[letmedanz]

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help out here.
I picked up an Asus ROG GL552VX a couple of weeks back & have been struggling to get a fully working Linux distro on it.
I am not a pro user, but i have dabbled in Linux (OpenSuse/Mint) for around a year.

Specs of the machine -
i7 6700 with skylake, GeForce 960M, 1tb SATA HDD & 128gb M.2 SSD

I have so far tried OpenSuse, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint with none to little success.
So i went back to Mint 17.3 KDE and have made a lot of progress.

Installed Mint as it is, it booted fine, graphics were great, but there was:
- no trackpad
- no wifi
- no keyboard backlight
- no keyboard function keys

Noticed that Mint comes pre-loaded with 3.19 kernel.
Updated to 4.3.5 and on first boot, went to black screen.
Used boot parameters

acpi_osi=! acpi_backlight=native idle=nomwait

This allowed the system to boot, got wifi working, but could see crazy glitches on the screen.

Updated to 4.4.6 and that fixed the trackpad as well.
(Used same boot parameters)
But the graphic glitches remained.
I had already tried the noveau, nvidia & PPA drivers - all resulted in the same.

Went into KDE settings & changed open gl settings to none.
and like magic the graphic glitches were gone.

At this moment, the only things that are not working are -
- Keyboard backlights
- Keyboard Function keys

If any ideas on the above, it would be great.

I must note, that a couple of times, in the battery consumption icon in task bar, keyboard brightness had appeared, and in that boot instance, I was able to control keyboard backlight.
This would not repeat in all boots.

The bigger issue here is this-
4 out of every 5 reboots goes into a freeze right after boot.
I have noticed this to happen more persistently if there is no activity on screen, like mouse movement.
It freezes the mouse, keyboard, so can not do anything other than long press power button for a hard reboot.

Without any particular reason, 1 boot off every 5 reboots, the system will work without any issues.

Is there any way to identify the cause of these freezes?
Any way to remedy this?

Would appreciate any assistance on this

 

[hal8000]

For the backlight have a look at this link:

Fix Brightness Control Not Working for Ubuntu 14.04 & Linux Mint 17


If your laptop has Intel backlight hopefully that solution will work.
The function key that controls brightness should then work after
a reboot, if not post the output of:

ls /sys/class/backlight

The intermittent freeze on boot is more difficult. If it freezes during booting nothing
may be wrote to the log.
I would try and filter out system messages thoough.

From a treminal try

dmesg -l err

dmesg -l warn

dmesg -l crit


Intermittent faults are difficult to prove, especially if its 1 in 5 boots. Freezing could possibly be related to the Geforce9600 as you had some problems with the driver, but not necessarily so.
You can try and turn off the grub splash screen and show boot messages instead of the splash screen. Although grub has changed the main files are the same and /etc/default/grub stilhttp://askubuntu.com/questions/248/how-can-i-show-or-hide-boot-messages-when-ubuntu-startsl contains many of grubs parameters.

See this link for disabling splash:

10.04 - How can I show or hide boot messages when Ubuntu starts? - Ask Ubuntu

You will have to run sudo update-grub afterwards but you can make your system unbootable so backup your own work, files, downloads, config file, etc first before
modifying grub

 

[letmedanz]

For the backlight have a look at this link:

Fix Brightness Control Not Working for Ubuntu 14.04 & Linux Mint 17


If your laptop has Intel backlight hopefully that solution will work.
The function key that controls brightness should then work after
a reboot, if not post the output of:

ls /sys/class/backlight

The intermittent freeze on boot is more difficult. If it freezes during booting nothing
may be wrote to the log.
I would try and filter out system messages thoough.

From a treminal try

dmesg -l err

dmesg -l warn

dmesg -l crit


Intermittent faults are difficult to prove, especially if its 1 in 5 boots. Freezing could possibly be related to the Geforce9600 as you had some problems with the driver, but not necessarily so.
You can try and turn off the grub splash screen and show boot messages instead of the splash screen. Although grub has changed the main files are the same and /etc/default/grub stilhttp://askubuntu.com/questions/248/how-can-i-show-or-hide-boot-messages-when-ubuntu-startsl contains many of grubs parameters.

See this link for disabling splash:

10.04 - How can I show or hide boot messages when Ubuntu starts? - Ask Ubuntu

You will have to run sudo update-grub afterwards but you can make your system unbootable so backup your own work, files, downloads, config file, etc first before
modifying grub

Thanks for responding hal8000.
The function keys do not work for backlight of the keyboard.
The brightness control, volume (those are what i tested), seems to be working alright.

The freeze happens 4 out of 5 boots (or around that mark).
One of the 5 times, the boot would be fine.

I have sort of noticed that if i keep moving the mouse around and do some activities, like opening browser or terminal etc for the first 30 - 45 secs after boot, the system will not freeze.
If there is no activity, or if i move the mouse for a couple of secs & stop, it freezes up immediately.
In these 30 - 45 secs, everything is super sluggish.
The movement of the mouse is laggy, and you can even see the background wallpaper scaling.

Below are the outputs for the dmesg commands:

dmesg -l err
[    0.811882] [drm:i915_firmware_load_error_print [i915]] *ERROR* failed to load firmware i915/skl_dmc_ver1.bin (0)
[    0.849062] [drm:intel_guc_ucode_init [i915]] *ERROR* Failed to fetch GuC firmware from i915/skl_guc_ver4.bin (error -2)
[    0.850870] [drm:i915_gem_init_hw [i915]] *ERROR* Failed to initialize GuC, error -5 (ignored)
[    0.963315] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: priv: HUB0: 10ecc0 ffffffff (1b40822c)
[    2.263872] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: Pointer to TMDS table invalid
[    2.263873] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DRM: Pointer to flat panel table invalid
[    4.211341] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Unsupported splx structure
[    4.282524] Bluetooth: hci0: Failed to send firmware data (-38)
[   12.888708] Bluetooth: hci0: Setting Intel event mask failed (-16)

dmesg -l warn
[    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 0x000000007680B000 000024 (v02 _ASUS_)
[    0.000000] ACPI: XSDT 0x000000007680B0A8 0000D4 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FACP 0x0000000076830F30 00010C (v05 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)
[    0.000000] ACPI: DSDT 0x000000007680B210 025D1C (v02 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FACS 0x00000000773A5F80 000040
[    0.000000] ACPI: APIC 0x0000000076831040 0000BC (v03 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FPDT 0x0000000076831100 000044 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)
[    0.000000] ACPI: FIDT 0x0000000076831148 00009C (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)
[    0.000000] ACPI: MCFG 0x00000000768311E8 00003C (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 MSFT 00000097)
[    0.000000] ACPI: HPET 0x0000000076831228 000038 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI. 0005000B)
[    0.000000] ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000076831260 000315 (v01 SataRe SataTabl 00001000 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: ECDT 0x0000000076831578 0000C1 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI. 00000005)
[    0.000000] ACPI: LPIT 0x0000000076831640 000094 (v01 INTEL  SKL      00000000 MSFT 0000005F)
[    0.000000] ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000768316D8 000248 (v02 INTEL  sensrhub 00000000 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: DBGP 0x0000000076831920 000034 (v01 INTEL           00000000 MSFT 0000005F)
[    0.000000] ACPI: DBG2 0x0000000076831958 000054 (v00 INTEL           00000000 MSFT 0000005F)
[    0.000000] ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000768319B0 003D5C (v02 DptfTa DptfTabl 00001000 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000076835710 006685 (v02 SaSsdt SaSsdt   00003000 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: UEFI 0x000000007683BD98 000042 (v01                 00000000      00000000)
[    0.000000] ACPI: SSDT 0x000000007683BDE0 000E58 (v02 CpuRef CpuSsdt  00003000 INTL 20120913)
[    0.000000] ACPI: BGRT 0x000000007683CC38 000038 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI  00010013)

dmesg -l crit does not show anything.

At times, the system hangs while boot as well.
Grabbed a pic of it:

Thank you for your time & assistance

 

[hal8000]

On I have seen posts on Ubuntu forums with the same machine. It has two graphics card the Intel i915 and the more powerful Geforce 960.

Which driver are you using at the moment?
Install inxi:

sudo apt-get install inxi


and can you post the output of:

inxi -Gx

(you dont need sudo for last command).

 

[letmedanz]

On I have seen posts on Ubuntu forums with the same machine. It has two graphics card the Intel i915 and the more powerful Geforce 960.

Which driver are you using at the moment?
Install inxi:

sudo apt-get install inxi


and can you post the output of:

inxi -Gx

(you dont need sudo for last command).

I am currently using the PPA drivers - Nvidia 364
The result is the same with the Noveau driver as well. 960
This machine too has the GeForce 960M

I did have inxi installed, here is the output of inxi -Gx

[email protected]:~/Android/Twisted > inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 191b bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
           Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Skylake Halo GT2
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes

Thank you

 

[hal8000]

From the output of inxi:

Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
Resolution: [email protected]

The nouveau driver has gailed to load. I would verify this with:

lsmod | grep nouveau


I would be tempted to go with Nvidia's proprietry driver, I think
currently at revision 364

This looks a reasonable install guide:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/12

Check if there is a readme or install instruction with the Nvidia driver
as this will always be more up-to-date.

 

[letmedanz]

From the output of inxi:

Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
Resolution: [email protected]

The nouveau driver has gailed to load. I would verify this with:

lsmod | grep nouveau


I would be tempted to go with Nvidia's proprietry driver, I think
currently at revision 364

This looks a reasonable install guide:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/12

Check if there is a readme or install instruction with the Nvidia driver
as this will always be more up-to-date.

Hi hal8000
i apologize for the delayed response.
I would visit this page daily & somehow not see that you had replied! :facepalm:

So the freezing issues continued with nouveau and nvidia proprietary drivers.
In fact it got worse over time and would freeze randomly.

I switched the kernel back from 4.4.6 to 4.3.5 and the freeze does not happen anymore.
Audio performance on this kernel is way better than 4.4.6 as well.

On another note, i have a fix for the keyboard backlight

echo 3 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/asus\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness

Fn keys do not work, but the light turns on.

In a major fail moment, i tried running this as a script at startup using KDEAutoStart and managed to almost brick the installation.
It would boot and get to be completely unresponsive.

If i use this boot parameter

acpi_backlight=vendor

I am able to control keyboard brightness with the fn keys, but loose complete control over screen brightness.
Neither the function keys nor the control in the OS would work.

The boot parameters I am currently using:

acpi_osi=! acpi_backlight=native idle=nomwait

So the last few issues I would like to fix to have a flawless experience:
a) Hibernate does not work.. After a couple of minutes, it shuts off the system.

b) Control both screen & keyboard brightness with the fn keys and OS controls

c) Improvement to Sound quality. It is presently quite good in stock settings, but is a bit low on volume & bass.

d) Seems to get a lot hotter than expected, fans get loud as well and battery backup is quite terrible.
I do not use it for gaming, but some coding & that does utilize 100% CPU and about 50% memory.

 

[hal8000]

Hi hal8000

The boot parameters I am currently using:

acpi_osi=! acpi_backlight=native idle=nomwait

Idle
So the last few issues I would like to fix to have a flawless experience:
a) Hibernate does not work.. After a couple of minutes, it shuts off the system.

b) Control both screen & keyboard brightness with the fn keys and OS controls

c) Improvement to Sound quality. It is presently quite good in stock settings, but is a bit low on volume & bass.

d) Seems to get a lot hotter than expected, fans get loud as well and battery backup is quite terrible.
I do not use it for gaming, but some coding & that does utilize 100% CPU and about 50% memory.

Ok, the boot parameters
acpi_osi=! acpi_backlight=native

may contradict each other.
Remove the acpi_osi=! parameter update grub and reboot.
It will be a long process of trial and error to correct this.


Next copy and create the following file:

Section "Device"
   Identifier     "Device0"
   Driver         "nvidia"
   VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
   Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

Save it as 20-nvidia.conf in your home folder.
Then type the following

sudo cp 20-nvidia.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

Reboot and see if that gives brightness control.
The boot parameter idle=nomwait may disable some power management
resulting in higher battery drain, so again try booting without this option
and see if it helps.