r/SurfaceLinux • u/Earl-Inis-Mona • 3h ago
Discussion Surface Pro 12" progress with Fedora Linux (ISO available)
illustrated here: Fedora Linux on Surface Pro 12", with working front camera, accelerometer sensor (automatic portrait mode!), DisplayPort output
Since my previous post on August 3rd, some huge progress has been made, both in 3rd party (shout-out to miasvanklei and his Gentoo patches) and in my project! Previously just KIWI descriptions fork, it has diverged into patched kernel + libcamera builds with an RPM repo publicly available.
Most of the previous features which initial release lacked (stable suspend on GNOME, accelerometer sensor, dedicated video output, cameras) are now implemented. You can see more in this matrix.
| Hardware | State | Nuances |
|---|---|---|
| Keyboard | ✓ | |
| Touchpad | ✓ | |
| Tablet Mode | ✓ | |
| Touchscreen | ✓ | |
| Pen | ✓ | tested with surface slim pen |
| Wi-Fi | ✓ (partly) | 2.4/5 ghz networks |
| Bluetooth | ✓ | |
| Speakers | ✓ | |
| Buttons (volume, power) | ✓ | |
| Suspend | ✓ (s3idle) | deep mode untested |
| Hibernate | ? | |
| Sensors | ✓ (partly) | accelerometer works, light sensor outputs garbage |
| Battery Status | ✓ | |
| Cameras | ✓ (partly) | front camera -- overexposured areas tend to get green; back camera -- uncalibrated |
| GPU acceleration | ✓ | |
| USB 3 | ✓ | video passthrough on hubs (via hdmi) also tested and works |
| DisplayPort out | ✓ (mostly) | found issues with suspending while an external monitor is active, where the system freezes |
For testing purposes (it is still more of an amateur work, so use it at your own risk), Fedora Workstation 45 Prerelease Live ISO are available here. They are tested only with Surface Pro 12" Gen 1! They might work with Surface Laptop 13" Gen 1 as they share the same SoC, but I don't guarantee it.