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seanlane / seanlane.github.io

Repository for my personal website, made public in February 2018. Source code can be found on the source branch, master branch is used for hosting the built website.
https://sean.lane.sh
MIT License
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Installing Arch Linux on a Microsoft Surface 3 #6

Open seanlane opened 6 years ago

seanlane commented 6 years ago

Comments for my blog post on running Arch Linux on a Microsoft Surface 3: https://sean.lane.sh/blog/2018/Arch_linux-on_microsoft_surface_3

rbn920 commented 4 years ago

I was wondering how this is working out (or if it is). Are you still on that old kernel?

seanlane commented 4 years ago

It's a little rough, but it's still working. Every once in a while, something becomes unresponsive, and a reboot seems to help. I recently was notified of this comment indicating that kernel 5.1.15 may also work, but I haven't tested it myself:

https://github.com/jakeday/linux-surface/issues/452#issuecomment-576092252

eduncan911 commented 4 years ago

His repo has long been abandoned.

Several people took his patches along with qzen's (the one that continued development on this kernel) and created a new GitHub org/team with several people, in the event someone becomes unavailable to continue.

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

Not only that, but they really went the extra extra mile by:

I'm running 5.6.5 on Pop!_OS (19.10), even though it shipped with 5.3.

I myself have attempted many times to setup something for our kiddos using this old Surface 3 LTE 4GB 128GB (not free, but a $250 closeout) with Linux, often failing at keeping the Wireless working between sleep and wake. Arch, Elementary, Ubuntu, Pop_OS, multiple Android variants, etc.

It wasn't until today when revisiting the linux-surface status that I found that not only have they identified the battery and sound issues (requires a BIOS update, which they have instructions for on that site to do - from within Linux and no Windows!), but also includes the latest kernel for the Battery fix as well!

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Surface-3

It was as simple as throwing Pop!_OS on it, logging in, adding the package repo and adding the linux-kernel package. Then updating and rebooting.

I am having a few issues though...

All that may be related to the latest 5.6.5 kernel version I'm running for what was designed (and quirked around) of 5.3 kernel.

Anyhoot, it's very usable now.

So a few questions on touch: what DE are you using with ElementaryOS? Did you stick to Xfce?

If so, how did you setup all of the touch controls on logon screen, screensaver, suspend/sleep, and general usage?

I went with bloated Gnome because it really is very touch friendly out of the box (Firebox needs a little help to enable touch, as it doesn't detect it).

Also, under Gnome we can use 150% scaling which seems to be the sweet spot for my kiddo and me, though 175% seems easier on my eyes. 200% is too large.

Gnome supports scaling of almost everything. However, under Xfce and Arch I found myself spending all nighters tracking down and resolving each app's scaling issues, one by one. I don't have that energy to loose any longer.

Hence, why doing with Pop!_OS. However, gnome is slow as sh*t.

Back when I was running Android variants for x86, that seemed like the best performance on this device. However, they were all outdated (and I didn't know about the linux-surface kernels back then).

seanlane commented 4 years ago

Wow, this is a great update, thanks for posting! I did my original write up about ~18 months before the jakeday repo went dark~ (I realized I did the update with the jakeday kernal just a few days after it ceased to be updated), so I'm out of date as well.

I want to say that the Elementary OS install is using Xfce, since I thought the simpler DE would perform better on the Surface 3. I'm not entirely sure though, it's been a bit. It was fairly plug and play, touch did work roughly out of the box, but we mostly stuck to using the trackpad.

I'm wrapping up a thesis at the moment, but when I have the chance I'll circle back to this and update with my own experiences.

rbn920 commented 4 years ago

Yes, I had noticed that as well. After following a trail of archived github repos, reddit posts, defuncked gitlab pages, etc, I finally found the repo mentioned above. I'm all set up running Fedora and it seems to be working decently.

eduncan911 commented 4 years ago

Yeah, I've been trying to use that newer linux-surface kernel with PoP!_OS 19.04 and 19.10 (Ubuntu under the hood); but after many wipes and bare-bone installs, Gnome just randomly freezes after 30m or more of usage usually via touchscreen.

Finally just installed Ubuntu 20.04, with that latest linux-surface kernel - zero issues and long battery life. I tried the updated 4.19 kernel, but battery wasn't working and pen didn't register property. So just running the latest and the pen and eraser all works.

misterchalm22 commented 4 years ago

Yeah, I've been trying to use that newer linux-surface kernel with PoP!_OS 19.04 and 19.10 (Ubuntu under the hood); but after many wipes and bare-bone installs, Gnome just randomly freezes after 30m or more of usage usually via touchscreen.

Finally just installed Ubuntu 20.04, with that latest linux-surface kernel - zero issues and long battery life. I tried the updated 4.19 kernel, but battery wasn't working and pen didn't register property. So just running the latest and the pen and eraser all works.

As a Ubuntu noob, how would I install 20.04 with that kernel? I assume its not included in the installation package by default...

eduncan911 commented 4 years ago

Yeah, I've been trying to use that newer linux-surface kernel with PoP!_OS 19.04 and 19.10 (Ubuntu under the hood); but after many wipes and bare-bone installs, Gnome just randomly freezes after 30m or more of usage usually via touchscreen. Finally just installed Ubuntu 20.04, with that latest linux-surface kernel - zero issues and long battery life. I tried the updated 4.19 kernel, but battery wasn't working and pen didn't register property. So just running the latest and the pen and eraser all works.

As a Ubuntu noob, how would I install 20.04 with that kernel? I assume its not included in the installation package by default...

First of all, go to the right repo. This is the wrong one and no longer supported. Go here instead:

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

After following their instructions to setup a PPA for your Ubuntu instance (it's all there), then drill down to the Surface 3 specifics for final tweaks.

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Surface-3

misterchalm22 commented 4 years ago

Thanks!! This S3 speed is really getting me down. Hopefully Linux can fox it up so it's usable again.

eduncan911 commented 4 years ago

@misterchalm22 IMO, it wasn't much different in speed. Sure, the UX is snappy (and more so under Windows 10 than Ubuntu 20.04 with hardware acceleration). but when it comes to anything, like opening Blender, or just trying to draw with the stylus in Blender, the S3 is just so painfully slow beyond usability (for 3D modelling).

I basically switched our kid to a Core i7 tablet I had left over, and took the S3 back as my lightweight reading and movie watching device - running Windows 10, as there's just those ever slight quirks still remaining with Linux.

I mean, come on... The Atom quad core processor is actually on par with a mid-level Core M from the mid 2000s! The only thing that Atom has going for it is its much larger cache size, which really shows on the UX menus of Windows 10 of being snappy and responsive (somewhat).