EDIT 2: I figured it out! The Nvidia driver was indeed installed, but I needed to remove it and instead install the dkms version.
sudo paru -S nvidia-open-dkms
Once that got installed, the surface kernel and headers successfully installed and now when I boot up the system, the linux-surface kernel shows up for me to choose. My touchscreen and pen input are working perfectly now with pressure sensitivity!
EDIT: I wanted to add some additional information regarding some errors that I’ve run into. There’s a point in the Linux on Surface instructions where you need to run:
sudo pacman -S linux-surface linux-surface-headers iptsd
When I do, I get two sets of errors…although the install appears to complete.
Error set 1:
==> ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia'
==> ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia_modeset'
==> ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia_uvm'
==> ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia_drm'
Error set 2:
Error: mkinitcpio failed for kernel 6.15.3-arch-2-surface, skipping.
I’m not sure if either of these directly relate to the touchscreen and pen not working or if this is a completely different set of issues.
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I’m hoping someone on here may have some similar issues trying to get Linux running on Surface devices with the Linux-Surface project. I successfully installed CachyOS and got the wireless adapter working as well.
The touch input nor pen input seem to work at all. The screen successfully detaches and reattaches but the touch and pen input don’t work with either mode.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Just a quick question have you verified they are supported on the support matrix? I know various hardware on the surface-linix kernel has varying degrees of success.
Yeah I did check their compatibility matrix and the SB2 is fully compatible except for the IR in the camera array. The only requirement is that you need to use the Linux-Surface kernel which I did install. I updated my post with some errors I’m running into trying to get troubleshooting done. I don’t know if the errors have anything to do with the touchscreen not working but they are something I guess.
it’ll help a lot if you can describe the troubleshooting steps you’ve already taken so that we don’t end up going over ground you’ve already covered.
in shoes, i would have started with lscpi and/or lshw to know what hardware the kernel is aware of and what software it decided to attached to them.
lspci -nnkwill show you the hardware and the software module it attached it each piece of hardware and from there you can determine whether or not the kernel recognized your touch input or your pen.That’s part of why I’m here. I’ve been following linux on surface’s installation guide and I’ve updated my post with the errors I’m currently running into. I’m not sure if the errors have anything to do with the touchscreen/pen issues though.
I did run the
lspci -nn -kcommand. I can put it in here if you’d like but it’s a long list. I don’t see anything in there specifically talking about the touchscreen or pen however there are a number of Microsoft hub devices. It could be one of those, I just don’t know.did you identify which stanza’s pertained to the touchscreen and the pen? (you’re going to need either google’s or an ai’s help to identify it).
was a module assigned? if so, which one(s) and are they the correct ones. (you’re also going to need google/ai’s help with this too).
CachyOS tend to offer their own modified kernel, for gaming optimization, if I remember well. You may not be running the correct kernel.
When you look at the installation guide of the linux-surface github, there are steps for several distros. Do you plan to use your surface for gaming mainly, hence the reason to install cachy or do you plan to use it for various tasks? It may be easier to make it working on a fedora or, if you really want an arch based distro, on arch.
So I did try to install their linux kernel but I ran into an error regarding mkinitcpio and nvidia. I updated my original post with the errors I’ve run into.
To your second set of questions. It’s a bit multi-layered. I’m wanting to move my main laptop, a Surface Laptop Studio, off of Windows and onto Linux. The linux on surface project also supports the SLS. I game on my SLS as well so a gaming focused distro is where I’m targeting. Additionally, at some point, I’m going to build a full PC with high end gear. From what I’ve heard, Arch is good for high end/bleeding edge kind of hardware. So with all that combined, I figured I should probably start learning Arch’s idiosyncrasies as I’m coming from debian mainly when I do use Linux. I have an old Surface Book 2 and thought it would make a good testbed for this process which is how I ended up using hardware as old as that.
Arch is also harder than other distros to learn, that’s why maybe turning to a more used distros like fedora isn’t a bad idea. Fedora is also good for new hardware with it’s rolling updates and will have many tutorials to help you installing things. The only thing gaming focused distros do is ship you with packages and software meant to help you. So for the tests you could try others distros to see what’s easier for you.
That said, you also said you came from Debian, so you could also install a Debian based distros. With Debian 13 out from not so long, it shouldn’t be a problem to run on your laptops as they are older.
