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Work is underway to better support ASUS ROG laptops on Linux

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ASUS ROG (Republic Of Gamers) is a brand of special hardware primarily aimed at PC gaming and work is now underway by the community to better support their laptops on Linux.

Being spearheaded by software engineer Luke Jones, the rog-core utility is starting off with the Zephyrus GX502GW which is being used as the basis for it. They're going to expand to support others, if they can get more data from other ASUS ROG laptop owners.

They've got big plans for what it will be able to do including: Setting/modifying built-in LED modes, Per-key LED setting, Fancy LED modes (custom programs), running as a Daemon (background process), system control including things like Sleep / Brightness and everything you would expect to be able to do with a fancy "gamer" laptop from ASUS.

I think it's incredible we have projects like this, where the hardware vendor doesn't usually give Linux a second thought. If you wish to help out you can find the rog-core utility on GitHub.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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eldaking Apr 19, 2020
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: eldaking*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

Don't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.
(Well, I'm mostly a parent at the moment, but I would...! ;) )

On the contrary, I prefer to avoid any association with "gamer culture". I play games; "gamer" is not an identity for me that I just "am a gamer".
CatKiller Apr 19, 2020
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Quoting: Projectile VomitI look forward to seeing this feature on my next laptop. It is nice to see companies giving Linux some love.

This isn't coming from Asus, this is users trying to reverse-engineer the hardware they've bought so that it actually works properly.
CatKiller Apr 19, 2020
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Quoting: eldakingBeing a gamer is not about playing games.

That's exactly what it's about.

Toxic people on the Internet latched onto "gamer" to describe themselves because "troll" and "incel" had negative connotations, and they thought that they'd be able to shield themselves from criticism by claiming to be part of a larger, better group. I'd prefer to think they were wrong in that assessment.
Eike Apr 19, 2020
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Quoting: eldaking
Quoting: EikeDon't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.

On the contrary, I prefer to avoid any association with "gamer culture". I play games; "gamer" is not an identity for me that I just "am a gamer".

That's exactly what I meant by letting them take away the word from you. People associate good general words with special things and spoil them. Let's keep the words. They're ours just as well.
grigi Apr 19, 2020
I have never looked at an ASUS laptop after my last one, which was the worst thing I ever experienced. Its chassis literally fractured by itself, and the panel clips broke so the panel literally went skew in the screen... It was one of the earlier ultrabooks, forgot the exact name.

I currently am sticking to "business" laptops, just because they are reliable, have long battery life, good matt screen, have ample cooling so never trottles or burns my hands, have a great keyboard, is serviceable, and finally... is also cheaper than "gamer" laptops.

True, it doesn't come with some fancy GPU with complex switching that causes bugs even on windows/osx, but I can still play my awesome games on it if I feel like it.

I would really be interested in a ryzen 4000 notebook without an extra GPU, in a boring "business" laptop chassis. The performance looks pretty amazing and it seems to have pretty good battery life too.
nattydread Apr 19, 2020
I've got an ASUS ROG laptop for gaming and coding. It runs linux really well. A recent kernel update even fixed the backlit keys.
Redje Apr 20, 2020
I got an ROG GL703VM.
Everything works like it should be.
There is only no manual fan control and no ROG control center like on windows.

It would be nice if these last things added :)
TheSHEEEP Apr 20, 2020
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Quoting: LinasI really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D
Blinking is annoying while you are playing, indeed.
It does look nice during some idle or waiting time, but that's about it.

Programmable colors are fairly useful, though.
Especially if you game properly: In a somewhat darkened room (why do you think cinemas are dark?). Hard to see any keys without at least backlight.
Some games come with the hotkeys highlighted for your keyboard already (though that usually only works on Windows).

Personally, I have disabled all animations and just have WASD, F, J, F5, F9 and ß (German keyboard) highlighted in a different color than the rest.
Though I got the keyboard because it is so wonderfully silent while being mechanical and easy to clean (finding that combination was a nightmare). RGB was just a bonus (though it probably was what made it so expensive...).

Also... lots of people with "someone was mean to me on the internet! ;("-syndrome in this thread. Cute.
But, yes, let it all out. Very relieving, isn't it?


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 20 April 2020 at 7:32 am UTC
Julius Apr 20, 2020
Quoting: eldakingRepublic of Gamers? What a stupid name. I'd be ashamed to use something with that name.

To be fair, ASUS is a Taiwanese company, and I think with that background the name is a bit more understandable.

Anyways, while not officially supported, I always had quite good results with Asus laptops on Linux. And build quiality relative to price at least used to be quite good (have not bought one in some years).

But I also think it is also worth considering buying a Taiwanese brand over a Chinese government front like Lenovo.
Eike Apr 20, 2020
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When comments get just too sheepish, it's time to block. Time is too valuable for such nonsense.
(Second one in six years here...)


Last edited by Eike on 20 April 2020 at 11:22 am UTC
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