Linux on ROG Zephyrus G16 Air (2024)

Some scripts for better experience with your Zephyrus G16 Air.

My model is G16 Air Ryzen AI 9 version.

NOTE: I hard-coded PCIe addresses for GPUs in optimus.sh. If you have an additional NVME drive, please add all IDs by one. e.g. PCI:101:0:0 becomes PCI:102:0:0

Environment

• OS: Any Arch based distro (I've tested archlinux & artixlinux). Other distros may also work.

• WM & DE: Xfce4 (Wayland compositors do not work quite well. The internal display gives InvalidMode)

• Display Manager: SDDM, LightDM

• Packages: asusctl for LEDs and profiles. nvidia-prime for prime-run util.

  supergfxctl and optimus-manager are not needed.

• Driver: nvidia (proprietary). No need to install any xorg-drivers like xf86-video-amdgpu. modesetting driver is used for iGPU.

Configuration

• NVIDIA Driver:

Create /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf file, write following config:

blacklist nouveau

options nvidia NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement=0x02
options nvidia-drm modeset=1 fbdev=1

This disables nouveau driver, enables Dynamic D3 Power Management, ModeSet and fbdev (for tty consoles).

If you need tty consoles to show up on internal display + iGPU connected monitors, add fbcon=map:0 to kernel flags.

• SDDM:

If you see a black screen / SDDM only shows up on some displays, add xrandr --auto to /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup.

This automatically scans for connected monitors and enables them.

• Xorg:

Random screen freezing while in integrated mode can be resolved by disabling PageFlip.

This is already the default config in my scripts.

Scripts

• ./pcie_down.sh: powers off dGPU completely with PCIE power control.

The results are similar as putting dGPU into D3Cold state, but prevents random power boosts with NVIDIA power management.

To re-enable dGPU, run any program that uses your NVIDIA card, and pciehp should automatically power up dGPU again.

Or you can use pcie_up.sh to manually power it up.

• ./pcie_up.sh: powers on dGPU. Counterpart of pcie_down.sh.

• ./auto_gpu_power.sh: automatically powers on/off dGPU based on Xorg mode.

  Add it to places like /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup if you want to automatically power off dGPU when in integrated mode.

• ./optimus.sh: toggles Xorg GPU mode.

This script controls Xorg to either use iGPU only or both GPUs.

Usage: sudo optimus.sh [integrated, hybrid]

In integrated mode, dGPU is invisible to Xorg and there should be no process running using dGPU (except if you PRIME offloaded any application).

Therefore, the GPU should freely go into D3Cold state to save power. (Use powernow.sh to verify).

Also, any displays connected to dGPU would not work (like HDMI).

In hybrid mode, dGPU is activated and Xorg will be using it. All the monitors should work without any problems.

• ./powernow.sh: checks current battery power consumption.

Unplug the laptop and run it. It should give something like this:

D3Cold
D0
7.821 W

• ./bright: Adjust OLED brightness.

By default, your window manager's brightness control should work. If not, try this script which adjusts AMDgpu's backlight control. The display can go maximum 500 nits brightness.

Improve Battery Life

There are some tips to improve battery life further. It's recommended to use tlp to apply these tweaks.

With these tweaks, the power consumption can be lowered to around 6W when idle, 7-9W when under normal load and maximum 15W when under heavy load.

• Power off dGPU entirely with pcie_down.sh script.

• Or enable Runtime D3 power management:

  Follow the steps in NVIDIA Driver section.

  Option NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement decides the power management mode.

  • 0x02 is for fine-grained power management (recommended).

  • 0x01 is for coarse power management.

  For the difference, refer to NVIDIA's documentation

• Set AMD iGPU DPM performance level to low

  Highly recommended. This can save about 3W when idle and prevents sudden peaks in power usage when opening applications.

  With tlp, you can add the following lines to the config:

  RADEON_DPM_PERF_LEVEL_ON_AC=auto
  RADEON_DPM_PERF_LEVEL_ON_BAT=low

• Disable CPU Frequency Boosting

  Recommended. This lowers the peak frequency from 4.37 GHz to 2.0 GHz and saves a lot of power.

  With tlp, add the following line to the config:

  CPU_BOOST_ON_AC=1
  CPU_BOOST_ON_BAT=0

  Note: further limiting the CPU frequency actually CANNOT save any significant power. Disabling boost is enough.

• Set PCIE ASPM to powersupersave

  Recommended. This can save about 1W.

  With tlp, add the following lines to the config:

  PCIE_ASPM_ON_AC=default
  PCIE_ASPM_ON_BAT=powersupersave

• Set platform ACPI profile to quiet

  This is the default behavior if you are using asusctl. With tlp, add the following lines to the config:

  PLATFORM_PROFILE_ON_BAT=quiet

• Disable watchdog

  NMI watchdog is by default disabled by tlp. You can further disable sp5100_tco watchdog by blacklisting it.

  Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/disable-watchdog.conf:

  blacklist sp5100_tco

• Set CPU EPP to power

  Add the following line to the config:

  CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_BAT=power

Known Issues

Some fixed issues are still displayed here for reference on older kernels.

• Kernel Oops: divide error in CalculateVMAndRowBytes

  Fixed in 6.14 by agd5f/linux@4408b59e, agd5f/linux@afcdf51d, agd5f/linux@366e77cd

• USBC kworker/u96:1:13 hang after plugging in USBC devices

  Fixed in 6.14. However display over USBC failed to work.

• Internal Microphone not working

  Fixed in 6.15

• Aquamarine (Hyprland) crash

  Following at this discussion.