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PayPalBack in April we revealed the ROG-Core project, with an aim to better support ASUS ROG laptops on Linux and it seems it's really coming along nicely now.
This special 'Republic Of Gamers' brand of ASUS laptops (available here) comes with a bunch of flashy features, most of which are only directly supported on Windows. Frustrating for Linux buyers of course but great to see a community project spring up to allow Linux users to fully appreciate their kit.
While it started off initially focusing on the Zephyrus GX502GW, which the author of the project owned, it's now progressed onto supporting quite a lot of models including: GM501, GX502, GX531, G512, G712, G531, G532 and more like GA14/GA401 depending on kernel patches. Impressive progress for something so new. It also shows how hardware vendors could and should be doing it if a few people hacking away in their free time can do it so well.
So what can it do? Quite a lot now. Per-key LED settings, fancy LED modes, modifying built-in LED modes, a Daemon mode, various system control options like screen brightness and Touchpad toggle, hotkeys for things like media controls and more.
It's gained a bit of a following now too, and has spawned another project with ZephyrusBling which builds upon ROG-Core to allow owners of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with the AniMe Matrix LED display on the back to do things like this:
While I have no need of it, I suddenly feel like I need it. How could you not love that though? Brilliant bit of useless flashy tech for the super nerd to show off a bit.
See the ROG-Core project here and the ZephyrusBling project here. Going even further, there's even now another project aimed at supporting AMD based ASUS laptops.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Also, I have the back of my lappy covered with stickers anyway
Devastatorius Jul 21, 2020
Hard to find good gaming laptop with good linux support.
Quoting: DevastatoriusGood news.
Hard to find good gaming laptop with good linux support.
If you're in the market for a gaming laptop that runs perfectly on Linux, check out the MSI Bravo 15. I bought one two weeks ago and have Arch Linux running perfectly on it. Plus, it has both an AMD CPU and GPU (RX5500m), and both the integrated Vega 8 and RX5500m work perfectly. No need for any proprietary drivers. Oh and did I mention, it actually comes with Intel WiFi? Excellent machine.
Devastatorius Jul 21, 2020
Quoting: LanzQuoting: DevastatoriusGood news.
Hard to find good gaming laptop with good linux support.
If you're in the market for a gaming laptop that runs perfectly on Linux, check out the MSI Bravo 15. I bought one two weeks ago and have Arch Linux running perfectly on it. Plus, it has both an AMD CPU and GPU (RX5500m), and both the integrated Vega 8 and RX5500m work perfectly. No need for any proprietary drivers. Oh and did I mention, it actually comes with Intel WiFi? Excellent machine.
No thanks. I love Asus stuff, i'll stick with it.
Cyba.Cowboy Jul 22, 2020
Quoting: DevastatoriusGood news.
Hard to find good gaming laptop with good linux support.
System76 have a good gaming laptop with (native) Linux support... But it's expensive, especially if you don't live in America.
--
Any idea if the changes in these projects are being pushed upstream (i.e. to the Linux Kernel Team), or if they intend to do so in the future?
I have an ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481FL dual-display/screen laptop, which shares some of the "unique" functionality of the 'ROG' range, and it would be nice to see these changes trickle down to me eventually... Right now, certain things either don't work, or require me to build custom kernels from source (in saying that, approximately 90-95% of the stuff "just works").
And I'm lazy, so the things that don't work or don't work properly just sit there doing nothing...
Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 22 July 2020 at 4:24 am UTC
Luke_Nukem Jul 22, 2020
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyQuoting: DevastatoriusGood news.
Hard to find good gaming laptop with good linux support.
System76 have a good gaming laptop with (native) Linux support... But it's expensive, especially if you don't live in America.
--
Any idea if the changes in these projects are being pushed upstream (i.e. to the Linux Kernel Team), or if they intend to do so in the future?
I have an ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481FL dual-display/screen laptop, which shares some of the "unique" functionality of the 'ROG' range, and it would be nice to see these changes trickle down to me eventually... Right now, certain things either don't work, or require me to build custom kernels from source (in saying that, approximately 90-95% of the stuff "just works").
And I'm lazy, so the things that don't work or don't work properly just sit there doing nothing...
Dev here. I would love to get much of the basic functions in to the kernel but the kernel is very dense and unforgiving to read through to even get started. If lsusb shows `0b05:1866 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. N-KEY Device` then you can use rog-core.
Cyba.Cowboy Jul 22, 2020
Quoting: Luke_NukemIf lsusb shows `0b05:1866 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. N-KEY Device` then you can use rog-core.
No such luck for me, but thanks anyway for all your work.
Luke_Nukem Jul 23, 2020
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyQuoting: Luke_NukemIf lsusb shows `0b05:1866 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. N-KEY Device` then you can use rog-core.
No such luck for me, but thanks anyway for all your work.
What devices *did* it show?
See more from me