[SRU] Asus Vivobook S15 hwe-qcom-x1e-meta modsignature doesn't work

[Tobias Heider]

[ Summary ]

hwe-qcom-x1e-meta should automatically get installed during Ubuntu installation on supported laptops. This works by using modalias signatures in d/hwe-qcom-x1e-meta.modaliases which ubuntu-drivers uses to find supported driver packages.

The current matching pattern for the Asus Vivobook is:
  dmi:bvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:*:pnASUSVivobookS15*

This is incorrect, since bvn is the BIOS vendor field which is not actually ASUS. The actual content of /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias on the laptop is:
dmi:bvnInsyde:bvrS5507QAD.362:bd12/26/2024:br3.7:efr3.9:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnASUSVivobookS15S5507QA_S5507QAD:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnS5507QAD:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:sku(null):

This is easily fixed by adjusting the pattern to sth like:
  dmi:*:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnASUSVivobookS15*

[ User Impact ]

user tries to install Ubuntu 25.04 on an Asus Vivobook. Installer boots and everything looks fine but when they try to boot into the installed system it won't work. This is because the modalias didn't match, the ubuntu-x1e-settings package wasn't automatically installed and now they are missing configuration files without which the system won't boot.

[ Test Plan ]

Someone with access to the hardware can verify the validity of the new pattern with the following script:
for l in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat); do if [[ $l == dmi:*:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnASUSVivobookS15* ]]; then echo $l; fi; done

Once a fix is in proposed, "ubuntu-drivers list" should return hwe-qcom-x1e-meta on the affected machine with proposed enabled.

Testing the -proposed package in the installer might be tricky and not feasible.
Instead, since the fix is already in Questing, I propose we ask someone with access to the hardware to test if the Questing daily image installation works as expected and use that as confirmation that the fix works.
I asked for test feedback on discourse, see https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800/931

Once the changes are in 25.04 we can also ensure that the installer there works as expected.

[ Regression Potential ]
Close to none. The current pattern doesn't work, a patch would only touch that. In the worst case it will still not work, it can't affect any other devices.

[ References ]
Previous discussion on discourse:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdragon-x-elite/48800/865

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-x1e-settings - 25.10.0

---------------
ubuntu-x1e-settings (25.10.0) questing; urgency=medium

  * Fix Asus Vivobook modalias pattern (LP: #2107692)

 -- Tobias Heider <email address hidden> Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:30:18 +0200

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Matrix thread here: https://matrix.to/#/!slcYrFqWytcsbPzMxA:ubuntu.com/$AckEpDt1KN9Ksdqb_jx9t_5STrvG_VX9wVlhV3t7SUw?via=ubuntu.com&via=matrix.org&via=matrix.debian.social

I wondered why we are fixing this in Plucky given that we expect to never spin a new installer image. Tobias stated "as I understand the mechanism ubuntu-drivers will look at the local modalias signatures and then check them against the apt cache to see if it needs to install additional driver packages" so this is difficult/impractical to test before landing into plucky-updates. I have asked that we exceptionally do a full test of the user story after releasing into plucky-updates to make sure the fix has landed correctly.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Hello Tobias, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-x1e-settings into plucky-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-x1e-settings/25.04.9 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-plucky to verification-done-plucky. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-plucky. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.