What a nice little thing the ASUS Zenbook UX305F Notebook PC is. Except for one flaw: It comes with a proprietary OS. I tried to install a free OS as easy as possiple to support.
Get Ubuntu
Download the desktop version of Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf).
Create a bootable USB thumb drive e. g. with Rufus.
Insert the thumb drive, start the Zenbook and press ESC until you can select the USB flash memory as boot device. Choose between trying or installing Ubuntu.
Save the state
Maybe I want to resell the device later. So I want to preserve the condition of delivery. First I leverage the Live Linux (without installing) to backup the internal harddrive.
The internal harddisk is /sda:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 238.5G 0 disk
+-sda1 8:1 0 100M 0 part
+-sda2 8:2 0 128M 0 part
+-sda3 8:3 0 95.4G 0 part
+-sda4 8:4 0 127.9G 0 part
+-sda5 8:5 0 15G 0 part
sdb 8:16 1 1.9G 0 disk
+-sdb1 8:17 1 1.9G 0 part /cdrom
sdc 8:32 0 931.5G 0 disk
+-sdc1 8:33 0 931.5G 0 part /media/ubuntu/Iomega HDD
loop0 7:0 0 1.1G 1 loop /rofsI copy the whole internal harddrive to an external harddrive:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd bs=16M if=/dev/sda | bzip2 > '/media/ubuntu/Iomega HDD/Asus_UX305FA-FB003H_SSD256GB_image_20151106.img.bz2'
15262+1 records in
15262+1 records out
256060514304 bytes (256 GB) copied, 6769.49 s, 37.8 MB/sTwo hours later:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -l '/media/ubuntu/Iomega HDD/Asus_UX305FA-FB003H_SSD256GB_image_20151106.img.bz2'
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 10838462320 Nov 6 22:44 /media/ubuntu/Iomega HDD/Asus_UX305FA-FB003H_SSD256GB_image_20151106.img.bz2Install Ubuntu
Start the Zenbook and press ESC until you can select the USB flash memory as boot device. Choose installing Ubuntu.
Text entry settings -> add input source
Install…
Wipe Disk (=delete Windows partitions); LVM
Continue in UEFI mode
Real name; computer name; user name and password; encrypt
Configure SSH
see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/Keys
Zenbook:
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_configEdit sshd_config:
PermitRootLogin no
AuthorizedKeysFile /etc/ssh/%u/authorized_keys
PasswordAuthentication no
UsePAM noBash again
sudo mkdir /etc/ssh/$USER
sudo mv $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys /etc/ssh/$USER/
sudo chmod 755 /etc/ssh/$USER
chmod 644 /etc/ssh/$USER/authorized_keys
ln -s /etc/ssh/$USER/authorized_keys $HOME/.ssh/Second computer:
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub username@computernameConfigure colored bash prompt
see https://wiki.archlinux.de/title/Bash-Prompt_anpassen
In ~/.bashrc uncomment
force_color_prompt=yesand change
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '(where the \033[01;32m\] stands for a light green)
to
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[00;31m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '(where the \033[00;31m\] stands for red).
Configure backlight
The backlight keys Fn+F5/Fn+F6 do not work. I use a work around:
Control the backlight with xbacklight
(https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backlight):
sudo apt-get xbacklight utility
xbacklight -inc 10 # increase brightness by 10%
xbacklight -dec 10 # decrease brightness by 10%Bind to keys:
sudo apt-get install xbindkeys xbindkeys-config
xbindkeys --defaults > $HOME/.xbindkeysrcWhile Fn+F5/Fn+F6 do not work, there is a bearable alternative with the Win+F5/Win+F6 keys. I don’t know why editing .xbindkeysrc does not succeed, but xbindkeys-config is constructive:
#decrease brightness by 10%
"xbacklight -dec 10"
m:0x40 + c:71
Mod4 + F5
#increase brightness by 10%
"xbacklight -inc 10"
m:0x40 + c:72
Mod4 + F6Unattended Security Updates
http://spin.atomicobject.com/2014/08/04/debian-ubuntu-security-updates/
https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-configure-automatic-updates-on-debian-squeeze
unattended-upgrades is installed by default. Just do
dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgradesNow, if you leave this unconfigured you might end with a trashstrewn /boot partition. apt needs enough space in /boot and will otherwise only throw errors. Avoid this by editing /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades:
// Do automatic removal of new unused dependencies after the upgrade
// (equivalent to apt-get autoremove)
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";This is also the place to have more than just security updates:
// Automatically upgrade packages from these (origin:archive) pairs
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
"${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
"${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};More at help.ubuntu.com.
See results after an unattended upgrade in log files:
cat /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades*.logDeactivate privacy leak
Install Unity Tweak Tool:
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-toolUncheck Search online sources and Show "More Suggestions" for every single user.
TeamViewer
https://www.teamviewer.com/de/download/linux.aspx
How to add an user
sudo adduser --encrypt-home usernameHide administrator account from login
Edit /var/lib/AccountsService/users/<username>
from
SystemAccount=falseto
SystemAccount=true