Installing Ubuntu 16.04 on ASUS N550jk (Dual Boot with Windows 10)

Recently I bought a new computer, an ASUS N550JK, and installed Ubuntu 16.04 alongside Windows 10 on it. On this post I will talk about problems that I faced while installation process and some solutions for them.

Setup Your Environment & Boot from Disk

If you know how to do this, skip this part.

First things first, before you start if you want dual boot, you should create a space for Ubuntu. For this, you can use some 3rd party tools on Windows or you can use Windows’ built-in partition manager as well. I used Windows’ partition manager.

Right Click on the Start => Disk Management

To see other methods or step-by-step guide with screen shots visit here

In here you should create an empty partition (Leave it without formatting.) After that you are ready to install. And yes there is no need to disable secure boot or trying to reach BIOS etc.

Booting from Disk Drive

• Before shutdown Windows, place your Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit disk to disk drive
• Open the Start Menu
• Click Power
• Hold Shift key while clicking on Restart.
• The UEFI menu will be displayed
• In here choose Use a device option
• Your PC will boot from disk drive.

Problems and Some solutions for ASUS

The most of the things work pretty well actually. However, there are some problems. I listed them here. These are the problems that I faced after installation, if you have other problems, I suggest you to check the links on this section or leave a comment to the comment section below.

1. Screen Brightness Keys Don’t work

To fix this, you must add acpi_osi= (with the Space after =) to your grub defaults.

• Open a terminal
• Open /etc/default/grub

    sudo nano /etc/default/grub

• Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi= "
• Update grub

    sudo update-grub

• Reboot

Source: Askubuntu

2. Stuck in Login Loop

I tried suggested solutions under this question and only reinstalling lightdm worked for me.

• Open a TTY Ctrl+Alt+f3 and login
• Remove lightdm

    sudo apt purge lightdm

• Reinstall it

    sudo apt install lightdm

• Restart your computer

    reboot

Source: Askubuntu

3. Keyboard Backlight Turns ON Every Boot

I think it is very annoying and none of the solutions that I found on the Internet worked for me. So, I wrote a login script for lightdm to fix this.

Important: If you want to fix also full screen brightness problem with this problem, please create one login script as described under this section.

• Open a terminal
• Create a bash script file, I created mine under /usr/local/sbin but you can create yours wherever you want

    sudo touch /usr/local/sbin/login_kbd_backlight_script.sh

• Copy and paste the below code on it

    sudo nano /usr/local/sbin/login_kbd_backlight_script.sh

• OR download the code and move it to /usr/local/sbin

• Make it executable

    sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/login_kbd_backlight_script.sh

• Before you go to next step, backup your lightdm.conf file

    sudo cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.old

• Add the line session-setup-script=/usr/local/sbin/login_kbd_backlight_script.sh on lightdm.conf

    echo "session-setup-script=/usr/local/sbin/login_kbd_backlight_script.sh" | sudo tee -a /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

4. Screen Brightness Sets to Full after Boot

Every time I boot the Ubuntu it sets screen brightness as 100%. I first install xbacklight and I wrote a login script for lightdm to fix this.

Important: If you want to fix also keyboard backlight problem with this problem, please create one login script as described under this section.

• Open a terminal
• Install xbacklight

    sudo apt install xbacklight

• Create a bash script file, I created mine under /usr/local/sbin but you can create yours wherever you want

    sudo touch /usr/local/sbin/login_brightness_script.sh

• Copy and paste the below code on it

    sudo nano /usr/local/sbin/login_brightness_script.sh

• OR download the code and move it to /usr/local/sbin

• Make it executable

    sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/login_brightness_script.sh

• Before you go to next step, backup your lightdm.conf file

    sudo cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.old

• Add the line session-setup-script=/usr/local/sbin/login_brightness_script.sh on lightdm.conf

    echo "session-setup-script=/usr/local/sbin/login_brightness_script.sh" | sudo tee -a /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

One Login Script for Screen Brightness and Keyboard Backlight

To fix keyboard backlight and screen brightness problems at the same time, create only one login script file. And make it executable. Then add your file path to lightdm.conf file.

There are my script and .conf files.

For more details about lightdm please see these sites:

• http://www.mattfischer.com/blog/?p=343
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1918649

5. Windows 10 Showing Wrong Time

Yes, you installed Ubuntu, you didn’t touch any Windows partition but Windows’ time’s been broken. Welcome to the Microsoft Land. Here is the solution:

http://www.techgainer.com/fix-windows-showing-wrong-time-in-linux-windows-dual-boot-system/

Other Sources

If you faced other problems than these, the following links might be helpful:

• http://linux-on-n550.blogspot.com/p/n550jv-issues-and-fixes.html
• http://snakelab.cc/2015/01/09/running_ubuntu_on_asus_n550jk.html

Also for overheating and power management issues please read this article.