Popular Guides
View more guides at Linux Wiki Guides
Welcome to LinLap - The Linux Laptop Wiki
Asus M50Sa
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Asus M50Sa laptop.
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Asus M50Sa. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Asus M50Sa page on LapWik.
Editing This Page
If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.
Specifications
| Name | Asus M50Sa |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo |
| Screen | 15.4” WXGA+ or WSXGA+ Widescreen |
| RAM | 1GB to 4GB |
| HDD | 120GB to 500GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW or Blu-ray |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 |
| Network | Ethernet, Intel 3945ABG 802.11abgn or Intel 4965AGN 802.11abgn, Bluetooth |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | Screen brightness must be manually controlled. |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Keyboard | Yes | The keymap may need to be altered to allow proper use of Shift-PgDn and Shift-PgUp to control the console scrollback buffer. |
| Optical Drive | DVD - Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | Using ATI proprietary driver. |
| Sound | Yes | snd_hda_intel. (see note) |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | iwlwifi |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| Fingerprint Reader | Not Tested | |
| Camera | Yes |
Notes
The backlight control, keyboard keymap, and sound sections have been verified on Gentoo Linux. Minor modifications to these instructions may have to be made for your distribution. (These entries were made by Chris Snow)
Backlight Control
The default light level is set to zero. This results in the screen brightness being very dim. You may set the backlight level (ls_level) anywhere from 0 (least bright) to 15 (brightest).
$ sudo echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/ls_switch # make sure the switch is 'on'. $ sudo echo 15 > /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/ls_level # set the backlight brightness.
I added the above command, minus sudo, to a startup script so that the screen is set to the brightest level on boot.
Keyboard Keymap
Generally speaking, the keyboard works without issue. Two caveats: Most “Fn” keys combinations do not work; Default keymaps for Shift-PgUp/Shift-PgDn do not work to control the console scrollback buffer.
There are several ways to correct the keymaps to allow for proper control of the console scrollback buffer, I chose to do the following:
$ sudo sed -i 's/shift keycode 104/shift keycode 73/g' /usr/share/keymaps/i386/include/linux-keys-bare.inc $ sudo sed -i 's/shift keycode 109/shift keycode 81/g' /usr/share/keymaps/i386/include/linux-keys-bare.inc $ sudo /etc/init.d/keymaps restart
Sound
The laptop speakers will not mute when external speakers or heaphones are plugged in. A quick fix for this is to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa (create the file if it does not exist):
options snd-hda-intel model=haier-w66
Summary
You can enter a summary of how well the Asus M50Sa works with Linux here.
Discussion
setting ls_switch to 0 enables the fn-f5 and fn-f6 brightness control's
setting it to 1 lets you manually set the brightness between 0 and 15 with ls_level
setting it to 3 enables the auto-brightness i think.
Screen Brightness
Such as M50Sv, M50Sa have problems with brightness. It fix such easy as in M50Sv: to fix dark screen disable the ambient light sensor like so:
sudo -s
echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/asus_laptop/ls_switch
But how make work brightness control and sensor?