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Asus K43E
Introduction
This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Asus K43E laptop. If you have the Asus K43E and are running Linux on it please consider editing this page or adding a comment below with your compatibility details. By contributing you will help other people running this laptop or trying to make a decision on whether to buy it or not.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Asus K43E. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Asus K43E page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Asus K43E specifications page.
| Name | Asus K43E |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ i5 2410M Intel® Core™ i3 2310M |
| Screen | 14” (1366×768) Widescreen |
| RAM | Up to 8GB |
| HDD | up to 750GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW Blu-ray |
| Graphics | Intel® GMA HD |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet Atheros AR9285 802.11 b/g/n |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | |
| Sound | Yes | |
| Headphone Jack | Yes | |
| Microphone Jack | Yes | Might need to install PulseAudio volume control in Ubuntu |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Yes | Required editing a configuration file in Ubuntu 12.04 |
| Webcam | Yes | |
| Microphone | Yes | Sound was not good but it worked |
| Suspend | Yes | |
| Hibernation | No | Some ASUS laptops have problems with this |
Notes
This is a good laptop for GNU/Linux usage, it works very stable and the minor problems that may arise are not very different from the other great choices.
Summary
I have been using solely Ubuntu 12.04 on this for 10 months and basically everything works. I have problems with the internal microphone sounding bad, but this might be an Ubuntu problem fixed in newer distros. Debian Wheezy seems to work fine, but I have not tested minor details, but the card reader worked out of the box. The wireless card is compatible with free software, which makes it possible to boot a freedom respecting GNU/Linux distro like Trisquel. The Atheros drivers are a bit buggy, some people run into problems when they have to be a little far from their routers, so you can try changing your routers to wireless G mode only to see how things work out. I've been using it in the same room as my router and it has been a great ride.
Discussion
Leo is using very old distros to test this not so old hardware. I use it with Ubuntu 12.04 without problems. I had to do a fix to make the SD card slot work, but it might be working out of the box with Ubuntu 12.04.2 now. Debian Wheezy seems to work ok with it too. The battery will be fine if your distro has the power regression fix in Linux kernels 3.2 or higher.
i going to try to write in english, so, sorry for my too bad spelling…
i tested my ASUS K43E with Debian Squeeze, Fedora 14, backtrack R3 and R4, kubuntu(i don'w remember wich, sorry), ubuntu 9.10→12.04, linuxMint(i don'w remember wich, sorry), and only ubuntu 12.04 works as 100%, just two problems in all anothers….
1.- the ethernet adapter doesn't work(but wireless works perfect)
2.- the same with the “function keys”, only worked the volume and wireless keys, but didn't show the “animation”, i found a “block touchpad” tool for the key in all ubuntu's distributions.
as i said, only ubuntu 12.04 works perfect, without install or modify any file, the battery seems have problems, but i worked with minimum brightness and it worked around 4 hours, despite very changes in the color of the icon, and the usb ports are so slowly to recognise the devices.
the battery only works great in ubuntu 12.04, in others anothers distributions doesnt work good, and i didn't found finals solutions(just works 1:40-3:00[more or less] hours with the minimum brightness).
i had no problems with hardwere(procesor, graphics, micro, audio, cam, etc…) in any distribution, just the commented.
i hope you be able to read my bad english.
sorry, i forgot…
processor intel i3 second generation, 4GB ram, 500GB hard disk
Author(s)
Newbrazuca
Xen
I could not climb the xen kernel.
Video
Only with kernel backports.
Ethernet
Only with kernel backports.
Or manual modprobe configuration.00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point HECI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Cougar Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cougar Point SMBus Controller (rev 05)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Device 1083 (rev c0)
lspci