Zephyrus G15 How To Install Fedora Linux

This is how I install Fedora 36 on an Asus Zephyrus G15 laptop. Installing Linux onto a Windows laptop requires careful planning. Please proceed with caution.

IMPORTANT! I am adding Fedora as a second operating system so that I can still boot into Windows if I need to.

First, let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t

• Backlit keyboard: working
• Touch pad: working
• Wake from sleep: working
• Fingerprint sensor: not working
• Setting battery charge limit: working

Although I use an external TKL keyboard, turning on the backlit option is as simple as pressing the Fn + F3 keys to increase the key brightness. The Fn + F2 combination decreases the brightens.

Here is a break-down of the five steps which I have done to install Fedora 36

1. Backup the eSupport directory
2. Preparing the USB stick
3. Partition the hard drive
4. Install Fedora
5. Install and configure asusctl

1 Backup the eSupport folder

Asus includes a directory on the C drive which is called eSupport. It is crucial to back up the whole directory onto an external USB drive. If something goes wrong during the partitioning stage then the Zephyrus G15 can be restored.

2 Preparing the USB stick

To create the USB stick, we need Rufus (see below) and the Fedora 36: x86_64 Live ISO from getfedora.org.
I recommend that you also verify your download but since this is tedious with Windows, we’ll do it later once Fedora is up and running.

Rufus can be downloaded for free from the developers website and while there, take a look at the instructions.
The short version is install Rufus, select the ISO file to transfer and lastly select the USB drive to write to and press START.

3 Partition the hard drive

If you want to keep Windows and dual boot the laptop then the internal hard drive needs to be partitioned. This is done by logging into Windows as Administrator and using Disk Manager to shrink the C drive. I freed up about 100 Gig of space which is sufficient to install Fedora Workstation 36. If you no longer want Windows, then partitioning the hard drive is not necessary.

4 Installing Fedora 36

With the USB stick plugged in, I booted the laptop while holding down the F2 key. Once the BIOS screen was visible, I pressed F8 to select the USB stick as the boot option.

Then the laptop booted a temporary “live” version of Fedora from which I initiated the install by pressing the install icon. If you are new to Linux then take some time and try out a few things before installing. As this is just a temporary live preview, you can open apps and change any settings you want. Nothing will carry forward to the actual install.

Time to press the Install Fedora icon.
The Fedora install script is smart enough to select the free unused disk space we created earlier while leaving all of the Windows partitions untouched.

During the install, the script prompts for the usual selections of language, keyboard layout and what not. If you reside in North America then the default values should be sufficient. Once the install finishes, it’s time to reboot. Upon rebooting, I created a user account and skipped the options configurations because all of those settings are easy to configure later on.

5 asusctl

Although I have installed Linux hundreds of time, it is still exiting to watch that first boot on a new device. On the Windows platform, Asus provides a few custom applications that deal with battery optimizations and power profile settings. In order to get those same features on Linux, I’ve consulted https://asus-linux.org/wiki/fedora-guide/ which provides all of the instructions.

Please read them carefully as the author includes some redundant steps. After installing the NVIDIA driver, I proceeded with installing and configuring the asusctl script. To make things easier, I’ve also installed the asusctl Gnome extension as pictured below.

I am happy to say that the laptop runs cooler under Linux than under Windows. Under windows, the CPU run at around 57 degrees Celsius which, according to some Redit posts is normal. Running Linux, the CPU temperature sits in the low 30’s and during normal operation such as web browsing, the fans stay silent.

Update July 16, 2022: Several weeks have gone by since I have installed Fedora 36 and I have booted into Windows only once to do a Blender render test. Fedora Workstation 36, when connected to an external monitor via DP cable, rendered the Blender classroom scene twice as fast as Windows 10 Pro.
In addition, I just got Unreal Engine 5 to work!

Update September 2, 2022: I have removed Windows 10 Pro completely and use Fedora 36 as the only OS. Before I reinstalled Fedora 36, I booted into the BIOS and disabled Armory Crate (under Advanced Mode F7). I will upload a video tutorial to the Fedorum YouTube channel soon.

If you have specific install questions then leave a comment below and I will provide more details. Thank you for reading.