2y ago

Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!

I would like to share with you a very cool project that develops drivers for correct operation of Microsoft Surface devices on Linux. I myself use Surface Pro 6 with these drivers and everything works like a charm (battery life is good, cameras work, stylus, keyboard, touchscreen, screen). The developers are gods. From myself, I would recommend using Fedora Linux distribution, as I got the best battery life on it and didn't experience any additional bugs. If you don't like GNOME, you can try spins.

Links to project resources:

Awesome additional resources:

User experience from Michael Horn.
Installation instructions (non-official): Link. Link.

Technology @lemmy.world

Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!

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100 comments

Microsoft wants to give Linux a nice warm hug and then squeeze and squeeze and all the warmth disappears this is actually quite a high pressure oh that hurts Microsoft no ow are those needles coming out of your arms I think I hear bones splintering and screaming oh no it's me I'm screaming I'm hearing myself screaming I'm turning into
- Very poetic description of EEE.
- ☝️

Fwiw, this is NOT an official Microsoft release, it's like Asahi Linux, where the community made it Linux-compatible
- Yeah, I thought it was pretty clear because I talked about some "project" ❤️

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/79Jj0jWXyWo
https://piped.video/6_EHEmz_j4o
https://piped.video/BreV6N0GApk
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

This is cool, but if Microsoft would <3 Linux, they would do this themself.
- Trigger is activated 😏

I applaud Linux on as many laptops as possible. But given Microsoft's history of EEE, bad security practices and multiple and on going privacy violations I would really not recommend using anything Microsoft. If you must use fx Surface I would recommend buying a used one. Or better yet a used Thinkpad or similar enterprise laptop used.
- Security? Maybe. Privacy? Too hard and nonsense to implement hardware tracking to spy on 1% of users without Windows.
  
  Agree on privacy. And why bother when Intel/AMD have their Management Engine (ME) and AMD their equivalent.
  But why support a company like Microsoft when they have a long history of prioritizing profit over user freedom (FOSS/EEE), security and privacy?
  
  It sounds more like they are suggesting that you shouldn't buy a Surface as to not support Microsoft's stake in the market. But hardware level tracking does sound pretty spooky if they were actually able to pull it off and make it worthwhile. I'm with you though, I doubt it
- Surfaces are abysmal for repairs and upgrades, as well. They're literally glued together like a smartphone.
  
  It is weird, I agree. But I don't think there is some another way to do it with so thin case and good performance.
  
  This is why I bought the Dell 5290 2-in-1. It can be opened and the battery and ssd can be replaced for cheap.

oh lord that pic is unnerving
- oh lord that pic is unnerving
  Fixed!
  
  base
- 😁

Cool! But why does the surface in the picture run windows?
- Obviously emulated
- It does (not) 😃

I really like the Dell 5290 2-in-1. Not a surface but with 16 gigs of ram and an Intel i7-8650 CPU its a very capable tablet. It runs Linux well and everything just works. The downside is most DE's are not optimized for a tablet. I found KDE with the maliit-keyboard is the most usable combination.
- Awesome configuration. Also use Plasma with Maliit keyboard. Also found it the best configuration!
  
  Fedora has plasma-mobile available if you want to try a more traditional tablet interface. The downside is the settings for it conflict with the plasma desktop so you have to start with a clean config folder. Kinda interesting to play around with but found the desktop more to my liking.

Change c:\Users\username to /home/username in Windows 12, Redmond.
- This!

I wanted a small device to take notes on for school, but that I could also do development on for my cs classes. Got a surface go 3, put fedora (gnome) on it, added the surface kernel, and it's honestly a better tablet experience than windows. I use xournal++ for notetaking and the stylus and touchscreen all work great.
- It is awesome experience, agreed! You can try Rnote, Xournal++ in concept but way better UI. Xournal++ has better PDF support though.
  
  Yeah I draw over a lot of pdfs so that support is pretty important. The UI isn't great but I can at least customize it, and I've gotten it to a place I'm happy with.
- I didn’t need a note taking app before looking up that app. I’ll try it!

I also recently got a Surface Pro 6. I got it used for $200, but it was in great condition, low battery cycles, and came with one of the keyboard covers. As you said, everything works. Gnome in Wayland is pretty good for touchscreen. I also got a third party pen for it that works great in Krita and xournal++.
I wish using it as a tablet was a bit better supported in Gnome or other DEs, and the battery life is only ... OK. Still, as a thin and light linux tablet I can carry in my bag to work on light tasks or look up content it's fantastic. The keyboard cover also makes it great for typing, programming, or opening remote shells on the go.
- As of my experience, Plasma is better (funny) with handling touchscreen than GNOME. Maybe you should try to use it. Generally it is really good experience. Yup, some caviots here and there but meh, small thing 🙂
  
  I have tried Plasma. Imo, it's not even close. X11 style touch works OK in Plasma, but the multi touch gestures for navigation isn't anywhere near as good as Gnome with Wayland. In Gnome, I'm just missing a few quality of life gestures, like being able to swipe from an edge to un-hide the auto-hide dock.
  I also tried Plasma Mobile (which was amazing for tablet like navigation), but the hi-DPI scaling was all broken.

Thanks for sharing!
- Really good project!

Using a Pro 6 with Linux (Arch now, but used Ubuntu and Fedora in the past). I wouldn’t say that camera works like a charm, far from that.
- It works. And it is stable. Also Arch is worse with camera than Fedora. Okey for video calls.

Aw, no Surface RT tablet support. Mine is a paperweight at this point Windows RT is almost nonfunctional.
- Expected 🤷
- Yeah, it’s ARM-based, and while that’s gaining in popularity, differences between drivers and chipsets still make support challenging.

I'm looking for a device to read comics (bandes dessinées, the taller A4 format), newspapers, rss feeds
I use an ipad for now, but I'd like to get rid of it
It needs high definition (at least 1440p) in a 12" or 13" screen. (11 too, less ideal), and to stay cool while reading/light browsing
I would love for this to be a Linux device.
Could this be it? What would be the cheapest option?
edit: a surface pro 3 at 200€?
- Pro 3 will be pretty good for your needs. It will have bad battery life but if you use it at home then no problem.
  
  Thanks!

I'm running EndeavourOS on my Surface Pro 7. Only 2 things are not working, the camera and I haven't figured out how to get rotation to work. I am using Wayland compositor with KDE Plasma and occasionally Hyprland.
- There is no way to get camera working on SP7, it is not supported. To get autorotate work install iio-sensor-proxy, enable autorotation in Screen settings and uncheck "only in tablet mode" checkmark under enable autorotation button 🙂
  
  Thanks for the autorotate! Works great in KDE! I knew the camera was a lost cause, but it causes so many problems in windows I wasn't worried about it.

My Surface Go 1 is a really great Linux device with Fedora on it and I use the usb-c to have it displayed on a big screen when necessary. Sadly the cameras don’t work yet..
- You can make them work on Surface Go 1. Link to guide from developers. It is stated that you have to install v4l2loopback-dkms but on Fedora it is named v4l2loopback and it is in RPM Fusion. Also install kernel-surface-devel package.
  
  Yeah thanks. Sadly, to be honest, I feel like it’s above my technical knowledge and I’m a bit scared of breaking my install by trying.

i run debian sid on a surface go and i love it. my daily driver, and one of my favorite PCs in a very long time.
- Awesome. Is it stable (not breaking) experience for you? Debian Unstable anyway 🙂
  
  a little funny since the freeze lifted due to the sheer number of new versions all appearing at once, but nothing is breaking. typical post-freeze hiccups - they subside quickly, nothing has gotten in the way of being productive, and im used to it after 23 years of running Sid.

I'm grabbing a decommissioned surface pro 7 from work today! Just need to order a charger for it, and I'll try this out :)
- Wish you best luck. Write here with issues. Will answer if there is internet around 🙂
  
  So far so good. I put fedora on it, and starting to play around. Gnome seems pretty well suited to the tablet.

Time to whip out my old Surface Pro 4, wonder if it will help with the screen flickering issue.
- Sadly, it will not. Very weird hardware bug 😕

I have an old Surface Book 1. I have windows 11 on it and it works ok. I can't run anything heavy on it of course but little web browsing and zoom meeting etc. works fine. I really enjoy the awesome camera and face id login. I am worried with Linux install, the camera will not be as good. If someone can confirm their experience on SB1, I can be convinced to install Linux on it.
- No FaceID, worse camera quality, worse Battery life. If it is ok, go and try it. If not, it is okey 🙂
  
  Yeah, seems like a deal breaker to me. What do you even gain then? Performance improvements?

100 comments