MSI Modern 15 A5M

From ArchWiki
Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad 06cb:7e7e Yes
Keyboard PS/2 Yes
GPU 1002:164c Yes
Webcam 04f2:b695 Yes
Bluetooth 0e8d:0608 Yes
SD Card reader 10ec:525a Untested
Audio 1022:15e3 Yes
WiFi 14c3:0608 Yes
TPM 1022:15df Yes

Installation

Secure Boot needs to be disabled at first startup and after UEFI updates.

Sometimes Wi-Fi may not work properly (not connecting to networks). That issue can be solved by powering off laptop and holding power button for 60 seconds to reset BIOS settings.

Firmware

This article or section needs expansion.

Reason: This section needs to explain if/what is supported by fwupd. (Discuss in Talk:MSI Modern 15 A5M)

Secure Boot functions well with custom keys, make sure to disable automatic reverting to factory keys.

Accessibility

The BIOS interface is keyboard driven and does not require the use of a mouse.

Thermals

Fan control can be tuned by installing iswAUR.

Battery

Battery charge limit can be tuned by iswAUR (PR: https://github.com/YoyPa/isw/issues/41).

According to MSI Center Pro there is 3 modes:

  • Mode "Best for Mobility" (Charge the battery to 100% all the time)
# isw -s 0xef 228
  • Mode "Balanced" (Charge the battery when under 70%, stop at 80%)
# isw -s 0xef 208
  • Mode "Best for Battery" (Charge the battery when under 50%, stop at 60%)
# isw -s 0xef 188

Keyboard

Toggle Fn key always on with Fn+Esc. The keyboard backlight works properly. The LEDs on the F1 (Audio mute) and F5 (Microphone status) keys do not work.

It is possible to control keyboard backlight with powerdevil-gitAUR widget after installing msi-ec-gitAUR.

Function keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
Fn+Esc Yes Yes XF86Fn_Esc
Fn+F1 Yes Yes XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2 Yes Yes XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3 Yes Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4 Yes Yes XF86TouchpadToggle
Fn+F5 Yes Yes XF86AudioMicMute
Fn+F6 Yes Yes XF86WebCam
Fn+F7 Yes Yes XF86Launch1
Fn+F8 No Yes Keyboard brightness change
Fn+F9 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F10 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F11 Yes Yes Screen projection
Fn+F12 Yes Yes XF86Launch2
  1. The key is visible to xev and similar tools
  2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function

Screen overclocking

Laptops with the 089RU model number have a B156HAN02.1 panel that can be stably overclocked from 60 Hz to 90 Hz by modifying edid settings.

Troubleshooting

This article or section is a candidate for merging with #Battery.

Notes: Could be condensed into a single sentence explaining to load the ec_sys kernel module. (Discuss in Talk:MSI Modern 15 A5M)

Using commands such as: 

# isw -cp MSI_ADDRESS_DEFAULT
# isw -s 0xef 228

may fail showing the following error: 

/sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io: No such file or directory

The solution is the following command: 

# modprobe ec_sys

See also