Installing Linux Mint on Asus Zenbook S 13

January 19, 2025 — BarryK

This is the 2024 Zenbook with Intel Ultra 7 CPU. I posted yesterday about installing Manjaro:

Installing Linux on Asus Zenbook S 13 — January 17, 2025

...what I didn't mention in that post is that booting from Limine, only get to the commandline, cannot start X. This is the XFCE version of Manjaro. I tried the usual methods of starting XFCE, but all I can get is an empty panel across top of screen. Type CTRL-ALT-DEL creates a shutdown window, and mouse suddenly starts working.

Today downloaded Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon, booted it on a USB-stick and installed to an ext4 partition in the Zenbook. I love the installer, lots of choices. Could not disable installing the bootloader; I had previously created a vfat esp partition, in which had installed Limine. No problem, Mint installed Grub in there as well. The UEFI setup now offers a choice of both.

Mint desktop works, sound works ...until the third bootup, then got a black screen. Thereafter a black screen, but booting in "compatibility mode" works -- that is using the vesa driver only.

This is what I now have in 'limine.cfg' file:

VERBOSE=no
TIMEOUT=10
DEFAULT_ENTRY=1
INTERFACE_BRANDING=EasyOS Limine Boot Manager
INTERFACE_RESOLUTION=800x600

:EasyOS Scarthgap test1 (/dev/nvme0n1p9 easyos/test1)
    COMMENT=EasyOS Scarthgap bootup
    RESOLUTION=1440x900
    PROTOCOL=linux
    KERNEL_PATH=boot://9/easyos/test1/vmlinuz
    MODULE_PATH=boot://9/easyos/test1/initrd
    KERNEL_CMDLINE=rw nomodeset
wkg_uuid=79ac733a-5f33-4875-bbdc-65d333bbd15f wkg_dir=easyos/test1/

:Linux Mint 22.1 (/dev/nvme0n1p8)
    COMMENT=Linux Mint bootup
    RESOLUTION=1440x900
    PROTOCOL=linux
    KERNEL_PATH=boot://8/boot/vmlinuz
    MODULE_PATH=boot://8/boot/initrd.img
    KERNEL_CMDLINE=rw nomodeset root=/dev/nvme0n1p8

...etc...

...notice the "nomodeset". The Zenbook screen is 2880x1800. Setting half that, 1440x900, in limine.cfg is just right on the 13" screen. Both distros run the desktop at that resolution. They both work real nice, except of course no GPU acceleration.

Tags: easy