ASUS officially don't support linux

[mike acker]

Hey Mike,

I think generally it is better to review what we can run Linux on

All I can say is that you guys are very tolerant and patient. I realise that linux only makes up a small segment of the market, but I still think it sucks that a company as big as ASUS can't even bother to make any effort in supporting it. Even just one guy working on linux compatibility issues?

To my mind, the one BIG thing that keeps linux as a bit player in the desktop space is this perennial issue of hardware driver problems. In Windows, everything just usually works. This isn't because Windows is an intrinsically better OS (it ain't!), but rather because the hardware makers go to great lengths to make their stuff compatible with Windows. Imagine if they did the same for linux? One thing for sure, nothing will happen if people don't push.

if the chipset on your board doesn't do music well you can try a Behringer UFO202 from Amazon. This DAC is USB connected. I use mine in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and in MINT and it works fine. not sure yet but i think the CODEC in MINT is a bit better !

I have thought of just buying a cheap audio card as a way of getting around this problem, but the Behringer would be easier to just plug in. I'll keep that as a last stand solution if I can't get my problem sorted otherwise.

~~~
windows has had their share of driver problems over the years.

do you have enough CPU to play with music? i don't know what rate is 'required' . on play back you are likely feeding 1kb/sec into the converter and it has to be un-interrupted.

one problem i've run into on CDs -- you may get read errors when you RIP a CD and if so you have a blank spot in the play back. you can try re-ripping at a slower read rate (I think Brasero does this automatically ) or if you have just 1 littel skip you can pull uip the track in Audacity and just delete the blank spot. that ain't perfect but usually you won't notice it much . alternatively you'd have to buy another copy of the CD.

IIWU I'd get a Behringer. i've found running audio off the on-board chip set may interfere with other use of that device.

[tintintin]

Hey rokytnji, still no luck I'm afraid.

I made the three "false" --> "true" edits that you suggested in the asound.state file. I didn't make any more such changes as there were plenty of other "false" entries and I wasn't sure which ones to edit.

I noticed incidentally that some of the values had VERY long string values, e.g. at control.34 the value for 'IEC958 Playback Default' was:
'0400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'
Is this an error???

Anyway, I saved the asound.state file and when I tried "sudo alsactl restore", I got this error:

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alsactl: load_state:1686: No soundcards found...

I had a look in the "cards" file in my "/proc/asound" directory", and this is what it said:

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--- no soundcards ---

So, it looks like my system now doesn't see my realtek ALC898 audio chip. Great.

And of course the next command was a fail too:

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$ sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel
ERROR: could not insert 'snd_hda_intel': Invalid argument

Removing "oss-compat" didn't seem to make any difference, so I've re-installed it.

Hmm, it looks like running the Realtek driver script has bricked my audio system. I can't access alsamixer any more, and my system can't see any sound cards.

*sigh*, why is this sooooo hard??

[tintintin]

I've just tried reloading my alsa system as per [url]http://itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1304-quick-tip/[/url]

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sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

Then I rebooted, crossed my fingers, but still no luck. My system still can't find my sound card, and all I see in the Sound app is "Dummy output". Alsamixer still won't start either:

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cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

Oddly enough, I had a similar issue with my video card. When I run the Driver Manager app, it won't detect my video card and just gives me a blank window. At least in that case though I was able to install the NVidia310 driver.

Very frustrating ...

[tintintin]

OK, I've had a little win.

I updated my linux kernel from 3.8.0 to version 3.9.4, and now alsamixer works!

Also, the following commands now makes a hissing sound:
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav
speaker-test -c 2

I can also see Digital Output (S/PDIF) and Analogue Output in my Sound app, instead of just Dummy Output.

BUT, still no sound when I try "Test Sound" in the sound app, or if I try VLC

[Nick Payne]

[quote="tintintin"]Anyway, this princess won't help my problem. So here is the output of inxi -Ax as requested:

Audio:
Card-1: NVIDIA Device 0e0b driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 Sound: ALSA ver: k3.8.0-19-generic
Card-2: Intel C600/X79 series chipset High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Card-3: Asahi Kasei Microsystems AK5370 I/F A/D Converter driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 0556:0001
Card-4: Logitech Webcam C270 driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 046d:0825

Also, alsamixer tells me my audio chip is a Realtek ALC898

With a P9X79-LE Asus mobo, I see

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Card-1: NVIDIA Device 0e0b driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 Sound: ALSA ver: k3.11.0-031100-generic
Card-2: Intel C600/X79 series chipset High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0

and audiochip is a Realtek ALC892. Sound has worked without any problem from when I first installed Mint 15. As you can see, I'm presently running the 3.11 kernel, but sound worked fine with 3.10 and 3.9 and 3.8.

[monkeyboy]

You have to do a little homework so you can avoid compatibility problems. Even then you can get burnt but not nearly as often. As to ASUS in specific, when I punched my last motherboard I went with one of theirs because of good compatibility as well as features. Enjoy

[mike acker]

yes, i took care to avoid an intel type board so as to avoid the windows lock-out, and
***
avoid nvidia at all costs, as per instrucstions from Mr. Linux, Linus Torvalds his own self.
look for AMD/ATI video stuff

[trapperjohn]

avoid nvidia at all costs,

Oh, I don't know. I have a discrete NVidia card on my Asus Sabretooth and an on-board NVidia GPU on my Dell (Intel) laptop. They work like a charm. I couldn't do Cuda development without them.

My understanding of Linus Torvalds' 2012 NVidia enmity is that it was inspired by NVidia's poor Linux support for the Optimus technology. I couldn't agree more. But, a responsible board (or laptop) manufacturer should have the decency to provide an option in the BIOs for decoupling the GPU.

[MartyMint]

yes, i took care to avoid an intel type board so as to avoid the windows lock-out, and
***
avoid nvidia at all costs, as per instrucstions from Mr. Linux, Linus Torvalds his own self.
look for AMD/ATI video stuff

Just stop.

[rokytnji]

I updated my linux kernel from 3.8.0 to version 3.9.4, and now alsamixer works!

I usually suggest a newer kernel which supports newer hardware but I forgot to post a link
in this thread, The reason being

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=757295#p757295

read the reply under mine so I quit pointing to Ubuntu kernel repo debs for headers and images.
Reason bieng. I am comfy installing Liqourix kernels but I can't expect other members to be
comfy with what I do.

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locate smxi
/usr/sbin/smxi
$ locate sgfxi
/usr/sbin/sgfxi

[url=http://smxi.org/]smxi[/url],[url=http://smxi.org/docs/sgfxi-manual.htm]sgfx[/url]i, [url=http://liquorix.net/]Liqourix[/url],

http://liquorix.net/debian/pool/main/l/linux-liquorix/
http://vsido.org/index.php?topic=464.0

I am walking wounded with whooping cough infection so I won't be posting till I get better. This will be my last touching bases on this thread for a long while.

[cessanfrancisco]

I have been using an Asus UL80jt for a while with various Linux distros, with great success.

I wouldn't expect an answer other than the one you received from Asus, as far as not supporting Linux. They design and build their computers under the pretense that the end user will only be using Windows. Therefore they have no idea what to tell a customer having problems with Linux since there are so many varied Linux distros out there.

The person replying to your inquiry was probably some poor soul in Asia being paid $1 (or less) an hour, to respond to customer service inquiries based on a script. And if your inquiry is not on the script they are told to give a stock/generic answer like, "Asus does not support [enter hardware/software here]."

The bottom line is it would be like buying a Toyota Camry, putting a Corvette engine it, then calling Toyota for help troubleshooting and getting it running smoothly.

Besides, who needs Asus (or any other manufacturer's out-sourced tech support) when we have great forums like this (and that vast repository of knowledge called the internet)?

[linuxviolin]

One thing for sure, nothing will happen if people don't push.

This is humor, I hope. This makes many decades people try to push Linux on the desktop and this is never really arrived and will arrive. Unfortunately or not for some, this is like that. You can always try to push, as you said, the part of the Linux on the desktop will never grow much.

[tintintin]

I am walking wounded with whooping cough infection so I won't be posting till I get better. This will be my last touching bases on this thread for a long while.

OK, hope you get better soon rokyntji, and thanks for your advice. Thanks too to everyone else for your comments.

I think I've come to a bit of a dead end on this one. I might try a few other linux distros, in the hope I find one that caters better for newer hardware. Or perhaps just wait till the next version of Mint is released. I quite like Mint, so am a bit loathe to leave it now.

OR, I might just try Mike's idea and order a Behringer UFO202 from Amazon, which will hopefully work regardless of my linux incompatible Realtek ALC898 audio chip.

Thanks again everyone. Sayonara.

[spamazoid]

Add me to the list tho my issue only arose once i upgraded the Bios on my Asus p9X79 Pro Pro mobo to the latest 2 Bios's to fully support the i7-4820K. i also have a GTX-780Ti and with that combo i can't boot any live CD without issues if at all. Manjaro fails to boot, Mint fails to validate graphics, Debian works to boot up the live cd but once installed it fails and Mint Debian basically has the same error that Mint main has. I do get one consistant error in the bootup process saying KVM was disabled in the bios which if i read correct right was the Intel Virtual Technology but that was not turned off.

I think the issue may be primarily the latest 2 Bios's turn on UEFI by default and you can't turn it off all you can do is disable showing the UEFI compatible boot devices so only non UEFI ones show.

Anyway i can't run linux anymore with the current system, only on my older MSI GX623 gaming laptop which still has issues with the latest distro's but atleast works.

Regardless there does seem to be something for the bad that has changed in the Linux Kernel drivers in the last few revisions, cause hardware that was working flawlessly is no longer working flawlessly. Maybe i'm just unlucky

[cwsnyder]

I just purchased an ASUS 1015E from Amazon with Ubuntu 12.04 Precise installed and I was able to update to Xubuntu Trusty Tahr alpha release. The notebook also came with UEFI instead of BIOS, but I was able to use the Trusty Live DVD to install, although it took 2 tries. I did a full replacement of the 12.04.3 Ubuntu using an external DVD-ROM, with the DVD-RW burned from my desktop machine.http://www.amazon.com/1015E-DS03-10-1-I ... asus+1015e

[Tete23]

Hello! Although three years have passed, but still. The same problem was with me. Motherboard p9x79pro. Here's how I solved it:

Go to the BIOS settings. Select the Advanced mode -> Advanced-> Onboard device configuration, and in the Front panel type select AC97
save & exit