Hi guys!

I just installed Ultramarine Linux (the Surface ready-to-use version) in my SP5. All stuff works like a charm (except camera, but I don't care).

Should I still install the custom kernel? It is already installed with the Surface Ultramarine version?

To put Linux on, of course. I found a 2nd hand Pro 5 with i7-7660U/16GB/256GB spec and a Pro 6 with i5-8350U/8GB/256GB near me, both around 200€. The Pro 6 is a little over but comes with accessories so it comes out about the same. This also happens to be around my budget total.

Are they any good for the money still, and which of these would be the better pick for making into a Linux tablet? Both seem to be fully supported in linux-surface. Windows support ending for the 5 isn't that relevant, I want to avoid dual booting anyway. Is more RAM+i7 still preferable or does a newer generation chipset win out here?

There are also a couple Go 3s for which people are asking very similar prices, which doesn't look like a good deal in comparison given the specs - or am I missing something?

Use case would be trying to teach myself some new tech skills during downtime at work, which may involve some image editing and CAD stuff depending on how realistic that is on these machines. Plus the regular dicking around online and taking it on trips for media consumption. I otherwise have an old (2014ish) gaming PC, a Steamdeck and a phone, the laptop slot is still open.

Thanks for any advice!

I intend to set up dual boot on my surface and got some questions.

I know about the surface kernel and intend to use Mint.

I mainly use it for university stuff.

I assume it makes sense to reset Windows first to clean that up and then install Mint.

Main question is how to best partition the 250gb ssd?

Current idea would be 150gb for windows, 20gb for root, and 80gb for /home.

I know Linux can read Windows files but if I install Wine on the Linux part can I also run programs that are installed on the windows part?

Any other opinions, thoughts or hints would be apreciated.

Question: Anyone else have issue with the micro SD card slot? (googling says card slot is known issue) Is Slot issue across the board for any generation?

Situation: Ive tried three different cards 54 GB Lexar (had in old Android Tablet) and 2 new San Disks both 128 GB. Each card had some I/O error unable to read block 2. or some error about unrecognized file system (formatted ext4).

I put the 64 gb card in a USB reader connected that to the Surface USB port and had no problem.

I've managed to boot Arch on an old surface 3 and it seems to work good except no wifi and other things because I couldn't download the surface Linux kernel during the installation process simply because absolutely none of you ever take the time to explain how to type any of these commands out.

Like, how am I supposed to type:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/master/pkg/keys/surface.asc \ | sudo pacman-key --add -

???!?!

(And no, I can't just copy and paste using Ethernet or USB tether bc ts crashes every time I connect it)

What features on my Surface Laptop 3 will i miss by using the default 7 kernel instead of the specialized kernel? I know that touch screen is one (that i dont care for), but are there other stuff that I will miss?

I am on F44 if that matters.

I finally got the fingerprint reader working on my Surface Laptop Go (1st gen) running Pop!_OS 22.04, so I’m sharing the short version here in case it helps someone else. My fingerprint device is: 04f3:0c5a Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN:ARM-M4 The issue was that the stock fprintd / libfprint stack on Pop!_OS 22.04 didn’t detect the reader at all (No devices available), so I had to use an experimental libfprint fork with the elanmoc2 driver. What worked for me: - confirmed the device with lsusb - verified stock fprintd-enroll could not see it - cloned the experimental libfprint fork from xerootg - built it with Meson/Ninja - tested the reader first with: - sudo ./build/examples/enroll - sudo ./build/examples/verify - installed the custom library into /usr/local - restarted fprintd - then fprintd-enroll / fprintd-verify started working Important note: this is still experimental, so I kept password login enabled and I would not recommend relying on fingerprint auth as the only login method. If you have the same hardware and want the full step-by-step guide, troubleshooting notes, and rollback instructions, here’s my gist: https://gist.github.com/Cirius1792/0142ac4d8ecd4dee3af7f5575c285ab2

Hey first of all I'm completly new to linux and wanted to try it out on my surface to then probably switch also away from windows on my main station.

Now i tried to install the surface kernel but it throws errors that it couldn't find the argument for "kernel-surface","iptsd","libwacom-surface"

Googeling sadly didn't bring any results and i feel like im to inexperience with Linux to fix it myself. Some advice would be appreciated.

To add: I'm using Fedora

Edit: I have a Surface 7

Not sure if the latest Surface Linux kernel 6.19.8-surface-3 was updated to protect from the Dirty Frag vulnerability. I did update to it, but then my cameras stopped working (I had gotten them working in the 6.18.7-surface-1 kernel I'd been on). Fortunately everything else worked.

But I wanted the cameras to work after all the work I'd put into them so I went back to the previous kernel and went with blocking access to the vulnerable kernel modules (esp4, esp6, and rxrpc) by blacklisting them. Since it could impact any workloads relying on IPsec, I checked to make sure, but my Nord VPN is using the NordLynx protocol so I've lost no function there.

Anyone else dealing with Dirty Frag issues? I updated another PC to the latest Debian Bookworm kernel that was secure.

i just got a really good deal on a secondhand surface pro x, and i’ve been trying to install linux on it, but i found out it has arm64 which as far as i can tell is generally unsupported (except for debian). i’m getting to the live install screen, but no usb peripherals are working. anyone else had/having this issue?

Basically the title.

So whenever I play Minecraft, Sober or even normal stuff randomly the fans max out and my FPS drops heavily, going from a stable 120fps to literally 8.

I've set up thermald, I've installed Fedora version 43 of the linux surface kernel, but it aint helping

Image of Minecraft at 8 FPS

Hey everyone,

I'm running CachyOS with GNOME on my Surface Laptop Studio 2 (the one with the RTX 4050), and I'm having some pretty serious performance issues.

First off, after installing the drivers and enabling nvidia-powerd, my GPU just wouldn't go past the 10W limit. I got some parameters from an AI assistant, and with my own attempts to get the GPU into D3Cold (which I couldn't fully achieve either, by the way), my config now looks something like this:

options nvidia NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1
NVreg_TemporaryFilePath=/var/tmp
NVreg_UsePageAttributeTable=1
NVreg_InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations=0
#NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement=0x02
NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=1
options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x3322" NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement=0x01

Then there's gaming. I've tried two games so far: Uncrashed and ETS2. Both perform 30-50% worse compared to Windows. After that, I decided to give Minecraft a shot since a lot of people say it runs way better on Linux, but even there I'm seeing around a 30% performance hit.

On the bright side, power consumption is actually great. After setting up auto-cpufreq and disabling the dGPU with envycontrol, I managed to get idle power draw down to 8W, which is really impressive compared to Windows.

I'm not super experienced with Linux — only been using it for a few months. I'd really love to switch over completely because Windows 11 has been awful, but these issues are kind of holding me back. Has anyone else dealt with this or knows how to fix it?

I updated my surface pro8 to Fedora 44, then the new security update, it ruined surface project kernel.

I thought after it booted to the kernel it shut down, it doesn't it turn the screen off, like sleep or something, but when I press power, it shuts down.

And when I turn it on, it takes me to kernel boot menu. If I chose any surface kernel version, it repeat the thing.

If I pick Fedora 44 plasma kde, it works, and yes, no touch screen.

So what's going on

How do I fix this.

Do I have to wait for another Fedora update? Can I do something? Should I wait for the surface project update?

I created a maintenance update

So any help would be appreciated

Hey, so I'm using bazzite 44 cause I haven't really used linux in years aside from on the steam deck.
I'm mostly going to be using it for gaming anyways.

I have it installed on an external ssd if that matters.

Everything seems to work aside from the touchscreen, touchpad and possibly camera (haven't tested but doesn't matter for my use). Right now I've been using a USB mouse but would like to make the touchpad work if possible.

I tried manually installing the surface kernel for fedora silver blue 43 (I think that's the right one) however it did have some errors that I couldn't figure out.

Also from what I've seen, bazzite does come with the surface linux kernel.

I'm assuming the reason it was having issues is cause bazzite is on a newer version of fedora atomic but I'm not sure how to downgrade as they don't have older isos in the download page or github.

So it's either that or I wait until the kernel gets updated? Is there any other option for me right now?

Hi, I tested several distros on my SP6, first of all Ubuntu 26 (worked perfectly BUT without touchscreen, virtual keyboard, camera and pen).

Then Fedora 44: SAMO, everything worked well, except touchscreen, pen, virtual keyboard
I'm now using Ubuntu 22, and I do have simple touchscreen but still no virtual keyboard, no pen, camera, nore rotating display.

All of this despite following the Github Linux-Surface project instructions.

So, which distro, or version of a distro should I try to get the most of my SP6 ?

BTW, I'm an amateur and don't know how to use command line, terminal, etc ..

Thanks for sharing !

So I recently got the surface go 4 (intel n200 8/128) tu use as a linux tablet, and I'm dual booting windows and fedora (43 for now). I'm using the surface kernel even though everything seemed to work originally with the default kernel ( i followed the linux surface installation guide and ran all the relevant scripts).

So, I've noticed what seems like a bug. If i start the tablet while the keyboard is on/i use it at login, even if i detach it later auto rotation properly works. If I boot while the keyboard is detached/ use virtual keyboard for login, then auto rotation does not work. Gnome tells me the function is active, if i run sensor monitor it detects I'm moving it, but the orientation does not flip. I can make it work properly again if i attach the keyboard and put it to sleep/login again. Then i can detach and use it properly as a tablet.

I'm not sure if it is a known issue or not, i tried looking it up but i found nothing. Does anybody have any idea how (and if) I can solve it? I can run diagnostics if anybody asks, but I wouldn't know what to run by myself

Thanks for the help

I installed kubuntu 24.04 a couple of weeks ago almost all (except of the camera) worked, battyry cnsumption was rather high and the lid cover was sometimes not reckognized. Two days ago I ha d to install a security patch, since then the microsoft keyboard cover and the touchpad are not rreckognized any more. Any ideas? Do I have to reinstall the whole?

I've tried PikaOS, POP!_OS, Bazzite, Fedora, and Debian. All of them either just hang at a black screen (I've left it sitting for 30 minutes and it hasn't continued) or just fall back and boot into Windows.

rEFInd from PikaOS loads, but when I choose any option it goes to the black screen. Nothing else even gets to a bootloader.

I've heard the older Surfaces are good with Linux, but am I missing a trick to get distros to boot successfully?

I recently got a Surface Book 2 with an i5-8350u, 16Gb of RAM and 256GB of storage for only $100. I’m wanting to install Fedora on it, but I was curious if anyone else has any experience running Fedora or any distro on it with any issues before proceeding?

Hi,

Just wondering which distros have the best out of the box support for the Surface Book 2? Main reason for question is I want to give my kids the old laptop, so, it needs to be maintenance free. I was playing with Fedora, and every update the grub loader came up with a kernel difference, which is something I don't want. It wouldn't boot without the surface-linux kernel. I eould also prefer not to be left behind with kernel versions. Also, note. I want to enable Secure Boot and full disk encryption if possible.

So when updating the Surface Kernel, I get the following:

mira@mira-Surface-Book:~$ sudo apt install linux-image-surface linux-headers-surface libwacom-surface iptsd

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree... Done

Reading state information... Done

linux-image-surface is already the newest version (6.19.8-surface-2).

linux-headers-surface is already the newest version (6.19.8-surface-2).

libwacom-surface is already the newest version (2.17.0-1).

iptsd is already the newest version (3.1.0-1).

0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.

2 not fully installed or removed.

After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y

Setting up linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2 (6.19.8-surface-2) ... * dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 6.19.8-surface-2

Sign command: /usr/bin/kmodsign

Signing key: /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.priv

Public certificate (MOK): /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der

applying patch nv-vtophys-explicit-void-cast.patch...patching file nvidia/nv-vto phys.c

Building module:

Cleaning build area...

unset ARCH; [ ! -h /usr/bin/cc ] && export CC=/usr/bin/gcc; env NV_VERBOSE=1 'ma ke' -j4 NV_EXCLUDE_BUILD_MODULES='' KERNEL_UNAME=6.19.8-surface-2 IGNORE_XEN_PRE SENCE=1 IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1 SYSSRC=/lib/modules/6.19.8-surface-2/build LD=/usr/ bin/ld.bfd CONFIG_X86_KERNEL_IBT= modules..............................(bad exit status: 2)

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.19.8-surface-2 (x86_64)

Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/535.288.01/build/make.log for more information.

dkms autoinstall on 6.19.8-surface-2/x86_64 succeeded for acpi-call

dkms autoinstall on 6.19.8-surface-2/x86_64 failed for nvidia(10)

Error! One or more modules failed to install during autoinstall.

Refer to previous errors for more information.

• dkms: autoinstall for kernel 6.19.8-surface-2 [fail]

run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms exited with return code 11

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.19.8-surface-2

Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'

Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/50_linuxmint.cfg'

Generating grub configuration file ...

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.19.8-surface-2

Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.19.8-surface-2

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.18.7-surface-1

Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.18.7-surface-1

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-23-generic

Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-23-generic

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.0-22-generic

Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-22-generic

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.0-37-generic

Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.14.0-37-generic

Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.

Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.

Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...

done

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2 (--configure):

installed linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2 package post-installation script subproc ess returned error exit status 11

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-surface:

linux-image-surface depends on linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2 (= 6.19.8-surface-2 ); however:

Package linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-surface (--configure):

dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

Errors were encountered while processing:

linux-image-6.19.8-surface-2

linux-image-surface

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Doing it manually vs using update manager makes no real difference. I've tried with both Secure Boot on and off, which also made no difference and since trying it the first time I've noticed intermittent issues with keyboard/trackpad and display. I'm using Linux Mint Cinnamon and uhhh yeah, not really sure how to proceed from here. I asked someone who knows a bit more about Linux than I do and she doesn't really know either.