ASUS U31SD

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System specification

  • CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz (Sandy Bridge)
  • Memory: 4 GB DDR3 PC1333 - can be expanded to a maximum of 8GB (two DIMM slots)
  • WiFi: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285
  • Ethernet: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet
  • Bluetooth: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR3011 Bluetooth
  • Hard-Drive: 640GB Hitachi HTS547564A9E384
  • Optical Drive: None
  • Integrated Graphics: Intel 2nd Generation
  • Discrete Graphics: Nvidia GT520M (GF119)
  • Sound: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200
  • Screen: 13.3" LCD 1366x768)
  • SD Card Reader
  • Webcam: V4L compatible
Note: This page was written for the i3 model but I'm sure the i5 model will not be much different

What does not work out of the box

  • Sleep/Hibernate (see below)
  • Nvidia GPU (Switchable GPU, see below)
  • Fn Volume Keys (see below)

What works out of the box / with default configuration

  • CPU (all cores detected)
  • Wireless
  • Ethernet
  • Framebuffer resolution (nouveau and intel xorg drivers provide this)
  • Intel GPU
  • Touchpad
  • Bluetooth
  • Hotkeys (Brightness / Monitor on-off / wifi / sleep)
  • USB

Not tested

  • HDMI

Input/touchpad

The keyboard and touchpad work more or less without problems using the xf86-input-evdev and xf86-input-synaptics modules, respectively. Right and left-clicking works, as well as Two-Finger scroll. Tapping is enabled out of the box and can be disabled in 

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf

Bluetooth

Installing a tool like "blueman" from the AUR and starting the bluetooth DAEMON allowed communication to bluetooth keyboards and mice. Bluetooth speakers not tested. (*users feel free to add to this)

Nvidia GPU (Optimus)

You need to install the packages bumblebee and bbswitch.

In short, Bumblebee allows you to use the switchable GPU and use it only when you want to via the 'optirun' application.

Be sure enable bumblebeed Systemd service to start Bumblebee at boot.

Once you reboot, you should start seeing huge power saving.

To check and make sure that you are not using your GPU all the time: 

$ lsmod | grep nv

Should return nothing, this means your GPU is off.

You can check your GPU by running glxgears with and without the 'optirun' prefix and comparing the Frames Per Second.

Read the Bumblebee page for further information.

Fn multimedia keys

As with most Asus laptops/netbooks, this laptop sends its Multimedia events via ACPI. Using acpi_listen, I was able to discover the button commands the buttons sent to acpi. Add the following to your /etc/acpi/handler.sh file (make sure you add this after the ;; in the button/lid section): 

    button/volumeup)
      amixer set Master 5+
      ;;
    button/volumedown)
      amixer set Master 5-
      ;;
    button/mute)
      amixer set Master toggle
      ;;

You can mess with these values to move your volume at different intervals, 5 seemed to work well for me.

Optimize power consumption

Add this to the kernel line of your bootloader[1]: 

pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1