Installed on Asus Zephyrus 2021 G14QM

jimminycreeket

I'm moving off windows to linux. I apparently like to do things the really hard way and found Solus and really liked the idea of what this distro is and is trying to accomer really used plish. I've only ever used Ubuntu, and lightly at that.

I would appreciate some (a LOT) help getting these packages forked and repackaged for my laptop.

https://asus-linux.org/wiki/

thanks!

kaktuspalme

jimminycreeket If you like it the hard way, maybe you can have a look here and help yourself: https://getsol.us/articles/packaging/
Packaging on Solus in my opinion isn't that hard. Though I only packaged a few and it depends on the package for sure.

tomscharbach

jimminycreeket I would appreciate some (a LOT) help getting these packages forked and repackaged for my laptop.

I agree that packaging is not difficult. I've done only one (Microsoft Edge for private use from a local repository) but the process wasn't beyond my very limited skills. Just pay careful attention to the instructions, work step by step, and keep your eyes open.

Four "howevers":

(1) Kernel version: Asusctl requires 5.15 minimum. Solus is currently testing 5.15, but is at 5.14 so you may have to wait before Asusctl works on Solus.
(2) Gnome stack: Asusctl is not, apparently, supported for Ubuntu and this is intended. It is not entirely clear from reading the documentation why Asusctl does not work on Ubuntu, but the Gnome stack appears to be involved. The Solus Budgie DE is closely integrated with the Gnome stack, and the Solus Gnome DE is Gnome, so you may run into issues with those two Solus DE's, in particular.
(3) Support: You might have better luck finding support from Asus-Linux.org forums than from this forum. We can help you understand the steps to create an eopkg (although the instructions provided by Solus should be more than sufficient), but Asusctl seems to be a very complicated package, requiring numerous pre- and post- installation modifications (e.g. removing existing distro graphics controllers) so simple packaging is not likely to get you to the finish line.
(4) Maintenance: Packaging Asusctl for eopkg and installing it in a local repository is the first step, but not the end of the process. You will have to maintain the package going forward to keep it up to date. In the end, I abandoned self-packaging Microsoft Edge for that reason -- rebuilding the local repository every month to keep up with Edge "Patch Tuesday" security fixes was more work than I was willing to put up with just to use Edge on Solus, when Firefox works fine for me and a Flatpak will eventually emerge.

Reading between the lines of the Asusctl wiki, it sounds like the project is not likely to move beyond support of Fedora and openSUSE Tumbleweed in the near term. Support for Ubuntu (and derivatives?) seems to have been abandoned pending upstream resolution. So it doesn't look to me as if Asusctl is ready to pop into most distros just yet.

I realize the joys of doing things the hard way (that's how we learn) but if this package is important to you (and I can see how it would be very useful), it might be the better choice to switch over to Fedora or openSUSE Tumbleweed and run a supported version until Asusctl is mature and better supported.

brent

It's really none of my business but why do you so badly want your Solus installation to look like Arch and Fedora and not like Solus?

Staudey

brent They just want some special features of their laptop to work, and not Solus to become more like Arch (except in better supporting his hardware)

tomscharbach

brent I saw all that at OP's link so I assumed the worst🙂. Se siento.

You'll find a better explanation of Asusctl on the OpenSource Libs website. I suspect that the reason OP linked to the Arch wiki is that the utility is currently available for Arch-based distros, specifically supported for Fedora and openSUSE Tumbleweek.

All of us who use laptops know full well how limited Linux support for basic hardware features of our laptops is at times, and Asusctl sounds like a great utility, allowing support Asus laptops to be fine tuned in ways that would otherwise be unavailable in Linux.

brent It's really none of my business but why do you so badly want your Solus installation to look like Arch and Fedora and not like Solus?

Arch looks like whatever DE is installed on it. I run openSUSE Tumbleweed with a Budgie DE in a Gnome Box, and also run Geckco (a Tumbleweed spin, without a lot of the junk) in a Gnome Box using the Budgie DE. I've got a number of other Budgie implementations running in Gnome Boxes with the intent of keeping track of Budgie developments going forward.

brent

Staudey ahhh
"Arch Setup Guide
A simple guide for getting Arch running on ASUS laptops
General Asusctl Install
General steps to install asusctl on fedora, openSUSE
Fedora 35 Workstation Setup Guide
A friendly setup guide for asusctl and supergfxctl
Fedora Silverblue Setup Guide"
---I saw all that at OP's link so I assumed the worst🙂. Se siento.

brent

tomscharbach Understood everything, thank you for articulating. I need to live on the edge more!

WetGeek

tomscharbach Arch looks like whatever DE is installed on it.

That pretty much applies to almost any distro, I'd imagine. At least, until the casual observation got down to the level of package managers and such. We are talking about "looks like," right? With the same DE, the same themes, and the same appearance options, most distros would look the same.

tomscharbach

WetGeek We are talking about "looks like," right?

That's how I interpreted Brent's comment ...

... and that is what suggested to me that his unddrstanding of Asusctl was not accurate.

WetGeek With the same DE, the same themes, and the same appearance options, most distros would look the same.

Pretty much, although a particular DE is often implemented differently in different distros.

Edit added: Solus Budgie is quite different from openSUSE Budgie, which is in turn quite different from Gecko Budgie. The differences are subtle, but real. In Gecko's version of Budgie, taskbar icons are centered and cannot be aligned to the left, as they can be in Solus Budgie. In openSUSE's version, the power button and so on are in a top bar rather than on the bottom bar and can't be moved to the bottom. Stuff like that ...