this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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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.

======================================================

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?

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[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

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 -nnk will 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.

[–] ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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 -k command. 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.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

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).