Install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on Asus Zenbook S13 OLED

Recently I brought an Asus Zenbook S13 OLED, using AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800U. I would like to use Ubuntu as my major OS. Due to the limited AMD driver support in the linux kernel. I faced several major issues and I would like to share this.

Preparation

Here is the checklist:

• The below video would cover the procedures to create a Ubuntu installation USB drive and partition the harddisk.

• Go to BIOS and disable secured boot

The installation process should be smooth.

After installation

Update Kernel

If you still want to use the latest kernel. The following guide shows how to install kernel 6.9+ on Ubuntu 24.04. Please choose one of the options, open the terminal and type the following method:

Option 1 (Use Zabbly, preferred):

# Install the GPG Key
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo wget -O - https://pkgs.zabbly.com/key.asc | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc

# Set up the source repository
sh -c 'cat <<EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zabbly-kernel-stable.sources
Enabled: yes
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: https://pkgs.zabbly.com/kernel/stable
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo ${VERSION_CODENAME})
Components: main
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc

EOF'

# Install latest kernel
sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-zabbly

Option 2 (Use Mainline):

# Install mainline
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa
sudo apt install -y mainline

# Install latest kernel
mainline install-latest
sudo apt --fix-broken install

After the kernel is installed, reboot the system and select the installed kernel in the grub menu.

Sound Issue

The sound issue is fixed after updating the BIOS to v311. Please use the following command to check your BIOS version:

sudo dmidecode | grep -P '^(?=.*UM5302)(?=.*Version)'

Please go to Asus Support Page to upgrade the BIOS.

VA-API (Video Acceleration API) Related Issue

After installing the drivers, there are several steps to make sure that Google Chrome and VLC use VA-API when playing video.

Install Flatpak

Snap app are generally slow startup and limited GPU support. Thus I would install all my application from flatpak. Please follow Ubuntu Quick Setup guide to install flatpak.

# Install Flatpak
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flatpak/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install flatpak

# Install the Software Flatpak plugin
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak

# Add the Flathub repository
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

MPV media player

I installed MPV media player and it seems support AV1 Hardware Decoding:

# Add MPV repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/mpv
sudo apt update
# Install/Upgrade MPV
sudo apt install mpv

Enable Battery Charging Limit

I found that using tlp would make life much easier. Run the following script

# Package Repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt update
# Package Installation
sudo apt install tlp tlp-rdw
# Set battery charge to stop at 80%
sudo sed -i '/STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0/c\STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=80' /etc/tlp.conf
# Reboot Notebook
sudo reboot

# Check the setting (It should show 80)
sudo tlp-stat | grep charge_control_end_threshold
# Run the following command if you want to fully charge your battery (one off)
sudo tlp fullcharge

If you want to set the charging limit in a permanent basis, then you can install tlpui from flatpak.

I guess this wrap up all the painful experience setting up Ubuntu on my device. Hope I can ease yours.