Debian Linux on Huawei MateBook X (2017)

January 4, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Brain dump: MateBook X running Debian Linux

Background

First Huawei MateBook X was released in 2017. It came with proprietary Microsoft Windows 10 and there was very little information available on its Linux support.

I am running Debian on it. This repository documents what works and what does not.

Nearly 10 years later, it still runs great. The CPU is a bit slow by modern standards, but it is fantastic for basic CLI work and web browsing.

Hardware Support

ComponentStatusNotes
CPUWorkingIntel Core i5-7200U, all power states supported
GraphicsWorkingIntel HD 620, needs configuration for video performance
DisplayWorking2160x1440, backlight control needs configuration
WiFiWorkingIntel 8265, requires firmware-iwlwifi
BluetoothWorkingIntel, see details below
AudioPartialOnly left speaker works
TouchpadWorkingNeeds configuration for tap-to-click
BatteryWorking40Wh, accurate reporting
USB-CWorkingBoth ports, left supports charging
FingerprintNot workingNo Linux driver available

Essential Setup

1. Power Management

Default battery life is 3-4 hours. With TLP optimization: 6-7 hours active use, 10+ hours idle.

See power-management-tlp.md for configuration.

2. Touchpad

Enable tap-to-click and natural scrolling:

sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf << 'EOF'
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier      "touchpad"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    Driver          "libinput"
    Option          "Tapping" "on"
    Option          "NaturalScrolling" "true"
    Option          "AccelSpeed" "0.3"
EndSection
EOF

Restart X11 or reboot.

3. Display Backlight

Fix brightness control:

sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf << 'EOF'
Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
    Option      "TearFree" "true"
EndSection
EOF

Install brightness control:

sudo apt install brightnessctl

Then bind brightnessctl set 10%+ and brightnessctl set 10%- to your brightness keys.

4. WiFi Firmware

sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Bluetooth

Following apt install bluetooth from BluetoothUser guide should be enough. I also installed blueman and run blueman-applet & for a handy tray icon in i3 status bar.

Bluetooth Troubleshooting

Bluetooth registers itself as an USB device and default power saving settings may be too aggressive for wireless mouse and keyboard. In my case mouse was unable to wake up from autosuspend so for now I just disable it on boot:

# Prevents the Bluetooth USB card from autosuspending
# Include this somewhere it gets called at boot, e.g. /etc/rc.local

BTUSB_DEV="8087:0a2b"
BTUSB_BINDING="$(lsusb -d "$BTUSB_DEV" |
  cut -f 1 -d : |
  sed -e 's,Bus ,,' -e 's, Device ,/,' |
  xargs -I {} udevadm info -q path -n /dev/bus/usb/{} |
  xargs basename)"

echo "Disabling autosuspend for Bluetooth USB device: $BTUSB_BINDING..."
echo -1 > "/sys/bus/usb/devices/$BTUSB_BINDING/power/autosuspend_delay_ms"

If you are using TLP for power management, you may need to set USB_AUTOSUSPEND=0 to prevent random outages of USB and Bluetooth. See power-management-tlp.md for details.

Airplane Mode

Works as expected. Toggle with rfkill block all / rfkill unblock all.

Known Issues

WiFi drops after sleep

Create /etc/systemd/system/wifi-resume.service:

[Unit]
Description=Restart WiFi after resume
After=suspend.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nmcli radio wifi off
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/sleep 1
ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/nmcli radio wifi on

[Install]
WantedBy=suspend.target

Enable: sudo systemctl enable wifi-resume.service

Video playback choppy

Ensure Intel GPU runs at full speed on AC power. Check power-management-tlp.md section on GPU frequencies.

Battery Life

With TLP optimization on 9-year-old battery (86% health):

UsageHoursPower
Idle10-113-4W
Text editing7-84-5W
Web browsing6-75-7W
Video5-67-9W
Compilation2-315-25W

Tested with Debian 12 and kernel 6.x