Surface Pro 3 Running Pop!_OS Linux

[@EevnosLinux]

Check here for the installation video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJTFoaVsipxqq5I

[@GauravVermaGoogle]

Can I ask you a quick question? I bought one of these for my Home Assistant Dashboard wall Display. After installing Pop, is it possible 1. To put a screen off timer so the screen sleeps and wakes up on activity on the same browser page that was there earlier? 2. Is it possible to wake up the screen by quickly switching off & on the power (using my external Home Assistant setup of a smart plug triggered by a motion sensor.) If this can do the above two then it will be worth doing this install Hoping you hear from you soon. Cheers

[@tecnocosmia]

Most ppl installing linux on it say the camera wont work, can you shows us how you did? I will love to see that on fedora

[@meathead919]

I had my surface 3 lying around catching dust with Windows 10. I simply stopped using it. Thanks to this guide I put popos on it, installed emacs and made this thing usable again. Thank you!

[@ShadesOfTech]

This Os looks really neat and neat I love it!

[@EevnosLinux]

Yeah man, it’s a pretty great OS.

[@maxg5090]

Would love to see the installation guide! I'm probably getting one soon ...

[@EevnosLinux]

I've had a few people ask for this now so I'm definitely going to put one together. Thanks a lot for the input and comment!

[@rafaelm.5148]

@@EevnosLinux yes me too! thanks!

[@JoseLopez-zx3nt]

@@EevnosLinux thanks! A guide would help a lot

[@EevnosLinux]

Here’s the installation video, if you’re interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJTFoaVsipxqq5I

[@datathunderstorm]

I’ve just succeeded in installing Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS on an old Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Intel Core i3 with a 64 GB SSD and only 4GB RAM. Did this about 3 nights ago and I’m happy to say, so far, everything works. Touchscreen, audio, WI-FI is stable, Bluetooth allowed me to connect my MX Master mouse. The Surface Keyboard works and lights up too. I’m very impressed. I also installed an extra 64GB MicroSD into the Surface 3 Pro slot - that works too. I’m pleasantly surprised! It’s given this old Tablet a new lease of life - this is the first time I’m using this particular Linux Distro - I’ve used Ubuntu and Linux Mint on other PCs / Laptops, but I’m very impressed with getting Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS to work on a relatively ancient Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with the aforementioned minimal specifications. The only problem I had with installing from a USB Stick, was having to disable both Secure Boot and TPMS - it wouldn’t install with the latter enabled. I wiped the device clean and did a full install - with no recovery back to Window 8.1 - happy to see the back of that. I am absolutely elated with this new to me Linux OS - very impressed indeed….!!! I personally get a kick out of reviving old devices and giving them a new lease of life.

[@drkrishnakittu]

Video really inspired me to install pop os on my old pro ,thanks a ton

[@SunCrushr]

Your content is really good. I hope you get more subs.

[@EevnosLinux]

Thanks so much, I appreciate that!

[@whatever63644]

It's so good to see the linux kernel work with pretty much every device including the surface pro 😄 What are your thoughts on linux running on a surface pro 4? Great video btw.

[@lukehorton4373]

very interested in an installation tutorial! thinking about doing it myself, not an experienced linux user. great video! thank you!

[@EevnosLinux]

Thanks, i've had a lot of people ask for the install video on these machines, so think I'm going to put one together.

[@pranze3484]

Installed it on my surface go 2 (m3 8g ram) and man it breathed a new life to it, was struggling so much on win 10 perf, ram and battery wise. Just a few adaptations to reduce power consumption, enable hibernate on disk, disable visual effects etc and good to go! Can always switch to i3wm when on battery to just to watch movies or such, 7hours battery easy instead of 4-5 with windows.

[@EevnosLinux]

That's awesome! Did you have any issues installing it on a Surface Go? I haven't tried that yet.

[@EevnosLinux]

If your looking for a tablet form Linux computer, this one is a pretty good option!

[@timorouw5555]

Im totally going to do this. Thanks for the video! (I subbed ofcourse)

[@EevnosLinux]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching, commenting and subbing!

[@gghowson7613]

Thank you for the video.

[@EevnosLinux]

You’re welcome, thank you for watching!

[@ToastedSynapseGaming]

Do you think Zorin OS could work just as good? - Both based on Ubuntu, both for beginners - It also has the "Android like" app display desktop - Lower system requirements (especially for the Lite edition, but that doesn't have the app desktop) - Amazing Driver compatibility (so they say) Things I would be interested in working when using my tablet (as I'm sure many other people also): - Obviously the touchscreen just like in Win10 for clicking around and doing stuff - Quick access to pop-out the on screen keyboard - Maybe auto-flip landscape/portrait or quick access to a manual flip - Screen brightness settings (night-mode as a bonus) - Simple gestures like hold click for right click menu, pinch to zoom, scrolling through web pages (and maybe others).

[@liliasara4489]

Thanks.. Did youtoub work in this os

[@cutflow2]

Did you a tutorial on how to install Linux on the surface pro

[@KaziUpal]

Thanks man

[@EevnosLinux]

You're welcome, thanks for watching. Also I noticed you subscribed so thanks so much for that as well!

[@gilgarma5678]

If you can do a vídeo over this subject I will be very happy and maybe I think more serious about to buy a second hand surface pro 3. Can you from the beginning, how to boot up with a different OS POP OS or other Linux OS,, thanks a lot for the effort to make Linux more understanding for a lot of people who have a old age but want to learn a little bit more. Greetings from the Netherlands

[@justy085]

Awesome 🤩

[@razvanneacsu525]

If you're in the US, Swappa is the best place to buy used surfaces

[@userjff182]

Guidance, tutorial on installing Linux to Surface Go please?

[@EevnosLinux]

If I can get my hands on a Surface Go I'll definitely give it a try!

[@userjff182]

Thanks. I wonder if it is possible booting an Operating System such as Linux or Windows from USB-C or from MicroSD slot? @Eevnos Linux

[@denniscrunkilton324]

@@userjff182 yes I have a "cracked screen" device that will not boot from the internal hard drive. So, I installed (Debian 11) to 16G micro SD card in the slot on the back of the Surface Pro 3. This also work from the usb port. The only problem I have had is install to 128G usb drive failed to boot. The installation process proceed normally. However, would not boot from 128G usb stick.

[@_YB_]

Nice video! How about Fan pining/noise and heat ?

[@EevnosLinux]

Younes B. I know some people have had problems, but for me it’s been solid. To be honest though, I don’t normally do super long sessions on the SP.

[@ernon69]

Damnn, I like compatibility of Windowsa 10 but 4gb of ram for Windows 10 even one that was partially optimised for surface product, it still isn't enough in my opinion so Linux is just an option. Thanks Man for this video !!!!

[@lilithgrace1175]

Thanks so much for your two PopOS-on-SP3 videos, which led to my spending the whole weekend bingeing your content (and subscribing to your channel) as I try to decide whether to install PopOS or CloudReady on my own SP3. || Per my replies to commenters "Andrea BGO" and "Steve Willette" elsewhere in this comment thread, WiFi issues are widespread are a common lament online among folks who've installed PopOS and other Ubuntu-based distros on the SP3. || In both this comment section and the one on your installation video, you mention that you've found a solution to this issue. Would it be possible for you to share your fix when you get the chance? || Thanks in advance! Cheers; be well.

[@camytay]

is there a version of this to compensate for having to keep the screen digitizer off?

[@randomtuber1528]

How's the battery?What's the screen on time?

[@VengenceBro]

Can you please try installing CentOS 7.9 on Surface Go 2 and post a video if network, touch screen, rotation etc. works ?

[@vishwakarma00]

This seems really Interesting, How was the battery performance on POP os with it ?

[@EevnosLinux]

It's actually really good. POP OS has some really good power management capabilities that I wasn't expecting to work on the Surface, but it seems to work pretty well.

[@vishwakarma00]

Eevnos Linux yes they have really done great job with their power management, it’s good to hear that it works awesome on surface as well :)

[@LeonardoGrilo]

Morning, i`ve a problem, sometimes my wifi turn off and only turn on when i reboot my surface, you see this problem before?

[@EevnosLinux]

I know some people have had problems with wifi after the device goes to sleep and I had to do a similar fix a long time ago. I honestly don't really recall what it was but I think it had to do with changing the timeout interval on the Wifi card.

[@LeonardoGrilo]

@@EevnosLinux I think is Solved, i'm use this: 1. As root, create a file named /etc/systemd/system/resume.service with the following contents: [Unit] Description=Local system resume actions After=suspend.target [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/bin/systemctl restart NetworkManager.service [Install] WantedBy=suspend.target Apparently is work fine!!

[@vasimkhan4829]

Can u please review the performance of fyde os on surface pro 3?

[@andreabgo4298]

hi, thanks for your video. I installed POP Os on Surface Pro 3 everithing was smooth, but and I'm having big issue with WiFi. It suddenly drops and after every time I put Surface in sleep mode, the wifi connection disappears. did you have the same problem? any suggestions? I tried to update the wireless card and install the Marvell drivers but they were not found by the system. thanks

[@EevnosLinux]

Andrea BGO I ran into that with Ubuntu.. let me check my notes on how I fixed it..

[@andreabgo4298]

@@EevnosLinux thanks for reply. just let me know if you find something. I found yesterday that it may be some Debian non free code to download.

[@skipw2000]

I had the same issue with both Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and PopOS 20.04. Anyone come up with a WiFi fix? It works for awhile then drops and a reboot is required.

[@lilithgrace1175]

@Andrea BGO and @Steve Willette, it isn't just you: folks all over the internet have reported problems with intermittent WiFi outages after installing PopOS 20.04 on Surface Pro 3, as I discovered when I poked around on the internet today looking for basic data about installing PopOS on my own Surface Pro 3. I also discovered in the aforesaid searches that while the Linux developer community has pinpointed the problem as a power management glitch that shuts down WiFi over time and/or after ‘suspend’ / ‘hibernate’ / ‘sleep’, the available solutions involve asking non-Linux-savvy laypeople to use the Linux Terminal to make code-level changes to PopOS via either: (a) a new, custom 'kernel' designed to play better with Surface hardware; (b) changes to various power management settings files (changes that will be wiped out and reset after every automatic PopOS update if one lacks to skill to encode them as permanent ‘scripts’); or (c) a combination of both. @Andrea BGO and @Steve Willette, if you -- unlike me -- are comfy with code-level work in the Linux Terminal and want to have a go, here are the resources I found, largely through www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/ and www.reddit.com/r/pop_os/ : www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/jupk51/wireless_surface_pro_3_keeps_disappearing/ github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup

[@lilithgrace1175]

Update, @Andrea BGO & @Steve Willette: MC Naveen of "Let's Foss" has written a script that addresses the 'WiFi cuts out after sleep' issue in *Ubuntu*. Since Ubuntu is the base of PopOS, I can't help but wonder if his script might be worth a try for PopOS. Step-by-step instructions and the script itself are here: letsfoss.com/fix-wifi-not-working-after-suspend-in-ubuntu/ . Cheers; good luck.

[@IgorGuarita]

How works the virtual keyboard?

[@abbddos]

Would it work the same with Surface 4?? I had one for years and never really used it.

[@meowtabby5369]

same for me.. i have a surface pro 4, base model, and windows 10 is getting sluggish ;-;

[@unleashthedog]

Impressive everything works out of the box! In this sort of experiments, have you tested connecting a phone to see if you manage pulling content out of it, perform backups? I imagine would be quite easy with Android, but I wonder what's the situation with an iPhone.

[@CoachFranjo]

i have surface laptop and touch input does not work

[@Mike09017]

Does this video hold up after 2 years?

[@galencraig9935]

I have a question about the surface pen with this software: Have you tried using it with GIMP or Inkscape? I have done this exact thing on my personal surface pro and I can't get the pen to really work well so any tips would be appreciated!

[@Beyondesp]

Popos was great in the beginning and still is for the most part. Weirdly after one of the upgrades/updates i want to say that occurred 6 to 9 months ago, my wifi has gotten really bad. I get very minimal speeds on 2.4ghz networks like 3mbs both direction and the 5ghz band has stopped working. Has anyone encountered the same issue ?

[@patrickt4279]

I heard windows 11 is not coming to surface pro 3, This looks like a good upgrade.

[@denniscrunkilton324]

That is correct. Before I installed debian11, windows 10 said the hardware was not compatible with windows 11. So the way forward is Linux

[@spectro237]

Wich Kernel are you using?

[@luismatamartinez2330]

I am a university student and i was wondering if the surface pen does work as well in Linux as it does in Windows. Regarding sensitivity, fluency... I´d like to use this device for note taking (with the surface pen), document editing and studying.

[@EevnosLinux]

As far as I can tell it's pretty much the same. I'm not an artist and don't have a way to measure sensitivity, but for note taking (and things like that) it works great.

[@maigargames]

hi can you do a tutorial please on how to install nvidia latest driver on linux mint or ubuntu it will be really useful for a newbie and i will be really thankful for that.

[@EevnosLinux]

That's a great, suggestion and I could definitely do that. Thanks!

[@vishwakarma00]

I think it is pretty straight forward from hardware configuration to setup those drivers. You can also try POP os for that as they have different iso for nvidia drivers already loaded in OS.

[@professor_ozzy]

Can i install garuda linux (arch base) in a surface pro 7?

[@chrsm]

Is there any way to use an on-screen keyboard? So it's more like a tablet.

[@razvanneacsu525]

normally there should be an on-screen keyboard, and yes, this is intended to be more of a tablet than a laptop. there is a separately-sold type cover that acts as a keyboard

[@larzdguzman]

I have tried installing in MS surface pro 7, camera, touchscreen and pen not working. Any additional drivers?

[@DenzilFerreira]

This is great! I used to have Surface 7 and no camera support... I wonder if that changed...

[@raresmacovei8382]

March 2022, SP7: nothing changed, no camera support on Linux, as of kernel 5.16

[@denniscrunkilton324]

On debian 11, cheese works with both cameras

[@ashishj87]

Any handwriting recognition app in Linux? An alternative for Onenote? I only know Xournal but it does not have handwriting recognition. Also miss being able to enter handwritten text in any text input field throughout the OS like in Windows.

[@EevnosLinux]

That's a great question, I'll have to do some research. I've never tried to find one but now I'm curious. 😉

[@filipelimartins]

did you find out?

[@jamescuenod3093]

How was palm rejection when you were drawing? I'm particularly interested in whether you can use something like okular with the stylus (evince won't do it) to read a pdf and have the kind of interaction where you can use your finger to swipe to a new page but the stylus to draw/highlight without having to change modes.

[@EevnosLinux]

Palm rejection was great when I was using Krita. I honestly don't know if that's a function of the stylus support in the OS or something built into Krita though. You can easily switch between finger swipes and stylus, no configuration change needed or anything.

[@yeshjitesh3738]

Will it also work with surface pro 4??? And will touchscreen and pen work ??

[@EevnosLinux]

I don't know, unfortunately I don't have a SP 4 to test on. The touchscreen works great on the SP3

[@yeshjitesh3738]

Ok sir.. I will try it once.. I hope will work..

[@filipelimartins]

@@yeshjitesh3738 how was your experience?

[@allansh828]

Can you install Linux on Surface Laptop 3? I am dying to know.

[@EevnosLinux]

Not sure.. that’s a little out of my price range to try it. 😉

[@engageintellect]

Yes you can, I have Linux running on my surface book 2. Everything except the camera works.

[@engageintellect]

Google “Jake day surface kernel” he has created a kernel that works with any Ubuntu based distro. SUPER easy to get up and working. I’ve since deleted windows off of my surface book 2

[@gatto.grosso]

I install Ubuntu in the surface laptop 3 model 1867 the only thing that doesn't work it's the touch screen on the Microsoft Surface laptop 3 so if you can help me out then this issue I'll appreciate

[@AlexFoo89]

I have a SP3 and am looking to get a lightweight os for android apps and ebook reading. any recommendation?

[@tjunkie]

Installed version 20.04 on Surface Pro 5 but somehow the touch and pen not working

[@denniscrunkilton324]

"Apt-cache search surface" returned the following on Debian 11 surface-ipts-firmware - Intel Precise Touch and Stylus firmware for Microsoft Surface devices That means that I installed the stylus drivers thus: apt-get install surface-ipts-firmware You need to install the driver by what ever means your OS uses.

[@FuegoConToTv]

👍

[@timorouw5555]

i have a question: does the pen cancel out you handpalm like it would on windows? If it does, that'd be great

Can you connect this surface with linux to a 4k display via type-c that is daisy chained to another 4k? I want to replace my mac and I watched your video like 20 times, really this idea. I wonder if I would be able to use my 2 dell monitors via type-c

[@joaopauloalbq]

No gestures?

[@EevnosLinux]

You mean screen swipe gestures or trackpad?

[@joaopauloalbq]

@@EevnosLinux screen swipe

[@Praxss]

Microsoft should make tablets with arm64 processors. With ability to change os

[@EevnosLinux]

That'd be sweet!

[@miranalmehrab2527]

Can you run elementary OS on it?

[@EevnosLinux]

Miran Al Mehrab I’m sure you can, any distro that uses a recent kernel should run fine. There have been some issues with WiFi in som distros though.

[@Deathsead747]

So this video, combined with the installation video, pushed me to dual boot pop os on my SFP3 but unfortunately, I ran into quite a few issues. I could see that even without kernel compilation, almost all the Surface specific hardware features including touchscreen, windows capacitive button, volume rocker and type cover worked. However, the Surface started heating up abnormally even though less resources were being used compared to Windows 10. Moreover, after resuming from sleep or just after 15 mins of using the device it started lagging pretty significantly. Also, the type cover used to arbitrarily stop functioning, which was fixed by disconnecting and reconnecting it. I really wanted to daily it but the significant lag and heat made it pretty unusable. Can somebody else confirm whether they faced such issues or what can be done to mitigate them.

[@Sin0TeK]

How to fix Wi-Fi issues?

[@MohitSingh-pz2mk]

Just wanted to ask if touch screen works without pen

[@denniscrunkilton324]

yes

[@thebusinessfirm9862]

Hi mate, how does Ubuntu run on the Surface Pro 3?

[@denniscrunkilton324]

Don't know about Ubuntu. However, Debian from which Ubuntu is devied run fine.

[@Jeff-ei4sh]

Hi! how's it going? I have a struggle with the touch screen on surface pro 4 and it doesn't work! Any ideas on how can I active that on pop os?

[@johncalorino675]

In the Surface Pro 4, you should install the Surface-Linux kernel, which enables some features that aren't supported in the official kernel.

[@thousandtopics5568]

Does it work with a Regular Surface 3? I know Intel Atom is not my favorite, but it's the one I can get pretty soon. The Only video I saw (not pro) it was a problem with audio, wifi and touchscreen.

[@microhard4997]

is there a way to run android system on surface pro 3? please help

[@EevnosLinux]

You talking about just running Android apps or running Android OS?

[@microhard4997]

@@EevnosLinux running android OS

[@justmyusername9209]

Pop os just won't install on my surface pro 3. Secure boot disabled. Tried multiple install usbs drives and verified the usb install works fine on another computer (was created using Etcher). But only the first boot screen pops us about installing or trying the live mode and then the screen goes black for awhile then flashes and boots back into Windows? Anyone had this issue and got any suggestions? (Also, I havent had any issues installing multiple other linux distros on the surface using the same usb drives. So it seems to be just an issue with installing Pop OS. Which is strange as OP doesn't have any issues. My surface Pro 3 is the i5 4GB Ram model. EDIT: I figured the only difference between my install and this video was I was using a newer release of Pop OS. So I tried installing pop os 19.10 instead and its installed fine now and have now upgraded from 19.10 to 21.10 from within pop os.

[@AarshParashar]

Try Clear Linux!

[@EevnosLinux]

I haven’t tried that one, I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!

[@peyn8]

got the surface 3 non pro for free, installed ubuntu, but camera is a PITA... anyone had camera working in popOS? for a non pro surface I mean... thnks un advance!

[@dionmaring1901]

Should I try Pop OS on a Surface Pro 3 with 2GB RAM ?

[@johnbob4545]

I'm gonna try since it's the end of the road for these. I didn't even know it only had two until the Win 11 Beta failed.

[@joecool2162]

You should do a piece on the 2011 15inch Macbook Pro and other vintage macbooks. Especially with linux installed. Thanks.

[@EevnosLinux]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@nitinsharmax129]

try running blender 2.8 too next time

[@EevnosLinux]

Will do, thanks for the suggestion!

[@Matt-um5sb]

I installed pop os on a surface pro 3 and the wifi is completely garbage. Worked fine on windows. Has support degraded over the last 9 months, are you lucky, or a liar? There's complaints all over the internet about the specific problems I'm having with wifi, specifically with surface pro 3, specifically with the shitty network adapter drivers that were never made to play nice with linux.

[@DanceWorldWideFreely]

Is there any difference with running it on surface pro 4?

[@EevnosLinux]

Hopefully someone can answer you, but I've never tried as I don't have access to a SP4.

[@cleverhype]

Mark Ruffalo?

[@izerpizer]

The screensaver in the background feel a little distracting.

[@ramakrishnamishra8179]

Uhhh ... it's not pronounced as 'Ganome!.. its nome! The G is silent! Man! And I am an Indian!

[@skipinkoreaable]

You're right in that that's the way that word is usually pronounced. I would also personally pronounce it the way you say. However in the Linux world the acronym GNOME doesn't refer to the little creature that lives in your front yard. Some people pronounce it with a silent "g" but some people are deliberately pronouncing the "g." They feel that the "g" refers to the "g" in GNU (GNU Not Unix) and that they must acknowledge the GNU by explicitly pronouncing the "g". You're not wrong, but this guy is definitely not wrong either.

[@MRunar007]

goodbye windows

[@misterfamilyguy]

Thanks man

[@EevnosLinux]

You're welcome!