This weekend the [1]ASUS ROG Ally X began shipping as an upgraded version of the [2]ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming console that launched last year. The ASUS ROG Ally X is still powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC and for the most part similar to the original model but now with 24GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory up from 16GB of LPDDR5-6400, twice as large battery capacity, 1TB of NVMe storage rather than 512GB, improved input controls, improved cooling, and other refinements. But it still is running Microsoft Windows 11 out-of-the-box.

With the ASUS ROG Ally [3]Linux was running well on it from the start in part thanks to being an AMD Ryzen Z1 (Extreme) platform and the Zen 4 support being all squared away. With the ASUS ROG Ally X, it's continuing to run Linux without much surprise.

Luke Jones who has led much of the ASUS Linux improvements across laptops and the ROG Ally sent out his first patch today for improving the ROG Ally X. [4]This patch to the ASUS WMI driver is so the ASUS ROG Ally X is able to leverage the same quirks as applied to the original ROG Ally.

"The new ROG Ally X functions the same as the previus model so we can use the same method to ensure the MCU USB devices wake and reconnect correctly.

Given that two devices marks the start of a trend, this patch also adds a quirk table to make future additions easier if the MCU is the same."

It's great seeing Luke Jones again pushing ASUS hardware Linux support forward via collaboration with the company. And it's good to see this updated gaming handheld console with impressive specs being able to run on Linux for those wishing to replace the stock Windows 11 OS. We'll see what more comes of ASUS ROG Ally X Linux patches and optimizations ahead.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/ASUS-ROG-Ally-X

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/search/ASUS+ROG+Ally

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/review/asus-rog-ally-linux

[4] https://lore.kernel.org/platform-driver-x86/20240724222852.44378-1-luke@ljones.dev/