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

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.

[–] lsjw96kxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

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.