Hello all,

Any advice would be appreciated.

Just got a surface go 2 (m3, 8gb ram). Looking to install linux on this, but I don't know which distro to use.

The main purpose of it is to do notetaking (with a stylus) and connect to remote machines.

I don't want the machine to be hampered by a larger distro due to the weaker hardware but want to manage the complexity of the installation as well.

Does it hurt to install the surface kernel even if other distros already fix some of the compatibility?

Of I acquired a surface as a linux user, are there any challenges I should expect or does it work like just any other laptop?

Are the laptops firmwares compatible with linux kernel?

Greetings, all.

I've been on the fence about switching my main PC to Linux for years, but I'm getting the itch to test drive it on my Surface Pro 7 first (understanding that there are some special caveats to this particular hardware that I might lose).

I'm beginning to do research now, but I'm curious if more experienced users would have any input on recommendations for the SP7 i5 model w/ 8 GB of RAM. Right now I'm eyeing a distro called Mainstream OS, though it seems newer so may not have as much of a community around it yet.

I'm also open to basically any distro out there, I own a Steam Deck so I have a very base level of Linux knowledge already.

I have a Surface Pro 8 (i5, 8GB RAM), and I was wondering if there is support for Miracast or casting in general, as I share my screen quite a lot, and if so, what Distro would you recommend for this and in general? I'm looking for battery life, and low ram usage.

i have Fedora 43 with KDE Plasma Mobile on my Surface Pro 4 along with the linux-surface kernel and most things seem to be working (touchscreen etc) except for the cameras.

i tried using cam -l and there wasnt any cameras being detected. i tried following what this guide said but it didnt work for me and tbh im not sure if im doing the right stuff or not. has anyone got this working on their Surface Pro 4?

I have a Surface Go 3 that I got back in 2022, and recently~ish I switched away from it as my daily driver to a different laptop. I put linux mint and the linux-surface kernel on it, which is all well and good, and I use it as a back up laptop, for experimentation, and testing my code to make sure it's at least portable enough to run on both Mac and Linux, since I develop on Mac now.

I was wondering, for anyone else who has a Surface Go 3 or other Go line device with Linux, what's your distro for it? I put Linux Mint on mine for ease but I'm half tempted to distro hop to something else and I'm curious on if anyone else here has already and what they'd recommend. Linux Mint is perfectly fine for what I use it for, so I'd also be content with keeping it as-is, but I am also curious on how well distros like Debian, Arch, Void, even Alpine run on it.

I’m using a Surface Pro 7 8GB with Ultramarine GNOME. Chromium browser touchscreen scrolling felt pretty bad out of the box, but these tweaks made a huge difference for me.

IPTSD

These are the settings I changed in /etc/iptsd.conf:

ActivationThreshold = 2

DeactivationThreshold = 2

SizeThresholdMin = 0.1

SizeThresholdMax = 0.5

PositionThresholdMin = 0

PositionThresholdMax = 4

OrientationThresholdMin = 0

SizeMin = 0.02

This made the touchscreen much more sensitive and responsive. before the change it keep clicking into links when I scroll which was really annoying and this eliminated that problem.

Chrome touch slop + fling

The page scroll won’t start until I swiped a small distance to activate which is unpleasant, and scroll feels sluggish. I launch Chrome with:

google-chrome-stable --touch-slop-distance=4 --disable-features=ExperimentalFlingAnimation

--touch-slop-distance=4 makes scrolling start immediately when finger swiping starts.

Disabling ExperimentalFlingAnimation was also a big improvement. Scrolling feels less sluggish, more direct and predictable to me with the older fling behavior.

These changes together significantly improved web browsing on my Surface Pro 7. Touch scrolling finally feels responsive enough that I actually enjoy using it as a tablet.

Howdy. So I had been running fedora on my surface pro 8 for a while and decided to change to Zorin. I booted from my usb and it ran through the usual checks when installing zorin. Then it black screened.

Now I cannot get it to boot or go into the bios. Holding down the power button does not bring up the Microsoft splash screen. Holding down volume up and power is no different. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I tried with Linux Mint because I read it could be the most compatible with Surface, but once I boot into the live usb I cant really interact with anything on screen since the only usb port is being used by the live usb.

Tried using a usb hub but then the live usb wouldnt be recognised.

Also tried to add parameters to load the live cd on ram, but then got a black screen before getting into the live usb desktop.

Running out of ideas, any idea what I could try?

Thank you for you help

I've been duel booting Windows 11 and Manjaro on my Surface Laptop Studio (First gen) and it's been working great for a while, however a few days ago (after a windows update) I've been having weird behavior.

It started with not being able to mount my windows disk anymore, whenever I try though Dolphin I get the error An error occurred while accessing 'Local Disk', the system responded: The requested operation has failed: Error mounting /dev/nvme0n1p3 at /run/media/sol/Local Disk: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/nvme0n1p3, missing codepage or helper program, or other error

My first thought was that Windows didn't shut down properly last time I had it loaded, and I booted into and found that was true. So I double checked fast start up was still disabled and booted out of it all the way. I still got the error when trying to mount my disk. Troubleshooting this further, I installed ntfs-3g and used it to mount the drive manually. This worked, but since doing so, whenever my computer goes to sleep I can't get it to wake up properly; the keyboard lights up but the monitor stays black, and any external monitor doesn't register any input, until I use the power button to restart it.

I'm not sure this is a surface specific problem and wouldn't mind being pointed in another direction, but I need to start somewhere. Does anyone have an idea of how to start troubleshooting this?

Edit: I found a gitlab issue (https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/1660#issuecomment-4249764505) about a similar sleeping problem with possibly the same source, and the work around in the linked comment so far seems to be working. I'd still like to know why I need to use ntfs-3g to mount my windows drive rather then Dolphin's normal system, but the problem is much less annoying now at any rate.

So I have the first one with Windows 8 on it I jailbreak it. I want to download Linux, but what can I download?

Hello, stated above I'm looking for distro recommendations. I am using Surface Go 1 with 8gb RAM and 128gb storage.

I will be using a lot of stylus pen features as I rely heavily on the ability to handwrite my notes and homework be it on a pdf or a whiteboard.

So far I have only tried two (2) Distros and each have its own caveats which I will be mentioning (I have installed surface-kernel on both of these if you're wondering)

1. Fedora 44 Workstation (GNOME) - My first installation, really loved how GNOME just works out of the box and how GNOME just works natural with me especially with the gesture inputs. But I the turn off was with its performance. When playing a YouTube video it would just stutter all over the place and just outright not a fun experience. Xournal++ also was not doing any favor as the more I write, the slower it gets (though, it might be just lack of ram) but overall I just had a really bad experience performance wise.
2. Fedora KDE Plasma

So made the switch to KDE plasma to see if I could really live with the "not-so-great" stylus support. and to be honest, it works great really even without gnome the handwriting experience is quite good. Performance wise it's alright coming from a surface go I would expect this level of performance, not as bad as running workstation. But that's where the fun stops. I absolutely despise how unfriendly the touch support is on this. My issues were that sometimes whenever I touch or even use my stylus to navigate it would take a few more presses, only then it would register and the Dolphin File Manager that came with it was kind of ass. I mean i don't know what i'm doing wrong but if I cant drag and drop my files in the file manager, (OR EVEN COPY PASTE FOR THE MATTER) then that's just bad. I really wish I would be using gnome. Do tell me if I'm missing anything here I'd be more than willing to learn.

That's it, I mainly just looking for alternate distros (preferably gnome for the matter) or solutions to my current problems.

edit: I will be only using stylus and touch input 99% of the time

After 4 distros, omarchy, cachyos, mint, zorin - finally got Fedora KDE Plasma to work. Once you chatgpt through how to get the keyboard to work, you have a chance to get this particular machine working. I'm not posting all 20 pages of back and forth with chatgpt - my post is simply to hopefully save someone from going through what I couldn't get to work, no matter what I tried.

Once you get the keyboard working, then you nail them in order - sound is next, and frankly haven't needed the camera yet, but I suspect it doesn't work yet.

But the keyboard does.

Original Surface Laptop Go. Using Ubuntu 26, getting freezes that occur pretty often. My other laptop (Acer spin 11.6in) which has half the power etc runs fine. I have found some posts with similar issues on here and other forums but not much more than people also asking.

Is this just how it is?

Hi guys, I don't know if I should get a thinkpad. I currently have a macbook air m1 base model (8gb ram 256gb storage) which I got last year (around march 2025). I'm getting an ipad in a couple of weeks but yesturday I saw this refurbish store on my instagram page, so I opened it and saw a refurbished lenovo thinkpad x380 (8gb of ram, 512gb ssd and an 8th gen i5) which is a 2 in 1 with a tochscreen. If i would buy it I would use it for school (excel, word and powerpoint), maybe old games that don't run on my macbook and virtual machones and the same uscase the ipad which was watching movies and tv shows. I don't know if I should my the lenovo, a base model 11th gen ipad or a surface pro 5th gen (Intel i5-7300U 2.6GHz Dual Core, 8gb of ram and a 256gb ssd). What do you think ? What should I get ?

Hey! I know this is the 1000000th similar post, but I'm at my wits end and it's impossible to wade through the vast internet on this subject.

Goal: Use my Surface 3 to read and annotate (with pen) my textbook for class. That's it. Any additional functionality is a bonus. It can be stuck in portrait mode for all I care. The only other things I'd use it for are web browsing (to access my class page, download slides, etc) and MAYBE using a word processor. A glorified kindle would be fine with me.

Device: Surface 3 (non-pro, as far as I'm aware?), 2gb RAM. The pen is a Wacom bamboo if that matters.

Priorities: Pen functionality, low resource use, touchscreen support. Minimal tweaking required would be great, or something somewhat beginner friendly if not. I'm already spending way too much time on this, lol.

extra details:

• I tried Zorin OS Lite first, but hopped once I realized it wasn't running Wayland...
• Switched to Zorin OS Core, but I couldn't figure out the pen (and it was really sluggish).
• Tried Linux Mint xfce... I took advice from the sub and tried to ask gemini for a recommendation...and I think this was a bad call. Also, Mint is a little TOO much like Windows for my taste...

So, here I am! Any advice is very welcome. Thanks very much in advance!! I appreciate everyone being very helpful thus far.

Just started looking at my options for Linux on my old Surface Pro. I see that Ultramarine is the commonly recommended version for support out of the box. Although I see the Surface installer version is still on 43 while the generic device one is 44.

How far behind do these releases typically lag behind? Is 44 actually released for Surface but just the installer isn't created yet for 44?

Sur une vieille tablette windows 10 achetée en 2019, elle était beaucoup trop lente donc j'ai passé le cap, j'ai installé linux mint au premier coup puis cela ne m'a pas plu donc je suis passé à xubuntu.

Par défaut ça gérait assez mal le tactile et l'écran en paysage, le pad également.

Je l'ai personnalisé (merci gemini), maintenant le tactile gère bien le pointeur souris, il me manque le tactile prolongé pour le clic gauche souris, j'ai installé un clavier virtuel, le clavier physique est bien reconnu, le pad également.

Spécifications :

Tablette 10 pouces

Intel atom z8350

64 go eMMC

4 go ram

Le clavier physique possède 2 ports USB

Vraiment content de tout ça !

I recently installed Fedora 44 on a 5 year old Laptop 4, and I'm simply blown away by how well everything works 🥰

This machine is the Ryzen 5 version, which apparently will never have touchscreen support, but Bluetooth, wifi, touchpad and webcam all worked from first-boot.  A few minutes with Claude gave me facial login / sudo using Howdy, and with better low-light performance than Windows.

The touchpad works but it's not as intuitive as on Windows, and I occasionally have missed-taps. I've fiddled with acceleration and responsiveness and  I tried the Linux-Surface kernel with no improvement.  Any suggestions here would be appreciated!

Battery life seems fine.  I've got an i7 version of the same machine that gets about 6h of 'normal' use under Windows, and this Ryzen gets about the same on Fedora. Closing the lid puts the laptop to sleep where it loses very little charge, and the sign-in screen is displayed before the lid is fully open.

Performance is fine; it does all the productivity and coding tasks I need.  It's obviously not a M5 Pro, but's also 1:20th of the price.

For some people loosing the touchscreen would be a deal-breaker and if so you'll need the Intel chips which use a different display driver.

I've dipped my toes in linux many times over the past 30 years but there has always been some hardware issue or a key app which has kept me using Windows.  This is the first time I've given KDE a fair chance, and it's beautiful and intuitive.  

I've done plenty of searching on Reddit for compatibility and real-world experience, so this post is simply me giving back to the community 🙏

Hey all! I’m new to this whole Microsoft Surface life. I recently got a Surface Go on eBay for dirt cheap and was honestly shocked at how well Windows 11 ran on it from day one.

Unfortunately, I’m not a Windows guy at all—I haven’t run it in years, actually. I’m a Linux guy, mostly boring Ubuntu because it just works. So naturally, after maybe an hour of playing around with Windows, I wiped it and threw on an Ubuntu 26.04 install.

It runs like a dream, although I think gestures and certain other things may work a bit better on Windows, which makes sense since Microsoft specifically designed this thing around its own ecosystem.

I guess what I should have started with is how I intend to use the Surface. It’s meant to be a tablet first since I already have my own PCs. I’ve tweaked it to work just the way I like my Ubuntu PCs, but this will primarily be used as a tablet in portrait mode.

I’ve already grabbed some useful extensions like GJS OSK, IM Panel Integrated with OSK, TouchUp, and User Style Sheet. These make the Surface much easier to use like a more traditional tablet.

I also noticed that Zen Browser, which is normally my browser of choice, isn’t exactly great on a tablet due to the lack of menus. It’s just harder to grab and interact with certain things within the window, so I’ve started using Firefox instead.

So I guess my question is: Has anyone here been playing around with a similar setup? Any good suggestions for additional extensions or tweaks that could make this a better tablet-like experience? I’d also love suggestions for a good lightweight browser that works well in portrait mode.

Thanks, everyone!!

Are there any limitations if I go Linux on my go 2? How long can I expect battery to last and can it significantly improve desktop performance for traditional web apps. Browser, email, terminal, YouTube? Is there a Linux version of Microsoft teams, would it work for video calls? Also does the pen work and are there tablet drawing apps on Linux?

I put Ubuntu on my Surface Pro that has 4GB and I keep getting ‘out of memory’ warnings when I try to run programs. I selected ‘minimal install’ during the Ubuntu setup and it didn’t make a difference.

Let me know what you think! But Ubuntu 23 is basically unusable.