a Chinese government front like Lenovo.

When comments get just too sheepish, it's time to block. Time is too valuable for such nonsense.
(Second one in six years here...)


Last edited by Eike on 20 April 2020 at 11:22 am UTC