Mastodawn

Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality!

https://lemm.ee/post/1451648

Linux for Microsoft Surface devices. It is reality! - lemm.ee

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 [https://fedoraproject.org/], 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 [https://spins.fedoraproject.org/]. Lemmy community [[email protected]]. tiddeR community [https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux] Links to project resources: - Home Page [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface]. - Table of supported features [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features#feature-matrix]. - Installation Guide [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup]. - Page with known bugs and their solutions [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Known-Issues-and-FAQ]. - Wiki [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki]. Awesome additional resources: - User experience from Michael Horn [https://youtu.be/79Jj0jWXyWo]. - Installation instructions (non-official): Link [https://youtu.be/6_EHEmz_j4o]. Link [https://youtu.be/BreV6N0GApk].

Flaky Jul 18, 2023

Should also mention Nobara Linux (which is funnily enough based on Fedora) has Surface Linux patches baked into its kernel.

Nobara Linux | The Nobara Project

Nobara is a Fedora-based experience tuned for gaming, streaming, and content creation — with everything ready out of the box.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

WOW. Such a cool detail! 🤯 Nobara is cool.

ggnoredo Jul 18, 2023

Nobara looks very good

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Especially for gaming.

rizoid Jul 18, 2023

I’m currently running EndeavorOS on my Surface Laptop 4. I’ll admit it was a pain to get working right, especially since I have the amd model, but damn once it’s working its so nice.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

It is really stable!

ClaretNBlue Jul 18, 2023

I’m actually looking into purchasing a Surface Pro 7/8 to replace my current laptop, and was wondering about compatibility for dual booting

rizoid Jul 18, 2023

Its honestly very usable. Touch has some weirdness and I haven’t gotten it working on my device but its one of the laptops not the tablets so I don’t really care for touch. Look through the Table of Supported Features that OP linked to make sure whatever device you plan to pick up supports everything or is at least being worked on.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

You can try latest iptsd build from GitHub Actions. It has has some patches that make touchscreen better.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Surface Pro 6 has better compatibility but 7 is also good!

stappern Jul 18, 2023

8 doesnt have great compatibility from what i saw, we have some at work we want to convert and its a hassle

jonne Jul 18, 2023

That’s actually very tempting. I always liked the form factor of the surface but I didn’t want windows for it.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Cool project!

li10 Jul 18, 2023

I guess I’m missing something, but I don’t understand buying a MS hardware product and then installing Linux, surely just buy a different product in the first place?

Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

I’m pro Linux, just not seeing the point of giving money to these companies and then installing Linux… I think some people do it with the Pixel as a protest, which makes little sense when they’ve given money to the company :/

Cloudless ☼Jul 18, 2023

Because some people purchase and use devices for practical purposes, not just ideological.

Perhaps the Surface hardware is the most practical for some people?

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

☝️😃

li10 Jul 18, 2023

Fair enough, I just thought there would be more practical options for price/performance/usability, but I guess touchscreen laptops are a bit of a niche still.

emptyother Jul 18, 2023

Jup. Surface Pro: Very lightweight, solid, powerful (for its size), fan-less (some models), both tablet and laptop, has an okay stylus. Whats not to like? Oh, right, the default OS. 😊

deweydecibel Jul 18, 2023

And that some models can’t upgrade to 11, so support for them ends when Windows 10 support ends. Linux Surface will extend their life.

deweydecibel Jul 18, 2023

Also, Linux Surface is maintained for older devices, which will be useful when Windows 10 support ends.

Flaky Jul 18, 2023

I used to have a Surface when I was at university. They were so much better to lug around than MacBooks or ThinkPads.

Cuttlefishcarl Jul 18, 2023

Buying new, sure, what you’re saying makes sense. I think buying used for the form factor or whatever and not wanting windows is a fine choice, though.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

💯

kbity Jul 18, 2023

In the case of the Surface Go, there isn't really anything comparable. It's unironically the best 10-inch Linux tablet, and runs Pop!_OS out of the box without issue. The only better Linux tablet for me would be an iPad Mini, but you can't put Linux on one of those and even if you could it's ARM-based so most proprietary apps won't work on it.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Buy used device and you will not give any money to company. Surface devices are just really well built/thought and convenient devices. That’s it.

deweydecibel Jul 18, 2023

Same with people buying Google Pixel’s and then removing the stock Android. Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

Because Pixel allows the removal of stock android where some phones, like Samsung’s, actively prevent it.

Out you’re not entirely wrong. There are non-Pixel phones with better hardware and unlockable bootloaders. Often it’s a preference thing.

But also, “stock Android” doesn’t mean “everything is accessible and configurable” Android.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Pixel phones allow to relock bootloader on Custom ROMS, that’s why developers use Pixel devices. Good firmware support is also around.

MisterCrisper Jul 18, 2023

I agree that buying a new Surface to install Linux on doesn’t seem like the way to go.

But I get new life out of older machines by upgrading them with Linux. I’ve gotten additional years of solid use out of some older MacBook Airs by installing Linux. Now that I know there are drivers, I’ve got my eye on upgrading an old Surface Pro that I have.

Sethayy Jul 18, 2023

That pixel’s example is so funny cause its suprisingly the most open boooader out there, so almost no devices but the pixel are used for full custom OS’ like grapheneOS.

But to answer your question, a lot of the beauty of Linux is it runs on anything, so if you already had one lying around, you could just slab Debian or something on it and it’ll be snappier than ever.

I also personally like the form factor of the device and the removable keyboard

marmarama Jul 18, 2023

I wouldn’t say the Pixel line’s hardware is rubbish, more that Google is focused on having a polished “it just works” experience rather than trying to differentiate themselves by having the fastest, biggest, newest hardware in the Android market.

The mobile market hit the “diminishing returns” point quite a while ago and for a lot of people - probably the majority - the only reasons to upgrade are security updates ending, or because a non-replaceable battery is getting to the end of its life.

I used to upgrade every 12-18 months religiously, but now my Pixel 5 is coming up on 3 years old and I’d happily keep it another few years with a battery replacement, if the updates weren’t going to end shortly.

stappern Jul 18, 2023

I guess I’m missing something, but I don’t understand buying a MS hardware product and then installing Linux, surely just buy a different product in the first place?

most people dont buy this to put linux on it, they get the somehow and then use linux to make them suck less.

Isn’t the Pixel’s hardware rubbish, and the only reason to buy it the software?

not really.

jetsetdorito Jul 19, 2023

Pixels are super easy to unlock the bootloader, and also easy to flash back to image back to stock if you wanted.

Nonononoki Jul 18, 2023

Also, consider REFind (wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd) when you dual boot. It’s the only boot manager that support touch screens.

Making sure you're not a bot!

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Good advice ❤️

Kritoke Jul 18, 2023

I have Fedora on a refurb Surface 3 (not pro). It is okay, but I run into issues with chromium browsers freezing it. Still tweaking power settings, i heard it’s related to that. Might try Nobara since I hadn’t heard of it, probably has better defaults.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Maybe you should try it out. Nobara has cool modifications.

Kushan Jul 18, 2023

I’ve got an old Surface Go I still use when travelling. I only ever really use it for watching videos, streaming from emby and the like. Occasionally I plug in a USB-C hub to plug it into a TV. Would this work well for that? I can see the surface go is listed as supported and it looks pretty feature complete, if it can make it run a bit faster and not give me any grief, I might give it a go.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

I think it will be good experience. Try Fedora with GNOME (Workstation) firstly.

KidDogDad Jul 18, 2023

How does stylus support work? Are there good Linux apps for hand writing notes?

Sethayy Jul 18, 2023

With my limited experience cause I broke my pen tip, the support for the OS is good but almost no apps support it, beyond the FOSS artistry ones

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Xournal++ and Rnote are the best options for hand written notes. Both available as a Flatpak from Flathub.

aberrate_junior_beatnik (he/him)Jul 18, 2023

The Microsoft :heart: Linux image is a weird choice. WSL is neat but Microsoft will never support Linux on their hardware.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

Trigger activated check 😏

CaptainAniki Jul 18, 2023

WSL does nothing to further the paradigm of Linux. WSL is a bandage for Windows to make it suck just a tiny bit less, and it generally fails miserably.

Flaky Jul 18, 2023

Back when I was having issues with the Linux desktop (2016-19), I used WSL to get access to Linux’s useful tools. I was always on and off with Linux, mainly due to having components that don’t work with it well (mainly to do with NVIDIA and Broadcom WiFi).

Now I’m full-on Linux. Only exception is Apple Music (virtual machine) or some gaming scenarios (dualboot). Stuff like mods that work better on Windows, or steering wheel games (I have a Logitech wheel that works so much better on Windows than Linux).

Logster998 Jul 18, 2023

You don’t need an entire VM just for Apple Music! There’s an open source client for it available on Mac and Linux. They just dropped development, but it still works. github.com/ciderapp/Cider/releases/tag/v1.6.2

Release Cider Version 1.6.2 · ciderapp/Cider

Builds from Azure CI/CD

GitHub

Flaky Jul 18, 2023

I have tried Cider before. It’s a solid client, but there’s some stuff that’s still missing for me. I can live without lossless audio, but gapless playback when listening to albums is very important for me and Cider doesn’t support it unfortunately.

Logster998 Jul 18, 2023

Totally understandable, them stopping development on Mac and Linux is making me switch off too, but it works in a pinch.

Flaky Jul 18, 2023

Well, since that comment several hours ago I just set up Apple Music on Waydroid, with lossless. If need be, the Android version of Apple Music works pretty well on Waydroid. There’s some hoops to go through (Google’s certification, the app needing fake WiFi for anything above low-quality AAC) but once it’s done it works.

Logster998 Jul 18, 2023

I didn’t know about the fake Wi-Fi so I just thought it wouldn’t work, Good catch! I’ll use it

Redjard Jul 18, 2023

where is/was that image? I don’t see it

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

It was changed 😏

bfr0 Jul 18, 2023

I’ve had nothing but issues with Microsoft hardware… Even excluding Xbox stuff, my SP4 had major issues with video corruption and hard freezes. Multiple RMA attempts came back defective or damaged, even the first party folio keyboard went bad. These were widespread defects and once warranty was up I was sol.

The only thing that somewhat extended its life before it went full spicy pillow was putting Linux Mint on it with some kernel patches.

Thank God this community exists, but I’ll never buy another surface product as long as I live.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

SP4 was really buggy from Hardware perspective, flickering screen, fast battery drain while off, etc… SP567 are really good devices!

Louisoix Jul 18, 2023

I lovely 8 now. The battery is definitely not the best, but the whole device is awesome.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

I think it should be really slick device. Glad you’re glad 🙂

SaintWacko Jul 18, 2023

I highly recommend it! I’ve been running PopOS! On my Surface Pro 3 for years. It works perfectly, and functions extremely well with the form factor

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

👍❤️

fraydabson Jul 18, 2023

ITs been a while but last time I tried installing Linux on my surface book 2 it was such a mess and had so many problems.

FarLine99 Jul 18, 2023

If it was long time ago maybe you should try it again. Many improvements were made. Also, disable secure boot in BIOS, it is kinda meh on Linux.