throw a different live distro on and see if the problem persists. if so, put in some windows install media and see if it works during the install process. if neither do, it's probably hardware.
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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I don't know how to fix your trackpad issue though. Sorry.
Do you know which trackpad you have?
I’ve had that experience before on some laptops where the battery that sat right under the trackpad started to inflate.
Sounds like you might have a Synaptics trackpad with humidity in the layers.
Do you know the model of the machine?
Have you tried completely shutting down to power it off and then seeing how it behaves after rebooting?
I have tried restarting. Sometimes it fixes the issue, but later in the day it always reappears
It is an Asus Zenbook Flip UP3404 (thank god it has a touchscreen)
I believe this is a Synaptics. If you've ever spilled anything on it, it's probably toast.
You can try to find a replacement for fairly cheap though.
I have the same laptop! Is there anything that didn't work with it on Linux like function keys lightening up and doing the right things, webcam/IR camera, sleep/suspend, screen rotating in tablet mode turning of the keyboard, etc.? Did you get the number thing on the trackpad and those gestures working? (I never use that though). Can you change fan profiles? Can you do a "flicker free" dimming of the oled screen? On Windows I have a problem where the laptop will always get stuck in "tablet mode," so I've been thinking to switch it to Linux at some point. I tried a live USB boot once at it seems like some of the function keys were acting strange, so I'm especially interested in what you might have noticed from many hours of use (if anything else other than the trackpad issue). Thanks in advance, and I hope your problem is only a software and not a hardware thing.
The keyboard lighting up does work for me, IR camera works (with Howdy I can use facial recognition!), sleep/suspend works, tablet mode works. I'm surprised everything did work considering it's a weird flippy 2-in-1 thing. The numberpad on the trackpad doesn't work but I never used that anyways. I fixed the issue by restarting (twice, not once for some reason, that didn't work).
I have had Fedora installed since last year and it's been great! The amount of Windows-exclusive stuff is shrinking, the only thing now is, ironically, reinstalling Windows lol (though you can use cli magic to write bootable media I think. Installation Assistant won't work though). The few games I do play all work fine with Wine/Proton. I might remove my Windows dual boot soon...
Thank you so much for reporting back that everything works!
And glad to hear that your trackpad issue was fixed! It sounds like it was probably an Asus rather than a Linux issue. For the numberpad on the trackpad did you try using a program like the one below and still not get it working? (Maybe it would be a useful feature if the gesture could be customized, or fun to tinker with):
https://github.com/iamkroot/asus-numpad?tab=readme-ov-file
What I remember from testing Fedora my UP3404 in the summer of 2023 was that there was some strange behavior of the function keys; I remembered that some of the keys which were not brightness keys were changing the brightness too. On Windows I am able to adjust the brightness using both DC dimming (which actually lowers the voltage to the screen to dim it) as well as the standard PWM dimming (which turns the screen off and on fast to make it appear dimmer); is this possible in Linux?
What about the mic off and camera off buttons on the function row? Do even those work? Do they light up? Does the Asus function key do anything or can you make use of it?
I think I will probably switch my laptop over to Linux eventually. The desktop version of Microsoft office is the main Windows app keeping me from switching, as well as a concern that my laptop wouldn't work with Linux well. I have a older surface pro with debian on it that I just use for browsing the web and doing Linux tinkering (couldn't setup IR camera Howdy unfortunately). One of my pain points of Linux was removed from Linux now that I found that the Flatpak version of Collabora Office allows for touchscreen scrolling. I just wish that the Gnome desktop would allow for an app to be dragged to a corner to be a quarter of the screen rather than just to the side to be half (but there probably is a good way to do this better than Windows maybe that I need to figure out).
All the function buttons work, aside from the MyASUS one (since there is no Linux version of it, but that should be obvious. You are probably able to remap it to do other stuff though). I am able to change the brightness of the screen but not sure if it's DC or PWM dimming. There is probably a thing you can install to figure that out.
For Howdy, I found that the latest version of Fedora (43) kind of borked it since Python 3.14 isn't supported (some dependency issue) so I had to install a fork which bundles the dependency, and now it works!
I am using KDE (not GNOME) which does support quarter windows which is pretty neat. I also found that KDE is much more customisable than GNOME (though some might prefer GNOME's libadwaita aesthetic)
I personally use LibreOffice, which is awesome and works most of the time, but occasionally there's a weird formatting bug when viewing from MS Office. OnlyOffice is also quite good and apparently has better MS office compatibility, which I can attest to, but unless you're doing anything super critical, LibreOffice should be fine.
I thoroughly encourage you to dip your toes into the world of penguinland! Fedora is a great starting point, and lets you pick between so many DEs too...(KDE Plasma and GNOME being the main two, but Fedora also offers some different ones too, like Budgie and COSMIC)
Dear Sbird,
Thank you again for reporting back to me on your experience. I actually ended up testing the Fedora KDE spin just now, but I found that the camera function button didn't work for me (not so important). The microphone off function button next to it did work, however, but neither of the indicator lights worked. (Again not such a big deal). The Caps Lock key indicator light worked, however.
I looked into it more and I think that what ASUS had marketed as DC dimming is actually just a software trick, so I don't think your missing anything with that.
I tested the IR camera, and the webcam, and both worked. If I ever switch that laptop to Linux fulltime I will follow your advice about the Howdy fork!
I was actually able to get the numberpad thing on the trackpad to work, and the gesture to open the calculator even worked well. I think the layout for our laptop would be "M433IA." It was a little buggy for me though. I couldn't change the brightness level on it, and some other issues like it stop lighting up and needing to restart the service.
I think the KDE desktop was great that it allows for quarter screened windows easily. I also really like that it has a built in clipboard manager using the windows key plus v, but for some reason copy and paste with the clipboard was a little buggy for me as it wouldn't work unless I pasted in the same window first and then copied it again somehow.
My main pain point of KDE is actually that it has the four finger swipe up to get an overview of all apps though, putting my pinky finger down just makes it a more cumbersome process for me compared to using the three-figured gesture which seems to be the standard everywhere else.
For now I'll still be going back to Windows. But I imagine I will probably swtich to Linux completely at some point.
Four the overviews of all the Latest ndows, what I like to do is use the cornor hotspot feature, so I just fling the mouse to the bottom corner to open the overview of all the windows (it's in the settings, you can customise what each of the corners do!)
Nice that you got the numberpad thing working! I might need to try that soon
I really had to go digging for that Howdy fork, once I get back to my laptop I will let you know the link for reference
Hopefully you will eventually join the penguin side!
edit: I found the Howdy fork link! It's by user "starfish" and bundles the dlib dependency with it https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/starfish/howdy-beta/
Then if you want to use Howdy for login, sudo, etc., you just have to change the corresponding pam files
Thank you so very much for sharing this specific Howdy fork that worked for you! When I do eventually make the Linux switch I am going to try and get this going, and I'll share if I figure out anything specific to running Linux on our laptop. Until then I am playing around with Linux on an older device which I don't really mind having break to see what works for me. I guess the orange indicator light for the microphone kill switch for you worked for you and not for me because perhaps there was some update not reflected on the Fedora download I used to boot from the USB. That gives hope that perhaps the camera kill switch might work in the future too with some kernel update. Anyway, amazing and lucky that our laptop model works so well with Linux as is! I think your use of the corner hotspot feature to get to the hotspot feature is better than the four-finger gesture for KDE. I still find a three-finger gesture is preferable for trackpad navigation (trackpad usability being the original subject or discussion). I found two Gnome extensions called "Copyous" and "Tiling Assistent" which solved the two headaches where KDE seemed better to me. I think that Gnome's gesture swiping into an overview of everything is even better than Windows because it lets you raise the windows up just a little bit to take a peek at what's going on. I also really like having the time top and center all the time too.
While I was using GNOME (with Fedora Workstation), the three finger gesture worked for me out of the box and was quite nice indeed. I switched to KDE for better customisability, but if you prefer the padded libadwaita aesthetic of GNOME, it's also a great choice! They're both much better than Windows 11 in my opinion...
I have checked my function buttons again, yeah, the camera on/off one doesn't work for me. The microphone mute does work, including the orange indicator light.
This is why I won't fully switch to Linux. It's been out for decades but the most basic shit breaks on it that shouldnt break lol. And I bet the only fix is to open terminal and input 40 lines of commands
So edgy to talk about things you know so little about. I bet you're so fun at parties.
Nope, all I had to do was restart! Really nice actually, surprised it took two to fix the issue.
The point is you shouldn't have too imo. Especially for a trackpad.
Sire, on Windows I ran into similar issues (display borked for seemingly no reason, it went portrait in landscape cutting off half the screen for some reason, and this was also fixed with a restart). The flip side is that Linux doeen't require an internet connection and MS account to install, you're not fed AI shovelware that nobody wants, your computer that you paid for does not show you advertisements (see Windows begging people to use MS Office, OneDrive, CoPilot, Xbox stuff), and Linux is also quite a bit faster to run which is nice! Not to mention, it really like the additional customisability and the additional themes I can use, esp when it comes to icon packs! (you would either have to use a separate program or do it manually on Windows)
I'm sick of this argument man. You can install windows without internet, you don't need a Microsoft account to use it, I have ZERO ai anything on my PC. I have seen ZERO ads on my PC about anything. I don't get asked to use Microsoft apps except when you first install windows it asks you if you want to. Like dude what are you even talking about. I've used windows since 95. I've used many Linux distros, I've used Macintosh computers.
Windows can do everything. Linux can do some things, but needs wine or a full emulator of windows to do everything. Mac has more bloat than a Samsung phone.
The only benefit to Linux is that you can usually find a distro that is made for your very specific need of a machine. I on the other hand produce music with FL and Ableton. Which doesn't run on Linux at all and runs like ass through emulation or with wine or with proton. I don't understand this community lol.
The only time I run into a PC problem is when I'm using Linux for something. Second worse is macos
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with workarounds that Microsoft is now blocking
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with workarounds that Microsoft is blocking
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They are adding CoPilot everywhere (taskbar, Paint, even Notepad!), they keep on backtracking and then retracking on Recall (I.e. program that takes screenshots of your computer every few seconds which I'd very alarming for obvious reasons, it's literally spyware) They are adding a dedicated CoPilot key on newer laptops
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In the settings screen is a huge banner for Office, the computer asks for you to make a Microsoft account once you have switched to a local account in the Start Menu, OneDrive is pushed as a necessary security feature, when Windows is installed fake apps that download when you click on them appear on the Start Menu, etc etc
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Linux runs all the programs I use. I am sure some professional workflows won't work, but for most people, everything works and has a Linux native or Linux alternative option. Games run fine with Wine/Proton (using Steam/Lutris/Heroic if you play Epic Games games)
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Benefits of Linux have already been described above (particularly much better customisability, you can even swap out your desktop environment, going from KDE to GNOME!)
Not to mention that Windows is spying on you and sending all your profitable personal data to Microsoft (which we can see using network logs)...but you probably don't care about that...