Issues with Ubuntu 20.04 on AMD Ryzen 7 4800H and GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
UPDATE: Ubuntu 20.10 fixes the issues listed below.
ASUS came out recently with very powerful gaming laptops at a very good price. The hardware is quite recent. Installing Linux on these laptops is quite frustrating. The majority of the distributions have major issues.
My biggest issue with Ubuntu 20.04 relates to the brightness control of the screen. Out of the box, there is no way to control the screen brightness and by default, it is set quite high. After trying numerous solutions found in forums, none fully worked. Some even forced me to re-install Ubuntu.
I was able to make it work partially but enough to set the brightness at an acceptable level. Nevertheless, I still have to cope with the following issues:
- The user interface brightness controls still don’t work
- The keyboard brightness control still doesn’t work
- This hasn’t been tested using an external monitor
- I had to fall back to the AMD Graphic Chip Set.
To apply this partial solution, you will need to upgrade Ubuntu’s kernel to version 5.6 and select the AMD GPU. You will need to open a terminal window to run this procedure.
WARNING: You perform this procedure at your own risk. It worked for me but I cannot guarantee that it will for you.
sudo apt-get install linux-image-5.6.0-1007-oem linux-headers-5.6.0-1007-oem linux-modules-nvidia-440-5.6.0-1007-oem
mkdir /tmp/amdgpu
mkdir /tmp/amdgpu
cd /tmp/amdgpu
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
cd linux-firmware/amdgpu/
sudo cp * /lib/firmware/amdgpu/
sudo update-grub2
sudo reboot
After rebooting, you will be able to set the screen brightness using the following command. The example below sets the brightness to 40% (0.4). I have added this command at the end of my user’s .bashrc. Sometimes, the high brightness comes back, this command must then re-executed. It doesn’t happen often.
xrandr --output eDP --brightness 0.4
I will update this post if I find any new improvement. This resolved an issue that was a show stopper for me and working only with Windows wasn’t an option.
Before few hours I tested Asus with same configuration and there are a lot of issues. Always logged out me and I have no success to upgrade kernel to 5.7. This week I should by something that will works fine. A lot of want to buy computer with same configuration, but…..I need to know that will works
Thank you a lot
I need to use ubuntu and it looks that I will have not the luck to go with same configuration ;(
Hi, with kernel 5.6, the machine works great except for the brightness. So, after login in, I issue the xrandr to fix the brightness. I have used Ubuntu on it since I bought it a month ago, I have a great experience. Nevertheless, I had to spend 2-3 hours to find a way to control the brightness. Kernel 5.6 works.
If there aren’t solutions for these issues? Is kernel 5.7 solved these issues?
I did not tried it. I’m waiting the kernel to be more stable. It was weird, it worked fine for a week then stopped.
I need to use ubuntu and it looks that I will have not the luck to go with same configuration ;(