Install Trisquel on ASUS K501LX?
I'have been using Ubuntu 14.04 until now.
Because the new LTS arrive and I was planning to make a fresh install, I decided to install Trisquel 8 instead (when it releases) to get closer to a full free numeric life :-)
I had some difficulties to make Ubuntu 14.04 work on ASUS V502LX. This computer is the persian version the K501LX. Difference are minimal such as the keyboard.
Intel Core i5 5200U 2.20GHz up to 2.70 GHz
8GB DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 4GB
I wrote a tutorial to hel other here in english, https://askubuntu.com/questions/651528/installing-ubuntu-on-an-asus-k501lx/678794#678794 and here in french, https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=1916521
I'm pretty sure some minor problem such as Luminosity and shortcut keyboard should be solved the same way.
I understood that Trisquel 8 will be based on Ubuntu 16.04 so the kernel will be 4.4 I guess. I hope the problem for my touchpad will be solved by this update of kernel. Having to compil my own kernel to make my keyboard working after suspend is not cool.
I hope the patch ( https://marc.info/?l=linux-input&m=144312209020616&w=2 ) has been integrated in the kernel 4.4 and I won't loose my touchpad again with updates in the future...
My biggest concern is about NVidia Geforc GTX 950 M. I have read here https://trisquel.info/fr/forum/nvidia-releases-initial-signed-firmware-images-gtx-900-series-open-source-support , https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-Releases-Signed-Blobs , that things will become better in a near future but how is it now on Trisquel?
I don't think the support for your graphics card will get any better in Trisquel. Trisquel will not include the blob, and you also won't be able to add it yourself, because of a design flaw in the Linux-libre kernel.
Your best bet would be to try disabling the discrete graphics in BIOS/EFI and using the Intel integrated graphics. You don't have to wait for Trisquel 8 to try this, or install any new software.
That is indeed the best solution. Given http://ark.intel.com/products/85212/Intel-Core-i5-5200U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_70-GHz?q=Intel%20Core%20i5%205200U you will actually get excellent performance for some usages (such as video decoding), a very decent 3D acceleration, etc. And your laptop will also consume less energy: more battery! If you can physically remove the video card, that is even better.
If you want to easily test the latest version of Linux-libre (currently, 4.5), here is jxself's APT repository: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/
It works with Trisquel and must work as well with Ubuntu.
> I'have been using Ubuntu 14.04 until now.
Because the new LTS arrive and I was planning to make a fresh install, I decided to install Trisquel 8 instead (when it releases) to get closer to a full free numeric life :-)
Congratulations for your decision and welcome! You seem quite competent but feel free to ask anything, we'll answer if we can.
Probably, you would not get full performance of Maxwell 2g series, cuz you need signed firmware, 1g (this one don't need signed firmware) recently can reclock the core (but not memory). You can get full performance with Kepler and most of Intels GPUs (excluding Skylake) only. 2g Maxwell, is crap without Nvidia's blob, I had gtx970.
Your processor has a very good GPU!