ASUS Zenbook S 14 (UX5406)

Linux Enablement Overview

Component	Model	Status
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (Lunar Lake)	6.12.5
Audio	CS35L56/CS42L43/DMIC on SoundWire	6.12.20 / 6.13.8 / 6.14
GPU	Intel Arc Graphics 140V (PCI 8086:64a0)	6.12
Bluetooth	Intel BE201 (USB 8087:0037)	linux-firmware-20241110
Wi-Fi	Intel BE201 (PCI 8086:a840)	6.11
Keyboard backlight	-	6.11
USB Type-A Port	-	LPM may cause issues for buggy devices
Sensors	-	external firmware

TL;DR: Fedora 42 with updates contains all necessary kernel and firmware changes (except sensors). Check package version against Fedora if you prefer another distro.

CPU

Patch available: https://lore.kernel.org/all/a4aa8842a3c3bfdb7fe9807710eef159cbf0e705.1731463305.git.len.brown@intel.com/ (merged in 6.13-rc2/6.12.5)

Workaround to intermittent freezes

In case updating or patching the kernel is not an option, disable the ACPI C3 state on a random P-core:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state3/disable
# or
cpupower -c 0 idle-set -d 3

However this may increase idle power consumption. You may want to toggle it back before entering s2idle. (left as an exercise to the reader)

Audio

Install sof-firmware

If there is no package for your distribution, install manually from thesofproject/sof-bin

Headphone Jack

Works.

Speakers

The built-in default tunings will downmix stereo to mono for all 4 speakers. Tuning files for this model is available in linux-firmware.

Microphone Array (DMIC)

Tracking in https://github.com/thesofproject/sof/issues/9759

Before necessary patches merged in upstream

• Replace /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/sof-soundwire/cs42l43.conf with latest version from https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/blob/master/ucm2/sof-soundwire/cs42l43.conf
• If you are using kernel before 6.12.20/6.13.8/6.14:
  • use topology file from this repo instead
  • add module parameters override in /etc/modprobe.d/ux5406-dmic.conf:

    # quirk=RT711_JD1|SOC_SDW_PCH_DMIC|SOC_SDW_CODEC_MIC
    # RT711_JD1: default quirk value
    # SOC_SDW_PCH_DMIC: force enumerate DMIC connected to PCH
    # SOC_SDW_CODEC_MIC: don't enumerate DMIC connected to SoundWire CODEC
    options snd_soc_sof_sdw quirk=0x20041
    options snd_sof_pci tplg_filename=sof-lnl-cs42l43-l0-cs35l56-l23-2ch.tplg
    

• An rpm .spec file is provided for Fedora Atomic desktop users.
  Build with:

  rpmbuild -bb zenbook-s14-dmic.spec
  

  and install the resulting rpm with:

  sudo rpm-ostree install --force-replacefiles $HOME/rpmbuild/RPMS/$(uname -m)/zenbook-s14-dmic-*.rpm
  

Updating from kernels without upstream patches to newer ones with patches

In case you have followed all the steps above, but now you are upgrading to a newer kernel version (see Audio component in this table), you will most probably encounter an issue where audio stops working entirely - both speakers and microphones.

To resolve this without full system reinstall, you simply need to undo steps above, specifically:

• Reinstall alsa-ucm (or alsa-lib completely if you want), sof-firmware, linux-firmware to their latest versions.

  • Example for Fedora: sudo dnf reinstall alsa-ucm alsa-sof-firmware linux-firmware.

• Remove the sof-lnl-cs42l43-l0-cs35l56-l23-2ch.tplg from /lib/firmware/intel/sof-ipc4-tplg/. Make sure that file with the same name but a .tplg.xz extension exists.

• Completely remove the /etc/modprobe.d/ux5406-dmic.conf file.

• Custom cs42l43.conf should be replaced automatically on packages reinstall.

Dual-boot issues

Note

The latest Intel audio driver (20.42.11515.0) from Windows Update seems to have this issue fixed.

The SOF firmware will put old Windows drivers to a fu*ky state: only one of every two audio sessions will have sound.

USB

The USB-A port supports USB 3.0 link power management (LPM), you may encounter issues with buggy devices (e.g. RTL8156).

To workaround, add usbcore.quirks=vid:pid:k to kernel command line (like usbcore.quirks=0bda:8156:k)

Sensors

Use firmware file from this repo. (extracted from SensorHub_DCH_Intel_Z_V5.8.36.0Sub1_42507_20250414204747/IshHeciExtensionTemplate/FWImage/0003/AsusSign_ishS_SI_CommonLNL_5.8.0.7716_v0002.bin)

GPU

The open-source Intel Vulkan driver anv does not sound. Expect log spam and rendering errors in Vulkan applications. (and GTK4 apps)