Can Linux save an old Surface Pro?

[@subinmO]

It should be mandated by international law that if you are a hardware manufacturer (like Microsoft "manufactures" the Surface Pro, etc.) and if you are ending software support for your device (the end of support for a particular version of Windows, and you can't install a newer version due to the lack of support of the newer version of the system for the older hardware), then you are required to make component drivers available to allow use with alternative operating systems that will still support that device. Everyone should take measures to prevent the production of electro-waste, equipment that is still fully operational, but just because it is no longer supported after - for example - 5 years, the manufacturer "forces" the purchase of a new one.

[@dkdkproductions1192]

I've been running Linux on my surface book 1 for a few months. Everything works great except the front camera. Can't complain, even the stylus still works great.

[@thenoplanchannel]

It's a pretty great setup! Which is hilarious given the hardware manufacturer being Microsoft lol

[@CathrineMacNiel]

According to the linux-surface kernel project, the cameras on the SB1 should work now. Do you use that customised kernel?

[@Toto77777]

does the stylus have pressure sensitivity on drawing apps?

[@thenoplanchannel]

@@Toto77777 We actually did not test this, but I don't believe this model had that function new anyway.

[@LeeZhiWei8219]

Just discovered this channel and this is up my alley! Subscribed! Can't wait to see more for from yall.

[@thenoplanchannel]

So glad to hear! Thank you for subscribing!!

[@linux42069]

Working with these older 2 in ones designed for Windows 8 is a blast. i have an Asus 2 in 1 (t100taf) that runs Linux great with 2 gigs of RAM. I know in x11 there were issues with screen rotation that usually meant creating a script using xrandr and remapping the touch for vertical. Then we would map that to a key combo. I'm not sure how this would function with Wayland and gnome though since things operate differently on that side. Thanks to libcamera for getting those cameras working though!

[@thenoplanchannel]

Absolutely! There's great work put in by so many developers to make this work!

[@wrathofsocrus]

I've heard of people getting these off ebay for cheap and loading up Linux. It's a pretty decent deal, especially if you want to use it somewhere that it will get abused and not constantly worry about it.

[@thenoplanchannel]

Absolutely! An idea we thought of too is mounting it to a wall and running power to it and now you have a touch screen terminal type machine. Recipes while cooking, videos while working out, etc

[@o.ruoroch9869]

Nice, I have an old Chuwi Hi10 pro with Windows 10 and I would really like to try to put Linux on it once Windows 10 support ends. Great video, guys!

[@thenoplanchannel]

That would be great! And yes, Win11 is not so good, and in my opinion Windows is trending in the wrong direction overall

[@CathrineMacNiel]

I use a Surface Go 2 with Fedora 39 and its such a great experience.

[@thenoplanchannel]

Gnome does so well on touch displays!

[@Polygarden]

I did the same with my Surface Pro 1 as Windows 8 becomes more and more of a security risk. I was surprised that everything works, even the custom Microsoft keyboard. For me the screen rotation works on Ubuntu though.

[@mateorojas3542]

Wich version of fedora are you guys using? im trying to get this going but the fedora page list a lot of versions, workstation, server, iot, etc..

[@thenoplanchannel]

The latest version of Fedora Workstation, fedoraproject.org/workstation/

[@Spaffel]

I actually got one on ebay for 30€. Nice video exactly what i needed

[@thenoplanchannel]

Awesome! Glad it could help and that's one heck of a deal!

[@Dave_Parrott]

Commenting on my Surface Pro 2. Screen rotation worked out of the box on ZorinOS. Wifi drivers on the other hand... "work"

[@thenoplanchannel]

Thanks for letting us know!

[@brunomaxd4th]

Any suggestions for Linux on a Fujitsu Lifebook T-730? It's a 2 in 1 with a Wacom stylus. Apparently some distributions have an issue with the touchscreen drivers.

[@thenoplanchannel]

I don't have a specific distro recommendation, but if you can get connected to the internet upon install, many distros, especially Ubuntu based, can automatically search for and install additional drivers if you select that option during installation

[@DrMerkwuerdigliebe89]

Would the SP2 work as a light home server replacing a raspi? What would be the idle power consumption?

[@thenoplanchannel]

We did not test idle power consumption, but I would not recommend this as a light home server unless you already have one that is just sitting around or you need the server to be x86. The Raspberry Pi is a far better platform to get a light server going with tons of support and pre-configured OS's built for that use.

[@Noble6L]

I have a Surface Pro2, I use it to watch KZbin videos and movies. It has Win10 installed on it and it does well for such a hardware, but I wanted to try linux, putting Ubuntu and the kernel for the Surface everything worked fine except for one thing, the sound. The sound was very flat and without drivers for the sound card it is not so fun to watch the video, is there any solution for drivers on Linux so that the sound is like on Windows?

[@thenoplanchannel]

We have not looked into this yet, but there is a SurfaceLinux Reddit and a GitHub page that may be helpful!

[@esra_erimez]

I am your 495th subscriber. Please remember me when you have millions of subs.

[@thenoplanchannel]

We absolutely will!

[@theobestenlehner2053]

I just installed Fedora on mine :). Works great except for extremely slow WiFi 🤔. Also note that it has a USB3 port, your stick is probably only 2.0 tho :).

[@Omn1Slash]

great vid! I have an old 2015 Surface Go and that I've been looking to do something with. Please update if you find a way to increase the wifi speeds and the rotation issue. I also remembered having a similar issue when trying Linux a few years back and it was a nightmare getting around Secureboot at first.

[@thenoplanchannel]

Absolutely! Thank you for the comment and so glad you like the video. We will if anything changes. You may be able to try a customized Surface distro as well, but we did not need to

[@linux42069]

Do you know what type of Wi-Fi controller is in your device? I know I've had issues with broadcom and other companies that only provide proprietary drivers. The open source drivers for these are often times reverse engineered and are not able to recognize local limits for power draw. In this case they will only push the lowest available power to the antenna so it will be limited to base speeds for the controller

[@guyburdick9323]

Hi, Have you tried Fedora 39 with GNOME on your 2015 Go? WiFi and screen rotation work very well.

[@thatcfopcuber3810]

I have a thinkpad X1 carbon gen 2 (I believe 2014) with opensuse tumbleweed and it runs beautifully

[@thenoplanchannel]

The X1s are gorgeous machines! How do you like using Tumbleweed? That is one of the few distros I haven't tried.

[@thatcfopcuber3810]

@@thenoplanchannel tumbleweed is one of my favourite distros, the UI is nice and isn’t a copy of windows like some distributions that I have tried, the stability is what made me change from debian though. (along with the fingerprint and WIFI driver working only with tumbleweed)

[@thenoplanchannel]

@thatcfopcuber3810 Interesting! I have had a hard time giving rolling release distros a shot😅 The closest I've gotten is Fedora lol! But, I did use OpenSuse a while back before Tumbleweed or Leap and I liked it a lot. May have to give it another shot

[@ooRay]

I´m just tried to install & run Debian 12 on my Surface Pro 2. Everything went fine until the first restart. Now it won´t boot Debian and will go in the basic UEFI for TPM an secure boot. I´m now trying to fix it with a live USB. Wish me luck! :D

[@thenoplanchannel]

It did take us quite awhile to get ours to boot correctly, getting the right formatted USB and stuff, but the best of luck to you!

[@ooRay]

@@thenoplanchannel Thanks! I will definitely keep trying. Debian/Gnome on the Surface felt so good! :D

[@K6ORJ]

I've been running dual boot W$ 11 and Debian - Trixie, KDE on a SG2-LTE for about a week now. So far pretty good except the LTE modem that dies if it goes to sleep. Something to do with ModemManager crashing in it's sleep, haven't figured out how to get it re-started after this happens. Screen rotation is real good. Cap lock light doesn't work when you first boot. Have to keep W$ 11 on it for work. I just need to put my Debian swirl decal around the Microsoft logo now. LOL

[@thenoplanchannel]

That’s awesome! We’re still working out the bugs on ours, hope you get those issues ironed out!

[@ran4erep]

btw, I'm using Windows 11 on that Surface Pro 2 with ease... I recommend Windows 11 Lite, it's great. Uses only 7 GB (but you can dicrease that number to 3GB with CompactOS, it's optional) of storage and about 1 GB of RAM. And it runs like a beast, really. Also don't use Microsoft drivers for Intel HD graphics, use drivers from Intel's website instead, they are relatively new, last update was in 2022

[@thenoplanchannel]

We'll have to take a look at that! Is Windows 11 Lite similar to Tiny11?

[@ran4erep]

@@thenoplanchannel don't know, haven't used that. But I know for sure it's a Windows that can run any program like any other Windows would, it just don't have bloatware, spying and other Microsoft's favourite stuff

[@Zoolookuk]

How serviceable is the battery in this device?

[@thenoplanchannel]

We have not changed the battery, or needed to honestly, but given the build of it, we would expect it to about like changing it on a modern cell phone. So not impossible, but kinda frustrating

[@CathrineMacNiel]

its glued, check ifixit to see how hard it is to replace the battery.

[@geartvvideos]

What about the on-screen keyboard?

[@thenoplanchannel]

Honestly, we haven't even thought to use it because it's always got the physical one. But good point! We'll have to give it a try

[@K6ORJ]

@@thenoplanchannel The on screen keyboard i'm using in KDE is so - so, can be hit and miss. Need the hardware keyboard if you are dual booting.

[@z7r1k3]

For screen rotation, it may be locked. In the top-right gnome menu, when you've folded the keyboard and waited a sec, you should get the rotation lock option popped up. I have it working on a SP2017, but I used the surface-linux kernel. I'm not sure how much they have and have not merged to upstream linux for the 2017.

[@thenoplanchannel]

Indeed! We didn't see the rotation lock but I appreciate the input! We're continuing to play with it!

[@belkraiDH]

We can't see the screen, adjust your exposure

[@darkiceywolf2953]

So you are saying you choose Fedora because it has a vanilla gnome desktop environment, and you hate Ubuntus because it's already pre customized. If you want a vanilla gnome desktop but still want to be like Ubuntu, debain is also a good choice.

[@thenoplanchannel]

This is true! Either should work fine for most. Given the integrated graphics, there was not really a reason to not use Fedora in our case and take advantage of its more bleeding edge software. But yes, Debian should work well too! Thank you for commenting!

[@brahyamalmonteruiz9984]

Try Linux-surface, that repo is super useful and has a plethora of fixes for surface devices

[@thenoplanchannel]

Thank you!! We will take a look.

[@Walf8888]

For screen rotation install a gnome extension 👍

[@thenoplanchannel]

We will try that!

[@qeqsiquemechanical9041]

nice!

[@thenoplanchannel]

Nice comment!

[@bp220688]

To use screen rotation u have ti load surfache linux kernel

[@thenoplanchannel]

Thank you for the tip! We'll have to give it a shot. All and all, not bad for a default Linux install!

[@unclealig]

hi. thanks for the hint. as a linux newbie, can you please let me know on how to load that. is that something i can install via sudo get apt....? thanks

[@candidob8683]

Zorin OS 17 Core works great on this tablet. I got it to run an on old Surface Pro 2 and worked out of the box nicely. The appearance switcher gives you a few layouts. One being Gnome. But it also offers a Chromebook like layout as well. Zorin OS 17 Core - kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5uWpnxnqb5rmaM

[@thenoplanchannel]

Zorin is a pretty special distro! I've gotten Zorin Pro before and definitely worth it it. I love they're goal as a project!

[@percylpaul]

I put ubuntu on one and the pen work badly.

[@thenoplanchannel]

Oof, sorry to hear! What version Surface was it?

[@percylpaul]

Surface Pro 7 @@thenoplanchannel

[@butterbagboy]

I ran mine with Ubuntu for a while but for me mint was smoother

[@thenoplanchannel]

Interesting! I would not guess Mint would be smoother. Were you using the standard Cinnamon desktop?

[@butterbagboy]

yes, standard cinnamon@@thenoplanchannel

[@slamdozerkachna4584]

NO, it still sux ASS. Just install Windows SuperLite version.