r/SurfaceLinux

Nothing I do is working and I can't find anything on the internet. I'm not the one who installed linux on this computer so I have no clue what I'm doing

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

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.

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 !

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

I've tried PikaOS, POP!_OS, Bazzite, 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've decided to give Linux a try without any prior experience. So far it has been working relatively well but I cannot seem to get microSD card slot work reliably. I have installed Linux Surface kernel. While the card works, it often goes to read only mode, I can hear the sounds of disconnecting and reconnecting. I have also tried formatting it to ext4 format with LUKS encryption but it just hangs and crashes with I/O error. Veracrypt also fails. I have encrpted the card on another computer and cannot unlock it back on Linux - the process becomes unresponsive.

Does anyone here have experience in getting the microSD card working reliably?

I currently run Ubuntu 24 (Noble Numbat) on my Surface Pro 6, and I took it on a recent trip overseas. Since I was taking a lot of notes, I also brought a small voice recorder with me. At night, I dumped the voice recorder to the Surface Pro, installed the Whisper AI package on it, and used it to transcribe the notes.

It took forever for me to convince systemd not to suspend when I closed the cover while plugged in. You have to edit /etc/systemd/logind and set HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=ignore. It's not a gconf/dconf setting. You can't get to it from the Settings dialog.

... and that was a mistake. Running an AI with the lid closed all night long resulted in the glue that holds the keyboard together melting, and now the fabric covering that was near where the chipset is on the motherboard is peeling off.

Pro-tip: Don't do that.

(It would be nice if there was a flair for tip or advice.)

Hello everyone.

I've been running CachyOS on my SP9 for a while now but one thing that has been consistent between every distro I've tried is that I just cannot get gaming to work on this device. I have the i5 model and I just can't seem to get thermals under control.

I've setup thermald to the best of my understanding and have played around with the thermal thresholds but I'm either not doing it right or it's just possible to get it working properly. I've also installed auto-cpufreq but of course that's not going to help thermals under load.

I definitely didn't have this issue under windows but I am NOT going back. What is everyone else's experience and what have y'all done?

Thanks!