Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3

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Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
GPU		Yes
Wireless		Yes
Bluetooth		Yes
Audio		Yes
Touchpad		Yes
Webcam		Yes
Thunderbolt		Yes
Fingerprint (2018)		Yes

The Mi Notebook Air 13.3 is an aluminium Ultrabook. It is a product by the Chinese Company Xiaomi and is currently only available in China or through import online-shops.

The 2016 and 2018 revisions share enough characteristics to be configured identically.

Installation

Enter the UEFI menu by pressing F2 during Boot, then do the following:

Security -> Set Password
Security -> Disable Secure Boot
Reset the password by setting the password again but letting the "New Password" fields blank

Installation can then proceed normally. Refer to the Installation guide for more info.

Note: Remember that your SSD is called nvme0n1, not sda.

GPU

Intel Only

If you want to completely disable the NVIDIA GPU and save battery, do the following:

Install the xf86-video-intel package
Blacklist the nvidia and xf86-video-nouveau kernel modules Kernel modules#Blacklisting

/etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf

blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidia

Install bbswitch to turn off the card

/etc/modprobe.d/bbswitch.conf

options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=0

Intel/Nvidia Hybrid Configuration

You can enable hybrid GPUs by either using Bumblebee or NVIDIA Optimus. Bumblebee is generally better for battery-life and compatibility but not officially supported by NVIDIA.

Refer to the respective articles.

Touchpad

To use the touchpad like a normal one, you have to use xf86-input-libinput. If you use xf86-input-evdev, your touchpad acts like a touchscreen (e.g it maps your movements directly to your screen). Synaptics usage is discourage since it is deprecated and only working sporadically. This configuration of libinput using Xorg configuration files enables two finger gestures, tap-to-click and 2-and 3-finger clicks (for right- and middle-click respectively).

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-touchpad.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad"
        Driver "libinput"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option "Tapping" "on"
        Option "ClickMethod" "clickfinger"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "true"
EndSection

Function keys

On this notebook the Function keys are enabled as default (e.g. pressing F1 mutes the sound). If pressing the keys does nothing you are most likely using a Window manager and not a Desktop environment. Use the respective configuration files to bind the keys to their use. For example Xbindkeys or i3's bindsym.

To reverse to normal Fn keys just press: Fn+Esc.

Most Fn-keys return the correct keycodes. Here is a table containing that information:

Fn-F-Key	Keycode
`F1`	`XF86AudioMute`
`F2`	`XF86AudioLowerVolume`
`F3`	`XF86AudioRaiseVolume`
`F4`	`XF86MonBrightnessDown`
`F5`	`XF86MonBrightnessUp`
`F6`	`Super_L + P`
`F7`	`Nothing`
`F8`	`Super_L + Tab`
`F9`	`Nothing`
`F10`	`Turns Keyboard backlight on/off`
`F11`	`Print`
`F12`	`Insert`

Display Calibration

Factory display calibration is poor. Try the ICC profiles at https://github.com/tlvince/xiaomi-mi-notebook-air-13/tree/master/display-calibration

Troubleshooting

Backlight

If you use a tool like xorg-xbacklight in its default configuration, nothing happens, because the path to the backlighting variable is not standard. To fix this issue, you have to use a Xorg configuration file:

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

Section "Device" 
        Identifier "Card0" 
        Driver     "intel" 
        Option     "Backlight"  "intel_backlight" 
        BusID      "PCI:0:2:0" 
EndSection

Audio Jack

If you want to use the microphone from the headset plugged in the combo jack input use model=dell-headset-multi as explained in Advanced Linux Sound Architecture#Correctly detect microphone plugged in a 4-pin 3.5mm (TRRS) jack.