N550JV issues and fixes

These are notes prepared by Lîtus (many thanks!). I received it from him while I was considering N550JV as my new notebook, it was before Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release. Some fixes are probably not needed now. I'm leaving it here for reference.

1. IN UEFI/BIOS MENU

http://5thpeephole.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/install-ubuntu-1310-in-asus-n550jv.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2184383&page=2
http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-8-64-bit-system-uefi-supported
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

 -  Disable Secure Boot
 -  Disable Fast Boot (do not enable Legacy mode or CSM mode)
 -  (In Windows 8.1) Disable Fast Startup (under Power settings)
 -  (back at the UEFI menu) Change the boot order to boot from DVD. I didn't manage to boot from USB at all.

2. INSTALL UBUNTU IN UEFI MODE

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

 -  Start Ubuntu from the LiveDVD and install Ubuntu normally. When the installer asks for HDD partitioning, choose manual and make sure that the efi partition is automatically recognized (likewise the swap one).
 -  Didn't need to do anything special for GRUB although at the time of installing Ubuntu, a frightnening message appeared saying that no other OS was detected. It came out-of-the-box. Windows partition is named "Windows Boot Manager"

3. DRIVERS NVIDIA GEFORCE 750M

http://askubuntu.com/questions/348614/bumblebee-on-ubuntu-13-04-with-geforce-750m-and-driver-319

  -  Fresh Ubuntu boot did not suceed due to Nvidia drivers. Had to start in recovery mode but ot didn't work either. Eventually I got to boot and start the graphics card, but I didn't do anything special. The rest of the drivers, worked fine (audio without subwoofer)
 -  Once logged:
        sudo apt-get install bumblebee primus primus-libs-ia32:i386 linux-headers-generic
        sudo apt-get install bumblebee-nvidia nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319

4. KEYBOARD FN BUTTONS

http://askubuntu.com/questions/293970/default-keyboard-brightness-is-not-working

 -  Modify GRUP parameters (/etc/default/grub)
    Added "acpi_osi=" in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="

5. SUBWOOFER

http://www.ubuntu-es.org/node/182532#.Ur2ev5DuKli
http://www.keephungry.com.ar/2013/07/subwoofer-ubuntu-1304-asus-n.html

 -  Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
    At the end of it, add:
        options snd-hda-intel patch=,alsa/n550-bass
 -  Add an audio mapping in /usr/share/puseaudio/alsa-mixer/profile-sets/extra-hdmi.conf:
        [Mapping analog-surround-21]
        device-strings = surround40:%f
        channel-map = front-left,front-right,lfe,lfe
        paths-output = analog-output analog-output-speaker
        priority = 7
        direction = output
 -  Change PULSE configuration in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to look like
        default-sample-channels = 3
        #; default-sample-channels = 2
        enable-lfe-remixing = yes
 -  Some posts suggest changing audio setting to enable 2.1 (in the "Sound" system settings), but I didnt do it and it worked just fine.

6. BLUETOOTH

http://nyblnet.blogspot.tw/2013/08/running-linux-on-asus-n550jv-fedora-19.html
http://5thpeephole.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/install-ubuntu-1310-in-asus-n550jv.html