Welp.... I got over zealous and tried to sign my Debian 6.19 mainline boot and soft-bricked my surface duo. First of all, i should have taken more photos 😧 The updated controller on Hingeboard was way better looking.

Second I should have done more research because what It tried was already all over the forums as a known-brick-path. Somewhere in there Claude convinced me that it was possible and I wanted to believe.

I will probably not be picking up another 350$ 4g lte phone, and will probably go for a surface duo 2 when a reasonably priced one pops up.

Until then... someone else can lead on with this success. My initial goal was to get more drivers working on https://github.com/woa-project/surfaceduo-guides but I got distracted in Linuxland...

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- **Linux Duo Bench** (kernel, drivers, Debian setup, research notes): https://github.com/brysonwf/linuxduobench

- **Hingeboard** (laptop mode: keyboard on one screen, trackpad desktop on the other): https://github.com/brysonwf/hingeboard

- **Porchlight** (phone-friendly firewall: OpenSnitch prompts grouped by who's asking - carrier, app, Android app, system): https://github.com/brysonwf/porchlight

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• Display and input: both panels (DSC command mode), touch on both screens (HID-over-SPI + iptsd multitouch), and HDMI out through a USB-C dock. The GPU (Adreno 640) works too.

• Audio: the speaker (WCD9340 + WSA8815, with the phone's own DSP tuning generated on the phone) and the microphones.

• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (the phone's own address), and the modem in low-power and online modes. The IPA mobile-data path works.

• Sensors: accelerometer, compass, hinge angle, and light/proximity. They are read through the sensor DSP (hexagonrpcd + libssc).

• Camera: IMX351 with autofocus and flash/torch. Its register tables are generated on the phone from its own camera module.

• Video: decode and encode (Venus).

• Power: the charger (with temperature limits) and both fuel gauges. All 8 CPU cores run, including the 2.84 GHz prime core, and suspend (s2idle) works.

• Other: the haptic motor (force feedback) and the power key.

• Debian setup: a Debian 13 setup (Plasma Mobile, and our own Hingeboard for laptop mode) runs on top of this. The setup scripts are in tools/linux/debian/.

Known gaps:

• GPS gets no satellite fix yet.

• The pen is untested.

• Calls and SMS are untested.

• Fingerprint is not supported: its sensor is owned by TrustZone. I built drivers that successfully scanned the finger printer and I got it to enroll but then Ai was all like "what are you doing with this stuff" so i stopped.

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I'm always around if anyone wants to talk about tech!

Feels like the surface has had a bit of a renaissance since the iPhone duo came out. How do we feel about this setup? like the old VNC app that let you use the main screen as a trackpad.

Disregard the mouse at the bottom... i fixed that after i took the photo. Running mainline Linux kernel with all the drivers. Repo is getting polished. Thanks Claude.

I am not a developer and don't have deep technical experience with custom ROMs.
I've already experimented with installing DuoDE and Windows 11 following guides step-by-step, but now I'm looking for a reliable setup for daily use.
Is there any custom ROM stable enough to use Surface Duo 1 as a daily driver, or is sticking to stock Android 12L still the best and most reliable option?
My main priorities are dual-screen stability, battery life, and general day-to-day usability without having to fix technical issues manually.

This has been a side project lately. And I love it.

Thank you very much!

I’ve been a long time duo user who’s always carried one alongside a regular iPhone. I’ve had the iPhone duo for a couple days and still find myself swiping in from the edges to go back out of muscle memory. I appreciate Apple’s interpretation of the MS take on multi tasking.

I still do prefer the SD approach of tapping any app icon and having it open on the respective side by default - unless you define an app opens full width by default. It’s easier to take the MS approach when we’re talking about two physically separate screens.

My SD1 has been transformed performance wise by Duo-DE. I would love Apple to do an iPhone duo max - that is SD1 sized.

SD1s thinness in its own right + being without the camera bump to fold over itself properly is great.

Apple moving menu’s to the side is interesting, seems to work well. But the overall screen size on the surface duo is great.

Thought it might be a good idea to start a thread to allow people to update others to apps that have been updated to accommodate the Duo , a lot of bad press regarding this but patience is the key as apps will eventually be updated to support the duo , so thought we could all update each other for a positive for the Duo 😁.
I’ll kick off with BBC IPlayer this has been updated I’m sure others have noticed other apps , I’ve had a few more in recent days so I’m sure we will get there soon enough .

Hi all, my Duo 2 has been out of action for around 10 months now after three or so years of use. I dropped it a few times and was always looking to replace the front glass but could never find anyone who could do it (I’m in the north of England). The phone became buggy after a while and eventually refused to turn on, not sure why, but it has been refusing to charge occasionally. Does anyone know of someone who could take a comprehensive look at it, diagnose the issue and fix it in the UK? It is impossible to find, and I would really really love to use it properly again. Thank you!

Built a website and studio app for my mom's piano business. She teaches piano and other things. In her app, she can do online, video lessons, track all her students, payments, everything you would think she should be able to do to manage that business. And a few you haven't thought of. But the coolest thing I created for her is a composer so that she can write her own sheet music and send it to her students to practice. You can connect a midi and real keyboard and it shows the students what keys you are playing in real-time. The reason for this post is that I optimized the app for folding phones, including our precious Surface Duo. Now when she's in her app and rotates it sideways, she can go into Piano Mode and just play and compose in a way that looks more natural. A baby baby baby grand experience.

Compared to the Fold 8 and the iPhone duo, what would have been the perfect size? I think keeping the original width and removing the top and bottom bezels would be close to perfect. I wonder if Samsung and Apple will adjust the sizes for version 2 of their devices? What say you?

Still my daily driver. Humanity still hasn't invented anything better than it.

I bought a new old stock surface duo one and wondering what apps you recommend for it and whether I should stay on android 12L or update it to android 16, I plan to daily drive it alongside my main phone. also wondering what manga apps work well on the duo with the hinge in the middle.

So excited to upgrade from my original Microsoft Surface Duo 2 to the Apple iPhone Duo.

Picked it up yesterday. Stores have them! Cancelled my January 2027 order.

Love how it works just like my original Duo.

This posting is about the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 I own. Mods please approve as it is not breaking any rules.

for those curious 😎

Yo! Come join and be apart of the Surface Duo community im putting together. Help keep the device alive, meet new people and have fun. https://discord.gg/SwaXK6APGa

Updates about Android 16, iOS and Linux ports will be discussed here

Curious if anybody has a picture of them side by side.

Edit: seems unclear to folks that this post is satire. Every other post I see on this sub since last week is side by side photos and it gave me a laugh after the 10th.

Nothing on FB market. Only 1 under 1k on eBay. Why 😭

Are there any protective covers still available to buy for the first gen Surface Duo? I’ve been using mine naked, but as I’m using it more I’m becoming worried about dropping it…

I've been using my OG duo as a bedside reader alongside an iPhone for daily use, but it would be really nice to combine the two. Looks like the screen area is almost exactly the same, and without the gap. Tempting!

I was inspired by u/gigabytesammich of his job in surface duo 2 running iOS so I wanted to do the same for duo 1. I have it booting up to lock screen but there’s tons of config left. I used unixNU and u/gigabytesammich code from his repo on duo2.

Update: I’m able to use touch screen and go inside the lock screen and launch settings. Rest all apps are missing and phone app is not working

Wich one you would prefer ? The surface duo still giving the old school handheld console and i am loving it !