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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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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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51 comments
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chr Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: Purple Library GuySince your ire was apparently aroused by someone saying bad things about uncivil behaviour, my best guess is you're taking a principled stance in favour of people being able to act like assholes without anyone ever mentioning that they've acted like assholes. Not sure quite what the principle is, there.


I would suspect their disagreement with those statements might have stemmed from not believing that those things are real.

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

As a sign of my respect towards you as a fellow intelligent being I read your comments and haven't yet blocked you and chose to engage with you, even though it clearly isn't in my best interest.

Whenever I see an issue I can understand with something somewhere, I try to address it. A typo in some README - I submit a pull request. A mistake in some code that I understand - I submit a pull request. A statement made by someone I disagree with - I try to synchronize our terminology and starting views to see why we disagree.

I do this often unless the number of issues is overwhelming. What is overwhelming can ofc vary from day to day. And when you in your first comment in this thread indicated disagreement with statements portraying gamer culture in negative light in one sentence, I was willing to discuss it. Still not in my interest to do that - arguing on internet is a huge waste of time (practically never accomplishes anything), I have many interesting or important or pleasant things to do instead, I do not benefit from having a discussion with you in any noticeable degree. I still chose to gift away my precious time on this Earth to connect with a fellow intelligent being over meaningless arguments in a way that adds practically nothing to your life or mine.

But then you made several more comments. Bringing the number of addressable issues I had with your statements to dozens. That is an overwhelming amount. Even if I decided to throw away my time and give you the enjoyment of being engaged with like an equal instead of being blocked and ignored, it would take several hours of my time (and if you would choose not to ignore me - probably several hours of your time). All of this in format that is not designed for having winding debates about culture and philosophy.

So I think discussing through every point of disagreement and synchronizing our views to the greatest possible degree and in other aspects understanding each other - why the other feels differently, is theoretically possible, just not practically viable. And I can speculate that the more people are capable of doing that, the more they have better things to do with their time. I.e. the most likely people to agree with you are people without the skills needed to put their thoughts into words very well or understand and empathize others or a deep understanding of philosophy and culture and psychology and history.

So if my previous statements would be near-true, I think it might be for the best to just accept each other as much as we can (know that if we put enormous effort into it, we could all probably be friends and understand each other and even live together) and not needlessly provoke each other with comments intentionally insulting towards any group. Ofc this is very difficult as what is considered a matter of obvious fact for one group is an insult to another group. Also I think it is unreasonable to expect people to discuss things with you thoroughly whenever.

With enough training I can always take my upset reaction to your comments and breathe deeply and accept these emotions and let them go and think what degree of discussion I want to start and commit to here and how much I can expect other people to take me up on that offer and accept when they are uninterested of that. And try to word my possibly very negative emotions in constructive and friendly and respectful ways despite the other person using language that I find hurtful. If I can do, so can you. But you don't have to. You do who you want to become.

Thanks for reading. Meta-feedback very welcome. Long winding discussion less welcome, but I will try my best to process yours as you have processed mine. Respect to all intelligent beings (every human and maybe more).
Cyba.Cowboy Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThis is true enough. Mind you, there are similarly solid reasons for the world community to avoid products made in the USA (and I'm not even talking about Trump).
So yeah, products from Europe, Taiwan, Japan before products from either China or the US.

The big difference is that America is sneaky about it.

China blatantly invades privacy in every possible way, then dares the world to do something about it... America does the same - in secret - then plays the "Who me?" game when they get caught out, before starting all over again.

Call me ignorant, but (excluding perishable goods) what does America actually export in the way of products (particularly as far as Australia) though?

Sure virtually all of the big entertainment companies are American and many of the world's biggest companies in general are American, but do they (America) really export all that much in the way of non-perishable goods?


Quoting: chrYup, this. Every time someone says they avoid Chinese products, I wonder why don't they apply same principles to USA.

I do, I just didn't mention it above... And I don't really buy anything from America, except some clothing on occasion (with the obvious exception of "entertainment" goods).

The big Catch 22 is that some of the world's biggest tech companies are in America - however I avoid them where I can (for example, I don't have Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter or other social media accounts) - but like with China and their "DJI" drones / "Segway" products, it's not always possible to find a comparable equivalent that's not American.

So like with China, America is a last choice when there is nothing else that can compete with whatever it is I am looking for, to the same or an acceptable standard.

My support for Open Source / Linux / Open Formats ties in with this, though it is not the only reason I am a big Open Source / Linux / Open Formats advocate - I have loads of other reasons I support it, many of which applied long before Edward Snowden confirmed what we all suspected for years... The Edward Snowden revelations just give me even more reason to avoid proprietary stuff owned or operated by Americans, where ever possible.


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 21 April 2020 at 9:10 am UTC
xavi Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: Cyba.CowboySay what you want about ol' Trump, but I don't trust China as far as I can spit, and I'll avoid products that have or likely have ties to the Chinese Government, where ever possible... No - before any "Social Justice Warriors" put their 5¢ in - that's not me being "anti-Chinese" or "racist", that's an opinion based on the apalling track record the Chinese Government has with regards to privacy and human rights, which are known (albeit often-ignored) facts.

I do it more for quality and customer support than for country-political stuff.

Quoting: Cyba.CowboyMy current ASUS laptop has always had great support for Linux-based operating systems, and the ASUS ZenBook Duo I hope to buy in the near-ish future apparently has great Linux support, too... As does the "Pro" version of the ASUS ZenBook Duo - if you have an awfully big bank account! :D

ASUS used to provide official UEFI updates / upgrades for Linux-based operating systems too, but I can't seem to find this on their site any more (at least for the model of laptop I have now), so perhaps this is no longer the case? :S:

Thanks! they look so good, I will have that in account.


Last edited by xavi on 21 April 2020 at 9:08 am UTC
Cyba.Cowboy Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: xaviThanks! they look so good, I will have that in account.

My wife wants - and is probably gonna get - one of these "Republic of Gamers" laptops (though not the one above, it's a little rich for my blood right now), but I want the ZenBook Duo I linked-to above...

Not only do I think the dual screens will be especially handy for me personally (I can already think of lots of times when I might use a second, built-in screen like that!), but I genuinely believe it is a step in a the right direction for the future of laptops. Those of us that have been around for a while know that laptop design has been stagnant for a long, long time now... These particular dual screens might not be "the next big thing", but they're certainly taking a couple of steps closer to what is "the next big thing" in laptops, and I want to be a part of that.

ASUS seems to agree, too - only the other day I was reading that they have a third "dual screens" laptop on the way, a "Republic of Gamers" one, too. Though ASUS are tweaking the design slightly (in the new model, the lower display can tilt-up on an angle)... Given that most of ASUS' "ZenBook" products now include the ScreenPad / ScreenPad Plus (apparently this does not work under Linux-based operating systems just yet - but it's only a matter of time!), it seems that ASUS are keen to keep pushing the idea going forwards.


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 21 April 2020 at 9:28 am UTC
CatKiller Apr 21, 2020
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Quoting: Cyba.CowboyNo - before any "Social Justice Warriors" put their 5¢ in

Don't do that.

The existence of "Social Justice Warriors" is an entirely made-up bogeyman from terrible people hoping to dupe others into not calling out their terrible behaviour. Anyone actually using the term is either one of those terrible people or someone that they've duped. Don't be either.
Rooster Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyNo - before any "Social Justice Warriors" put their 5¢ in

Don't do that.

The existence of "Social Justice Warriors" is an entirely made-up bogeyman from terrible people hoping to dupe others into not calling out their terrible behaviour. Anyone actually using the term is either one of those terrible people or someone that they've duped. Don't be either.

Only a sith deals in absolutes.

On a more serious note, you sound condescending. Don't be that.


Last edited by Rooster on 21 April 2020 at 12:11 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Apr 21, 2020
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyNo - before any "Social Justice Warriors" put their 5¢ in

Don't do that.

The existence of "Social Justice Warriors" is an entirely made-up bogeyman from terrible people hoping to dupe others into not calling out their terrible behaviour. Anyone actually using the term is either one of those terrible people or someone that they've duped. Don't be either.
Not that social justice is a bad thing to fight for, or anything. Making the very idea of struggling for social justice into a boogeyman has been an impressive propaganda feat IMO.
Luke_Nukem Apr 23, 2020
Quoting: Cyba.Cowboy
Quoting: DragunovSo they chose a $2000 laptop that almost no one can afford to start on? That makes perfect sense.

This.

Besides, they should have started with the ASUS ZenBook Duo, which is the laptop I plan to upgrade to in the near future (no, not the monster that is the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo - which is the laptop I want to buy, but absolutely cannot afford to buy!)... :P


Quoting: DragunovUsually when I install Linux on a Laptop most things already work out of the box. I've never bought an Asus before though.

I use an ASUS laptop now, have done for three-ish years, and I've mostly been happy with it... Everything "just works" on it and unlike pretty much every other laptop I've ever owned, this thing actually stays cool - even when pushing it pretty hard.

The only problem I've ever had with it is that the battery swelled up some point, warping the chassis and touchpad (not sure if it was from me leaning too hard on the palm-rest area or not)... But I don't use the latter and I wouldn't mind an excuse to upgrade.

Author of the rog-core here...

I started with what I have, which is the GX502GW, which I purchased after a lot of research to try and get the best bang for my bucks - I use a laptop for work, gaming, entertainment etc, for me it's a desktop replacement. If you want me to start on another laptop feel free to send it to me, or give me details.

The rest of this thread is leaving me with a headache.

Just recently got per-key LED effects up and running. Since this is all controlled by a daemon using dbus, it means that an app or script or anything can write an effect. So in essence you could write an app that changes the LEDs based on CPU or GPU temperature or make a music visualization, or even something controlled by a game (I'm attempting a GOL, Game of Life app now).

The ROG key will be customizable soon so that a press runs whatever you want as a command. And the majority of other buttons are now functional except for fan and screen-off.


Last edited by Luke_Nukem on 23 April 2020 at 12:17 am UTC
Cyba.Cowboy Apr 23, 2020
Quoting: Luke_NukemIf you want me to start on another laptop feel free to send it to me, or give me details.

This guy. :P


Quoting: Luke_NukemAuthor of the rog-core here...

I started with what I have, which is the GX502GW, which I purchased after a lot of research to try and get the best bang for my bucks - I use a laptop for work, gaming, entertainment etc, for me it's a desktop replacement. If you want me to start on another laptop feel free to send it to me, or give me details.

I wasn't haven't a go at you bud, just making a joke because I was planning to buy that ASUS ZenBook Duo at the time of writing (picking it up tomorrow)... In my experience, many Open Source projects are based on what people have available, and I think most people here know that already.

We all appreciate your work, and I'm sure there's some GX502GW users out there that are thankful for your work, even if they don't necessarily hang out here and know you personally did the hard work.

If I knew the first thing about writing drivers, I'd be happy to help out... But I don't, so it's people like you that "keep the lights on", so to speak.

Thanks.


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 23 April 2020 at 8:53 am UTC
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