ASUS TUF DASH F15 (2022)

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
Touchpad		Yes
Keyboard		Yes
GPU (Intel)	`8086:46a3`	Yes
GPU (NVIDIA)	`10de:25a0`	Yes
Webcam	`322e:202c`	Yes
Ethernet	`8086:1a1e`	Yes
Bluetooth	`8087:0026`	Yes
Audio	`8086:51c8`	Yes
Wireless	`8086:51f0`	Yes
TPM		Yes

This page contains instructions and tips for configuring Arch Linux on the ASUS TUF DASH F15 Laptop.

Note: This page covers the 2022 DASH F15 with model numbers FX517ZC, FX517ZE, FX517ZM, FX517ZR. It DOES NOT cover the 2021 DASH F15 (11th Gen CPU & RTX3070) with model numbers FX516PC, FX516PE, FX516PM, FX516PR.

Accessibility

This laptop uses the standard American Megatrends UEFI interface, it is very bright and has both simple and advanced mode (F7 to swap between them). It has touchpad support in both modes though scrolling does not work in advanced mode meaning you need to use the keyboard to navigate the longer menus.

Simple mode provides basic functions in a visual manner using defined box areas the user can click to open a sub menu. Most normal operations can be done here using either the keyboard or touchpad. This mode should not be difficult for visually impaired users to navigate.

Advanced mode is a more traditional menu driven layout. It is simply text on a coloured background and while the touchpad does work, scrolling does not so the keyboard must be used for most menus. This mode might be difficult for users with a visual impairment to navigate.

Installation

This section contains instructions for installing and configuring Arch Linux

ASUS Linux

The ASUS Linux stack provides users of this laptop with a great many ASUS specific functions, to name a few:

Battery Charge Limit,
Multiplexer (GPU) Controls,
Panel Overdrive,
Much more.

It is highly recommended to install these tools for the optimal experience on these laptops.

Keyboard RGB control

The keyboard does not have RGB support, as is stated on Asus' support website. It does, however, have support for simple lighting effects such as strobing.

The patches for controlling the backlight effects have been submitted for inclusion with Kernel version 6.10, as of right now you can install the G14 custom kernel, as outlined in the ASUS Linux#Custom kernel section.

Tip:

The exact kernel version that works is Linux 6.9.9-arch1-1.1-g14.
From testing, the current AUR release DOES NOT support the effects.

Dedicated GPU mode

While asusctl bios -D 0 is able to set this laptop into Dedicated(Ultimate) mode, doing this will make video output unavailable even on bios screen, Asus logo, until you reach a X session. If you have any extra input configuration like luks you will have to touch type your passphrase in. There is an ongoing issue at https://gitlab.com/asus-linux/asusctl/-/issues/404

Firmware

Other than changing the boot device order, no firmware changes are required for this laptop.

fwupd supports this device.

Secure Boot

Warning: Grub users must first reinstall grub with the tpm module included and the shim module disabled before enabling Secure Boot. Failure to do so will likely render the system unbootable until you disable secure boot in firmware. For this laptop you should follow the instructions in the ca keys section of GRUB#Secure Boot support.

Manual Setup

Firmware will allow you to easily put Secure Boot into Setup/Custom mode so you can deploy your own keys with keytool.

There is no need to reset the TPM state to put firmware into setup mode, and also, if you have a usb thumbdrive with your CA files, or they are placed inside your ESP, you can deploy these certificates directly from the firmware as well.

Also, right after deploying your CA information, this laptop firmware will delete any additional EFI external drive boot entry it might have configured(USB, CD, PXE).

Automated Setup

If you do not want the hassle of manually handling keys then sbctl fully supports this laptop. See Secure Boot#Assisted process with sbctl for instructions.

Warning: Model FX517ZR will prompt a warning that permanent damage might happen if you deploy your CA files using sbctl enroll-keys. You can proceed by enrolling your CA through the Asus firmware directly and copying the files from /var/lib/sbctl or your currently configured directory that holds those to a safe disk that you will keytool the files after the deploy

D-Bus notifications

Notifications provide feedback when a setting is changed using asusctl, they used to rely on a systemd service but have since been integrated into asusctl and should now work with no user intervention.

Tips and tricks

To maximize the battery life, follow the general tips at power management.

Battery charge limit

Setting a limit to the battery charge can be useful to preserve its longevity when the laptop is used as a static workstation for long period of times. Set your preferred limit (in percent, from 20 to 100) using:

# asusctl -c 60

60% is usually considered a stable charge state for lithium-based batteries.

Power profile

The power profile controls three settings: CPU scaling (only on Intel CPUs), Boost mode and fans speed. By default, three profiles are provided: quiet, balanced and performance. Custom profiles can be defined.

Fn+F5 is automatically bound to switch power profile. This will imitate the way the original ASUS service works on Windows. Notifications should be enabled in order to know which profile is selected each time the shortcut is pressed. A specific profile can be manually selected using:

# asusctl profile -P quiet

Disabling turbo boost

While not necessarily saving power, some user prefer to disable turbo boost for smoother power delivery and less heat. To temporarily disable boost, execute the following:

# echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost

Or use the power profiles from asusctl to handle this automatically, as explained in #Power profile.

DisplayPort

At the left side of the laptop (from the user's point of view) where the DC jack is located, there are two USB type C connectors, where the first one is a Thunderbolt 4 port and the other one is a USB 3.2 + DP 1.4 combo port.

If you are using more than one external monitor, use the Thunderbolt port to connect your DisplayPort to USB-C cable that leads to your secondary monitor.

After some testing, it was proved that using this combo port instead of the Thunderbolt port somehow limits the other two monitors (built-in and HDMI) that are configured as 144hz but will not be able to deliver more than 60 frames per second on games.

Function keys

These is the list of functions keys and how they are handled by the system. Some of them like Fn+F2 are not visible to libinput debug-events meaning they are hardwired or lack of additional implementation to better handle them since they behave differently on Windows.

The first four keys on the following table are the dedicate buttons located right above F1 to F4 and since they are dedicated multimedia keys, Fn combination is not needed.

Key	Visible?	Marked?	Effect
Volume Down	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioLowerVolume`.
Volume Up	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioRaiseVolume`.
Mic Mute	Yes	Yes	`F20` Function key.
Asus Key	Yes	No	`KEY_PROG3` code `202`. This key has a generic stamp on it which is bound to Asus internal design.
`Fn+F1`	Yes	Yes	`XF86AudioMute`.
`Fn+F2`	No	Yes	Lower keyboard brightness directly through hardware.
`Fn+F3`	No	Yes	Raise keyboard brightness directly through hardware. These two keyboard brightness behave differently on Windows, changing also led style/patterns.
`Fn+F4`	Yes	No	`KEY_PROG4` code `203`. Function named "Aura", on Windows it cycles keyboard backlight effects, on Linux it does nothing
`Fn+F5`	No	No	A key with a Fan icon on it, cycles though available power profiles
`Fn+F6`	Yes	Yes	Shortcut to `WinKey` + `Shift` + `s`, which is the screenshot crop hotkey for Windows. Keycap logo makes sense in some way.
`Fn+F7`	Yes	Yes	`XF86MonBrightnessDown`.
`Fn+F8`	Yes	Yes	`XF86MonBrightnessUp`.
`Fn+F9`	Yes	Yes	Shortcut to `WinKey` + `p`, which is the external monitor tool for Windows. Keycap logo makes sense.
`Fn+F10`	Yes	No	Key maps to `F20` (press and release) and after that a sequence of `AltGr` + `KEY_ZENKAKUHANKAKU` code `85` keystroke. Logo seems to be a crossed touchpad but prints out this unusual sequence.
`Fn+F11`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_SLEEP` code `142`. Little Zzz on key makes it meaningful.
`Fn+F12`	No	No	Key should be Airplane mode but does not show on libinput nor disables network interfaces.
`Fn+Down`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_PAGEDOWN` code `109`.
`Fn+Up`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_PAGEUP` code `104`.
`Fn+Left`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_HOME` code `102`. This laptop has a dedicated Home key at the top of the numpad, and this key combination for it as well.
`Fn+Right`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_END` code `107`.
`Fn+Del`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_INSERT` code `110`. This laptop has these dual keys around the numpad, some of them repeating keys that are elsewhere.
`Fn+Pause`	Yes	Yes	No effect so all. Pressing `Fn+Pause` or `Pause` it will issue `KEY_PAUSE` code `119` on both cases
`Fn+PrtSc`	Yes	Yes	It will send BOTH keys, `PrtSc` and `SysRq` in that sequence, no matter if using `Fn+PrtSc` or `PrtSc`. Really weird.
`Fn+Home`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_END` code `107`.
`Fn+Numpad Enter`	Yes	Yes	`XF86Calculator`.
`Fn+Right Ctrl`	Yes	Yes	`KEY_COMPOSE` code `127`.
`Fn+Super`	Yes	No	Issuing this key combination will lock `Super` into sending `KEY_UNKNOWN` code `240`, until you issue `Fn+Super` again to change this behavior.

Known issues

Suspend and Resume

This model is known for two outstanding firmware bugs that were not fixed by Asus yet, and maybe they will not be fixed since the last bios update(v317) dates back from 2023-08-24. These bugs are:

When the laptop resumes from S3 sleep mode (deep at /sys/power/mem_sleep), it will work for about one minute and reset the laptop without logs or indications that the operating system did something. It just power cycles the laptop. Multiple reports can be found over the internet, and two of them can be found here and here.
If VMD is enabled in firmware for Raid Mode disks(Intel RST), when memory sleep is configured for modern standby (s2idle at /sys/power/mem_sleep), there will be a significant power drain during the sleep, in magnitudes of 10% each 4 to 6 hours depending on the amount of softwares loaded.

This means that the user will have to configure s2idle instead of relying on firmware S3 suspend-to-ram, and also disable Intel RST for a decent suspend and resume configuration.