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'Asussy'

Asus Vivobook X541UJ

Current Status: Working fine

CPU: Core i5-7200U 3.1GHz

GPU: Geforce 920M

RAM: 8GB DDR4 (can take 16GB)

Storage: 500GB SDD (Crucial BX500)

Optical: DVD-RW

Current OS: Debian 13 KDE

I think I bought this in 2017 when I was studying, it has been my main laptop since then. I did not do a tonne of research before buying, I just figured "oh it has a graphics card, it'll probably play games". It came with Windows 10 and had multiple issues with that including a total crash within the first year requiring a reinstall, and the hard drive became unusably slow/corrupted by 2024. Since building a PC in 2020 it had kinda gone to the wayside, until I started using it for trying out different distros. It has had MX Linux (which stopped booting one day), antiX saved it and was on there for a while after that. I also have put Debian 12 on it and fixed the issues that broke MX and other attempted installs. If you are looking at one of these second hand, don't. If you already have one, there's troubleshooting advice and links further down.

I have semi-recently swapped laptops with my partner, so this is her main one now. It is faster, more reliable and physically lighter than her old laptop (now my current one), which was having wireless/bluetooth issues. I wiped it and installed Debian 13 KDE from the live ISO, which has been a nice looking and relatively user friendly/stable experience that shouldn't need touching until 2030.

Things I like about it:

• It is very lightweight, easy enough to carry one handed while open.
• Low-travel keys with a numpad, not bad for long periods of typing. They are pretty bunched up around the arrow keys though, causing some mis-presses.
• The speakers are pretty good, decent enough to watch something on without being super tinny. Screen is okay (at the precise viewing angle).
• It's relatively quiet

Things I don't like about it:

• I am surprised any time it survives a light fall, this thing feels like you could easily snap it in half over your knee.
• Trying to replace/repair any part is a mission; everything is internal and like under or attached to something else, with a bunch of screws and plastic clips to go through. The battery is attached behind the motherboard but also has metal tabs under it as well, and you have to use so much force to remove it.
• I had a few huge issues trying to get GNU/Linux on this thing; security key errors filling up the limited UEFI memory and preventing boot, it also wouldn't boot USB ISOs unless they had a specific file name. See solutions in the troubleshooting section below.
• There are like two dozen model numbers for various versions of this same laptop line, it makes looking up troubleshooting/parts quite annoying. You never really know if you have the correct guide or compatible part.

Usage

• Currently my partner's main laptop/computer. It does well with web browsing, video playback, and games that don't need a desktop GPU.
• We make use of it's portability; can easily attach it to a TV and use it's DVD drive, or plug it into a monitor for a better screen and more ergonomic setup.
• Digital Art; used with a Huion Kamvas 13 and it's proprietary Linux drivers. Also works perfectly well with the built in tablet drivers on the KDE desktop.

Troubleshooting

• Black screen on startup OR endless 'PCIE bus' error messages preventing startup:

The solution that worked for me on Debian 12 and 13 was editing the grub boot command to: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=off"

This was done in the initial grub screen during install. Debian then implemented that 'pcie_aspm=off' part into the grub boot command from that point onward (in the grub config file) without me needing to actually do so manually. This may not always be the case, and you are usually required to add it to the grub config file (/etc/default/grub) manually and update it (sudo update-grub) to make the change permanent. This is what I did with Debian 13 KDE live ISO, post-install, with manually editing then updating the grub config file working perfectly.

• Secure Boot Recommended

I can't remember where, but secondary to the last issue, some forums recommended using secure boot and signing your distro's MOK keys to prevent future boot errors. Most of the big popular distros support secure boot and can install their own security keys, see their documentation regarding that. (this was the case with Debian).

• Live ISO won't boot (MokManager, mmx64.efi - Not Found)

The solution that worked for me was renaming 'grubx64.efi' to 'mm64.efi' in the '/EFI/boot/' folder within the live ISO. Not every distro allows you to do this though, as they have more protections in place to prevent you from ruining your system. I was not able to edit it on a Linux Mint system, but I could on an antiX system with nano. Pointing the UEFI/BIOS to boot from a specific file (grubx64.efi) in the boot menu may work for some laptops, but it did not work for me on this laptop.

• Constant Wifi dropout (Realtek RTL8723be Wifi card)

A recent bane of my existence, we had near-constant issues with this laptop's Wifi over the past month or two. Unsure if this was exacerbated by the newer kernel and Debian version, or the less 'complete' distro (vs something like an Ubuntu derivitive). Eventually found this article suggesting the system may be preferring an unconnected antenna port, or bouncing between the two on the PCI Wifi card when only one is connected. The solution was creating a config file ('rtl8723be.conf') in /etc/modprobe.d and adding the line 'options rtl8723be ant_sel=1' OR 'options rtl8723be ant_sel=2'. Using the echo command in the article didn't work for me, but navigating to and (right-click) opening a terminal in that folder then creating/editing the file with 'sudo nano rtl8723be.conf' did. I tried both variants (ant_sel=1 & 2), rebooted after each, and ant_sel=2 worked for me. The article also suggests opening the laptop and reconnecting the Wifi antenna to the other port, suggesting they are usually physically connected at port 2 but the system prefers port 1, but when I opened this laptop there was only one populated connector on the board, labelled '1', the '2' slot was on the PCB but without a port. No idea why ant_sel=2 worked, maybe the physical labelling is different from the circuitry labelling? Anyway, since then multiple reboots, sleep/wake cycles, and hours left running, this still had functional Wifi.

Resources

• Here's a Best Buy review from 2017, the comment section is mostly people dissapointed by it.
• Ifixit repair guides (moderate). Not the exact model number we have, but everything is in the same place.
• UserBenchmark.com Asus Vivobook X541UJ Compatible Components List - might be useful, probably better to just use a search engine and find local sellers/websites though.
• [SOLVED] Black Screen on Install (15.04 & 15.10) Dell XPS 8900 ubuntu forums post (via wayback machine) - This was the solution I used for PCIE bridge error. Ubuntu forums migrated to a Discourse forum recently, so you either need to be logged in to view old posts or lucky enough that the one you need was archived >:(
• Asus Vivobook X541U ubuntu forums post (not archived) - I can't access this post without creating an account, but I believe it was the one which pointed me to the previous post's solution. Had it saved in my bookmarks.
• PCIe Bus error severity=Corrected askUbuntu.com post - Another potential solution for the same error, with a different grub boot parameter. Not the one I used, but I had it saved regardless.
• [SOLVED]import_mok_state() failed: not found Linux Mint Forums post - This was where I found the solution that fixed live USB ISOs not booting.
• Very weak WIFI signal with rtl8723be Wifi card on Linux (and Windows) ckirbach's Wordpress - Solution that worked for this laptop's Wifi card issues