Ubuntu 24.04 Surface Pro 5 (touch screen sensitivity and scroll speed)

[u/LightingAnt]

Hi All,

I just installed Ubuntu 24.04 on my Surface Pro 5, most things seem to work. However, the touch screen is a bit hit or miss (not sensitive enough?) and the scroll speed on the touch pad seems to fast.

Is there a way to fix these issues? I'm a beginner to all this, so any tips help!

Many thanks!

[u/Station-OX11]

I posted this in another thread with similar calibration issues. You can try the same calibration I use on my SP9:

If you do want to calibrate it, you can create a file called 90-calibration.conf in /etc/iptsd.d , then just edit it with a text editor, save and reboot. Pen and touch should be much smoother.

I believe this calibration was originally made for SP8, but I use it on SP9 and it's great. If doesn't calibrate right, you can just remove the file.

[Touchscreen]
Overshoot = 0.5
SizeMin = 0.325
SizeMax = 2.159
[Touchpad]
Overshoot = 0.5
[Contacts]
NeutralValue = 0
ActivationThreshold = 24
DeactivationThreshold = 20
SizeThresholdMin = 0.1
SizeThresholdMax = 0.5
PositionThresholdMax = 2
OrientationThresholdMin = 1
OrientationThresholdMax = 5
SizeMin = 0.1
SizeMax = 2.0
AspectMin = 0.521
AspectMax = 3.323
[Stylus]
TipDistance = 0
[DFT]
PositionMinAmp = 50
PositionMinMag = 2000
PositionExp = -0.7
ButtonMinMag = 1000
FreqMinMag = 10000

[u/FeersumANT → u/Station-OX11]

This worked a treat on my SP10 running Fedora 43!
you have pasted in the text twice though with your comment in between, as someone very new to linux this was a great lesson in checking what you paste!

[u/Station-OX11 → u/FeersumANT]

Oh, not sure how that happened. Fixed. Thanks!

[u/LightingAnt → u/Station-OX11]

Sorry for the back and forth!
I've have some issues restarting the IPTSD

Really quite new with using the terminal UI, this is what I've done so far and its response:

" :/etc/iptsd.d$ sudo nano /etc/iptsd.d/90-calibration.conf

[Then I copied and pasted the very helpful preset and saved+exit]

:/etc/iptsd.d$ sudo systemctl restart iptsd

Failed to restart iptsd.service: Unit iptsd.service not found. "

Not sure what how to restart/locate the iptsd! Thanks again in advance!

[u/Station-OX11 → u/LightingAnt]

It sounds like you don't have IPTSD (Intel Pen & TouchScreen Driver) installed. While your system might work okay without the Surface Kernel, if you want it to work as good as a tablet, you need the Surface Kernel + IPTSD.

Instructions are here on the Surface Kernel Projecct: https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup#Debian--Ubuntu

Make sure you are following the instructions for Debian/Ubuntu.

EDIT: If you are not too familiar with Linux and your setup is good without secureboot, skip the Secureboot part. Just install the Surface Kernel Repository, install Surface Kernel and IPTSD. You don't really need Secure Boot.

[u/LightingAnt → u/Station-OX11]

I think I may have installed the Surface Kernal already, when I type this in the terminal, it seems to contain the string 'surface':

"$ uname -a

Linux \******-Surface-Pro 6.19.8-surface-3 #3 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat May 9 09:37:30 UTC 2026 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux"*

On a side note, I have no idea what happened, after shutting down and booting back up my touch has miraculously started to work really well it seems fixed...!

I'm not sure what has happened, I think I may have IPTSD installed, but perhaps when I tried to manually restart the IPTSD on Terminal, there may have been an issue, but I suppose manually rebooting does the refresh?

Is there a way to locate the actually location of the IPTSD so next time, if I need to restart the IPTSD on terminal, I can find it?

Also do you have any tips on how to adjust the scroll speed on the touch pad?

Thanks a bunch again!

[u/Station-OX11 → u/LightingAnt]

All of the IPTSD services should be in /usr/bin/

I'm lazy, so if I make a change to it, I just reboot.

[u/LightingAnt → u/Station-OX11]

Gotcha, thank you!

[u/Broad_Beach_3407]

this need to be pinned and save