Problems Encountered with Installation on an ASUS R501VM Laptop

[NoWorries]

After having great success with Saucy on a Compaq, I decided to test Kubuntu 13:10 on my ASUS R501VM Laptop. I did not want to alter the partitions on my SSD so I decided to install it on a USB memory stick. I initially tried a USB 2.0 stick and this gave unacceptably slow performance. Since my laptop supports USB 3.0 I ended up getting a USB 3.0 stick and this gave acceptable performance.

As I now have two systems to choose from, I used Grub Customizer to modify the boot menu and add graphics. With Saucy on a USB, I found that it was the dominant Operating System, so I had to to have Grub Customizer for Saucy. At this stage this is not available so I used the Muon Package Manager to add http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielricht...tomizer/ubuntu and defined the Distribution as raring. This worked so that I could make the first option Kubuntu 13.04 and the second Kubuntu 13.10. This lets my Wife use the laptop without too much change.

I soon found that the Australian mirrors still do not support Saucy so I had to change the source to Main to get updates. As of now, the main unsolved problems with my Laptop are:

(1) The keyboard backlights do not work. The way I got them to work on Raring was to edit the /etc/rc.local file and before the exit 0 add

echo 0x00050021 > /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi/dev_id
echo 0x82 > /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi/ctrl_param
cat /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi/devs

On Saucy there is no folder /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi. I found it impossible to create this folder. I did find that if I started Saucy in the recover mode and resumed normal boot, this file was created and the backlights came on! Unfortunately, this mode does not have the video drivers loaded. When I return to a normal reboot, the backlights do not come on and the asus-nd-wmi folder is not present.

(2) Network activity is not shown by either System Monitor, Network Monitor Widget or Network Management Widget. This only happens on my Laptop. There is certainly no problem with network activity except it is not shown.

All other aspects that I have tested work well and I am still very encouraged by the state of development. There are other problems which are less important. In this category is the system randomly not recognising the presence of my battery. To fix this, I have to unplug and replug the battery. The other problem is that reboot does not work.

I am wondering if others have had this sort of trouble, or alternately, am I the only one who has not been able to work out a solution?

[SteveRiley]

You can't create /sys; it's automatically built by the kernel as it initializes devices. Read more about the sysfs virtual file system.

After a cold start of the machine, please open a console window and run

tail -f /var/log/syslog

Then open a second window and run

sudo modprobe -v asus-nb-wmi

Into a reply here, copy-pasta what you see in the first window, and any messages after the modprobe in the second.

[NoWorries]

Thanks for your response to my problem. Hope the following helps.

Here is the output from the tail -f ...

:~$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil rtkit-daemon[1900]: Successfully made thread 1915 of process 1898 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil rtkit-daemon[1900]: Supervising 4 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil bluetoothd[824]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.49 path=/MediaEndpoint/HFPAG
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil bluetoothd[824]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.49 path=/MediaEndpoint/HFPHS
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil bluetoothd[824]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.49 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Jul 24 11:03:26 basil bluetoothd[824]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.49 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Jul 24 11:03:28 basil pulseaudio[1898]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
Jul 24 11:03:28 basil pulseaudio[1898]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Jul 24 11:03:28 basil pulseaudio[1898]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
Jul 24 11:03:32 basil ntpdate[1887]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset 0.000370 sec

What I found was that this command never returned to the prompt and I closed Konsole.

The next modprobe command gives the following output:

:~$ sudo modprobe -v asus-nb-wmi
[sudo] password : 
insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-5-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-nb-wmi.ko 
:~$

[SteveRiley]

What I found was that this command never returned to the prompt and I closed Konsole.

That's correct, it should just wait. Check the man page for tail (lol..."man tail") and you might see why I asked for this. It's because I want to see what's recorded to the system log when you run the next command.

The next modprobe command gives no output at all, probably because there is no asus-nd-wmi file.

modprobe only reports errors; successful module loads report nothing on the console. Thus, we have to look in the system log. tail -fing it helps us. (Er...something's in the water here in Virginia I think!)

So please try again, from another cold boot.

[NoWorries]

Thanks for the clarification. I opened a second console after leaving the tail ... command running for over 1/2 hour. The output from the modprobe is now:

:~$ sudo modprobe -v asus-nb-wmi
[sudo] password: 
insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-5-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-nb-wmi.ko 
:~$

The output from the tail .... that I left running now gives:

:~$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
Jul 24 11:16:31 basil bluetoothd[844]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.49 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Jul 24 11:16:31 basil pulseaudio[1896]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
Jul 24 11:16:31 basil pulseaudio[1896]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Jul 24 11:16:31 basil pulseaudio[1896]: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
Jul 24 11:16:37 basil NetworkManager[926]: <info> (eth0): IP6 addrconf timed out or failed.
Jul 24 11:16:37 basil NetworkManager[926]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) scheduled...
Jul 24 11:16:37 basil NetworkManager[926]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) started...
Jul 24 11:16:37 basil NetworkManager[926]: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Jul 24 11:16:44 basil ntpdate[2027]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset 0.396124 sec
Jul 24 11:17:01 basil CRON[2072]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Jul 24 11:32:43 basil wpa_supplicant[1035]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:14:6c:f4:19:16 [GTK=TKIP]
Jul 24 11:59:35 basil NetworkManager[926]: <warn> nl_recvmsgs() error: (-33) Dump inconsistency detected, interrupted
Jul 24 12:02:44 basil wpa_supplicant[1035]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:14:6c:f4:19:16 [GTK=TKIP]
Jul 24 12:03:34 basil kernel: [ 2848.744332] asus_wmi: Initialization: 0x1
Jul 24 12:03:34 basil kernel: [ 2848.744395] asus_wmi: BIOS WMI version: 7.9asus_wmi: SFUN value: 0x6a0877
Jul 24 12:03:34 basil kernel: [ 2848.745952] input: Asus WMI hotkeys as /devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/input/input12
Jul 24 12:03:34 basil NetworkManager[926]: <info> rfkill3: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/rfkill/rfkill3) (platform driver asus-nb-wmi)
Jul 24 12:03:34 basil kernel: [ 2848.798678] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver

This should now make much more sense. In particular the hotkeys and backlight responses.

I am pleased to report that today is ideal ... blue sky - sunshine - 14C. A great place to live

[SteveRiley]

I'm guessing the lights still aren't working.

What's the output of these two:

ls -al /sys/class/leds

lsmod | grep wmi | grep -v rawmidi

[NoWorries]

I'm guessing the lights still aren't working.

What's the output of these two:

ls -al /sys/class/leds

lsmod | grep wmi | grep -v rawmidi

Yes you are correct - no lights at the moment. The output from ls .... is:

:~$ ls -al /sys/class/leds
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 0 Jul 24 13:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 54 root root 0 Jul 24 13:19 ..
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 0 Jul 24 13:19 asus::kbd_backlight -> ../../devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/leds/asus::kbd_backlight
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 0 Jul 24 13:20 asus::wlan -> ../../devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/leds/asus::wlan
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 0 Jul 24 13:20 ath9k-phy0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0/leds/ath9k-phy0
:~$

Just before executing the next command the lights were on and could be controlled by the function keys. The output from lsmod is:

:~$ lsmod | grep wmi | grep -v rawmidi
asus_nb_wmi            16990  0 
asus_wmi               24191  1 asus_nb_wmi
sparse_keymap          13948  1 asus_wmi
mxm_wmi                13021  1 nouveau
wmi                    19070  3 mxm_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi
video                  19502  3 i915,nouveau,asus_wmi
:~$

I will now reboot and see if this happens again and let you know.

[NoWorries]

On reboot, no lights came on and the output is now:

:~$ ls -al /sys/class/leds
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 0 Jul 24 13:33 .
drwxr-xr-x 54 root root 0 Jul 24 13:33 ..
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 0 Jul 24 13:34 ath9k-phy0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0/leds/ath9k-phy0
:~$ lsmod | grep wmi | grep -v rawmidi
asus_wmi               24191  0 
sparse_keymap          13948  1 asus_wmi
mxm_wmi                13021  1 nouveau
wmi                    19070  3 mxm_wmi,nouveau,asus_wmi
video                  19502  3 i915,nouveau,asus_wmi
:~$

This gives a different output for the ls .... command this time around. I hope this problem is not provoked by having my system on a USB 3.0 memory stick.

[SteveRiley]

Wait. So they weren't working, then you typed the ls command, then they were working?

It apears that a chain of modules is necessary. First wmi, which is required by asus-wmi, which in turn is required by asus-nb-wmi:

steve@t520:~$ [B]modinfo asus-nb-wmi[/B]
filename:       /lib/modules/3.10.1-031001-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-nb-wmi.ko
alias:          wmi:0B3CBB35-E3C2-45ED-91C2-4C5A6D195D1C
license:        GPL
description:    Asus Notebooks WMI Hotkey Driver
author:         Corentin Chary <corentin.chary@gmail.com>
srcversion:     5BDE545E9BC01354BA5ED45
[COLOR="#FF0000"]depends:        asus-wmi[/COLOR]
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.10.1-031001-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           wapf:WAPF value (uint)

steve@t520:~$ [B]modinfo asus-wmi[/B]
filename:       /lib/modules/3.10.1-031001-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-wmi.ko
license:        GPL
description:    Asus Generic WMI Driver
author:         Corentin Chary <corentin.chary@gmail.com>, Yong Wang <yong.y.wang@intel.com>
srcversion:     C7ED5DF3058308896E8A99A
[COLOR="#FF0000"]depends:[/COLOR]        sparse-keymap,[COLOR="#FF0000"]wmi[/COLOR],video
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.10.1-031001-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 

steve@t520:~$ [B]modinfo wmi[/B]
filename:       /lib/modules/3.10.1-031001-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/wmi.ko
license:        GPL
description:    ACPI-WMI Mapping Driver
author:         Carlos Corbacho
srcversion:     375B15B80222C7C3B79549F
alias:          acpi*:pnp0c14:*
alias:          acpi*:PNP0C14:*
depends:        
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.10.1-031001-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           debug_event:Log WMI Events [0/1] (bool)
parm:           debug_dump_wdg:Dump available WMI interfaces [0/1] (bool)

I saw a post on the Arch forum that described a similar problem. A kernel update appears to have borked the ability to auto-load asus-nb-wmi, but manually including it in the list of modules to load at boot time worked.

It appears right now that you have all three modules loaded, according to the output of lsmod. What we need to find is a repeatable pattern where this is always the case.

[SteveRiley]

OK, your post #8 appeared as I was typing my post #9. Please enter this:

sudo nano /etc/modules

Add the following line at the end:

asus-nb-wmi

Cold-start your machine and let me know what happens.

[SteveRiley]

I am pleased to report that today is ideal ... blue sky - sunshine - 14C. A great place to live

Canberra is better, dontchathink?

[NoWorries]

Only if you want to be close to the snow fields and can tolerate freezing nights as a result of being inland and a long way from the ocean:-o.

[SteveRiley]

That and a city that resolutely shuts down at 17:00. But Kevin's in charge again, so all's good, right? RIGHT?

Anywayz...how's it going after editing /etc/modules?

[NoWorries]

OK, your post #8 appeared as I was typing my post #9. Please enter this:

sudo nano /etc/modules

Add the following line at the end:

asus-nb-wmi

Cold-start your machine and let me know what happens.

Sorry to say that this made no difference and I was surprised that it didn't. The code in my modules file is:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.

loop
lp
rtc
asus-nb-wmi

[NoWorries]

That and a city that resolutely shuts down at 17:00. But Kevin's in charge again, so all's good, right? RIGHT?

Anywayz...how's it going after editing /etc/modules?

Yes it is good and I hope he wins the next election. We may be overseas when the election is called and my wife called the electoral office today so that we could be exempt from voting if we are away during the election. We will be away for 6 weeks and only out of contact sometimes.