ASUS Zenbook UM5606

From ArchWiki
Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad PS/2 Yes
Touchscreen & stylus PS/2 Yes
Keyboard PS/2 Yes
GPU 1002:150e Yes
NPU Unknown
Webcam 3277:0059 Yes
ALS Yes
Bluetooth 13d3:3608 Yes
SD-card reader 17a0:9755 Yes
Audio 1022:15e3 Yes
Wireless 14c3:7925 Yes
Thunderbolt 1022:151c Yes
TPM 1022:17e0 Yes
Fans Yes

This page is for the ASUS Zenbook S 16 (UM5606/UM5606WA), although this may help for other 2024 ASUS laptops with the Ryzen 9 AI chips (HX 365/370) such as the ASUS Vivobook S 16 (M5606) and the ProArt P16 (H7606/H7606WV).

Installation

When booting into the Arch Linux ISO, press the e key to edit the chosen boot option and add the amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x600 kernel parameter to prevent freezing during installation. This will not be needed after installing, as long as you install both linux-mainline-um5606AUR and either linux-firmware-amd-staging-um5606-gitAUR or linux-firmware-gitAUR afterwards.

If you're using KDE, you need to run systemctl edit --user plasma-kwin_wayland.service and add this to the configuration: 

~/.config/systemd/user/plasma-kwin_wayland.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
Environment="KWIN_DRM_DISABLE_TRIPLE_BUFFERING=1"

Accessibility

The UEFI may be difficult to navigate using screen readers, and it may be difficult to see the boot menu edit options when inputting the temporary kernel parameter. If necessary, you should proceed with the assistance of a sighted person.

Firmware

fwupd shows the CPU/GPU, TPM, SMU, UEFI firmware, NVMe, System firmware (which can have an attestation added), and the webcam. Most of them show as updatable, but no OTA updates have been released as of the time of writing.

There is an important UEFI update that has been posted on ASUS's website -- to apply it, download the "BIOS for ASUS EZ Flash Utility" (not "for Windows") file, extract the contents to a FAT32 formatted USB drive, reboot and go into the firmware setup, and then go into the "EZ Flash" menu. The update can be found here: [1]

Audio

Out of the box, only the tweeters are used, making the audio soft and tinny. However, this is relatively simple to fix with PipeWire and pipewire-pulse.

Create this pipewire-pulse configuration file: 

/etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/99-speaker-routing.conf
# Pipewire thinks tweeters are 4.0 fronts and woofers are 4.0 rears; upmix.
context.modules = [
    {   name = libpipewire-module-loopback
        args = {
            node.description = "Stereo to 4.0 upmix"
            audio.position = [ FL FR ]
            capture.props = {
                node.name = "sink.upmix_4_0"
                media.class = "Audio/Sink"
            }
            playback.props = {
                node.name = "playback.upmix-4.0"
                audio.position = [ FL FR RL RR]
                target.object = "alsa_output.pci-0000_c4_00.6.analog-surround-40"
                stream.dont-remix = true
                node.passive = true
                channelmix.upmix = true
                channelmix.upmix-method = simple
            }
        }
    }
]

Then, restart the pipewire.service and pipewire-pulse.service user units.

Lastly, open pwvucontrolAUR or pavucontrol and switch your output "on" to Stereo to 4.0 upmix.

You can also set Pipewire to to output 4.0 by default, so in rare event an application is surround sound aware, it will output native 4.0 sound. This can be done by selecting the Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input profile for Family 17h/19h HD Controller.

Bluetooth

Linux ≥6.12 (rc1) is needed to get Bluetooth working. The aptX HD, LDAC, SBC-XQ codecs over Bluetooth have been tested for and work for wireless headphones.

NPU

There are currently no userspace tools/applications to test the Neural Processing Unit (NPU). However, it should work with both linux-mainline-um5606AUR and linux-firmware-amd-staging-um5606-gitAUR once tools become available.

ALS

The Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) works out of the box on GNOME, and on wlroots/smithay compositors with wlumaAUR and this configuration: 

~/.config/wluma/config.toml
[als.iio]
path = "/sys/bus/iio/devices"
thresholds = { 0 = "night", 2 = "dark", 5 = "dim", 8 = "normal", 13 = "bright", 15 = "outdoors" }

[[output.backlight]]
name = "eDP-1"
path = "/sys/class/backlight/amdgpu_bl1"
capturer = "none"

Power management

Install linux-mainline-um5606AUR and either linux-firmware-amd-staging-um5606-gitAUR or linux-firmware-gitAUR to alleviate most power management problems, including high power usage during suspend and random freezing/hanging.

There is currently known a problem when waking up from suspend (s2idle) that the screen will freeze for about 10 seconds. This issue is currently being investigated here: [2]

Keyboard

Backlight

Linux ≥6.12 (rc1) is needed to make keyboard backlight control work.

Function keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
Fn+Esc No Yes Enables Fn lock
Fn+F1 Yes Yes XF86AudioMuteToggle
Fn+F2 Yes Yes XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3 Yes Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4 No3 Yes Adjusts keyboard backlight
Fn+F5 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F6 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessUp
Fn+F7 Yes Screen mirroring icon Super+P
Fn+F8 Yes Smiley face icon Super+.
Fn+F9 Yes Yes XF86AudioMicMute
Fn+F10 Yes Yes XF86Webcam
Fn+F12 Yes Icon that looks like ⫽] XF86Launch1
Copilot Partial MS Copilot logo Registers as Super+Shift, but supposed to input Super+Shift+F23
  1. The key is visible to xev, showmethekey, screenkey, and similar tools
  2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function
  3. The key isn't visible to keycode viewer tools, but it sends a signal that D-Bus picks up on, and GNOME sees it (and shows the OSD popup). The signal looks like this:


signal time=XXXXXXXXX.XXXXXX sender=:1.44 -> destination=(null destination)    serial=XXX path=/org/freedesktop/UPower/KbdBacklight; interface=org.freedesktop.UPower.KbdBacklight; member=BrightnessChanged
   int32 3

Where the int32 can be a value between 0 and 3, denoting which of the four brightness levels the keyboard backlight has been set to (0 = off, 1 = low, 2 = medium, 3 = high).

Fan Control

The firmware supports four fan profiles: standard, quiet, high-performance, and full-performance. Out of the box, it's set to standard, but this can be changed with asus-5606-fan-state-gitAUR.

See also