Linux on Asus R541U

This is my experience with openSUSE Linux LEAP 15.1 on the Asus R541UA-RS51 laptop. (Note: memtest identifies this computer as X541UAK / U3E1.) Things in parenthesis are what Windows reports with Device Manager. See previous versions OpenSuSE 42.3 or openSUSE LEAP 15.0.

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel Core i5-7200UProcessor 2.5GHz (up to 3.1GHz) 3M Cache	Works
Display: BOE 15.6inch FHD (1920 x 1080)	Works	Roughly 141 DPI
Intel HD graphics 620	Works
8GB DDR4 RAM	Works
Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM Hard Drive	Works	Upgraded to Seagate Hybrid Laptop 1TB
Realtek RTS5286 PCI Express Card Reader (for SD cards)	Works
DVD Drive: 8X Super Multi w/ DL ("HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM")	Works
Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter	Works
IMC Networks Video Cam ("VGA UVC Webcam")	Works
USB: one 3.0, one 2.0, and one USB-C 3.1 port	Works	Fast charge works even with stock kernel.
36WHrs 3-cell Li-ion Battery Pack	Works	Provides roughly 4 hrs
Intel High Def. Audio 9d71 (rev 21) Realtech ALC256	Works*	Works
ELAN Touchpad ("Asus Precision")	Works
Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCIE Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller	Works
Asus keyboard	Works; slight nuisance	Number lock keeps engaging; no on-screen status program
Realtech Bluetooth 4.0	Works	Getting some features to work is difficult.
Intel Sunrise Chipset, Power Management	Works

Physical Fit and Finish

Please see the first article on openSUSE 42.3 for how to upgrade the hard drive.

Installation of OpenSUSE LEAP 15.1

Installation was easy. As well, for the first time, network-based installation worked. But I had to make sure I gave the installer the pci=noaer option at boot. To do this, I pressed C (I think) to edit the command line, and then after the /path/to/linux, I added that option, then told Grub (from the install DVD) to boot.
I noticed that while the installer has gotten a lot smarter, such as allowing you to move old fstab and other configurations over, it does not let you specify tmpfs mount points such as /tmp. More about this in the next section.

Using OpenSUSE LEAP 15.1

    First, I noticed that my logs filled up with error messages similar to these about AER ePCI errors. Adding pci=noaer to the kernel command line seemed to fix that. Note that you must specify this option when you boot the install media for 15.1, as well as when you set the boot options during the install process. If you don't, your logs will fill up too fast and you'll crash your system, or things will start randomly not writing to disk. My first time, I didn't specify this (you think, given previous articles, I would've learned by now) and locale service broke, breaking many other things and rendering my system unusable. So learn from my lesson: specify this option right from the beginning.
    Note that the speakers on this laptop are very loud and sound great, in general.
    As for USB support, note that there's a 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 port. The USB 2.0 port is nearest the laptop user. Fast charging a cell phone with USB-C works even in Linux, but it requires you to use a USB-C to USB-C cable from the 3.1 port to your cell phone. When you do this, it "just works", without any configuration required. The power outputs seem to be dependent upon system state: i.e. if the laptop is on, USB-C power outputs are always on, and thus will fast charge any USB-C device that supports this.
    My solution for using two USB hard drives at the same time (due to having a 3.0 and 2.0 port) is to use a USB-C to 3.0 adapter and then putting the two hard drives on 3.0 ports. I tend to reserve the 2.0 port for a USB mouse or something that has low data usage.
    Bluetooth works now, but it's mixed. Out of the box, it worked with my Bluetooth keyboard. Installing some more jack and Bluez components resulted in it working. My Xfce mixer picked it up in configuration, so setting it to "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)" resulted in it populating in the output devices tab. Then I simply clicked the right-hand "green checkmark" icon and viola!

Annoying Behavior on OpenSUSE LEAP 15.1

    The keyboard has a hybrid laptop/desktop layout with a numeric keyboard section. However, the end key is on the numeric portion. When typing, the number lock comes on, causing the end key to function as a "1". I am constantly turning off the number lock in OpenSUSE, even in the new kernel, and even though I've configured the keyboard models and such. It's been this way since my previous installations of openSUSE as well. Also, there's no on-screen application for XFCE that I can find that will display the status of the number lock on screen. In addition, I have set "no" or "off" to the only number lock related setting in the sysconfig editor, and that results in the computer booting up with the number lock off, but eventually it will come back on by itself.
    Kudos to openSUSE and/or Linux for fixing something that always bothered me. While all of the tmpfs mount points still seem to default to "half of RAM" for their size, free memory reported in LEAP 15.0 is very low. I can be using my computer and only be using 1GB of my 8GB of RAM.
    But with the advent of openSUSE LEAP 15.1, you can't specify tmpfs during installation, which is very annoying. To manually make your own (WARNING: if you don't know what you're doing, you could break your system!), do this in a terminal as root when you finally boot for the first time. This "moves over" everything from /tmp to a tmpfs /tmp. I like this because I tend to use /tmp for secure file storage for temporary purposes. If an emergency happens (stolen laptop, panic press of power button, etc), whatever file it was is gone forever. Not to mention I encrypt my hard drive as well, but I digress....

cd / mv tmp tmp2 mkdir tmp chmod 1777 tmp echo "tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nodev,nosuid,size=512m 0 0" >> /etc/fstab mount /tmp mv * /tmp mv .[A-Z]* /tmp cd / rmdir /tmp2

Compiling a Linux Kernel on OpenSUSE LEAP 15.1