Surface Pro touchscreen doesn’t work on Linux Mint 22.x

Linux Mint
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I installed Linux Mint 22.x and all works great but the touchscreen doesn’t work.

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Welcome to this site, so we can be of more help to you please can you confirm the model of your surface pro, which version of linu mint you chose(i guess cinnamon) and finally did the surface pro work fine before on windows ?

Mint comes in different flavours and just doing a quick google search for similar issues suggest its the screen driver causing the issue. Using the control panel can you check if any drivers are missing or need updating.

A further suggestion without more details is to try the lmde version as the debian uses different configuration for the screen.

Look forward to hearing more about your problem

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Hi, Stan

Welcome! Did you install the necessary file from GitHub. Let me go get my instructions out and I can help you. I installed several on my Surface Pro 7 over a year ago and the only way to get both touchscreen as well as the pen to work is with that download.

I will say this: I went through the steps the first time and it did not work for me. So in my notes, I have the “WRONG Way” and the “RIGHT Way” so if I ever had to do it again, I would know how.

This is gonna be a bit long and since you already have LM installed, you might not need the first part. I was removing W11 and installing Linux:

In order to get into BIOS with new UEFI in W11, you can type in Linux:

sudo systemctl reboot --firmware-setup

To boot from usb:
Power off
Insert USB flash drive
Hold Volume Down rocker while holding power

Install LM, et al method:

Right Way:

09/08/23
Installed Pop OS after it worked so well on my Yoga 6
Went through the right way above and after reboot, had touch screen.
Installed Xournal++ and tested the pen, and it also worked.

To get into BIOS from Pop OS:
reboot and hit escape
select 4th option reboot into firmware settings
You can then click and drag boot option positions

I will say that if you have the 8gb RAM version on your Surface, you will probably do okay with LM. But I had the crappy 4 gb that would not even run W11. So since Pop OS is great for touch screen tablets, I used it for a while. But I have since even put Fedora on it and it works just fine. No lag with either of these distros the way I did with Windows on it.

Hope you get it done.

Sheila Flanagan

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Thanks for any suggestions … I will try them out when I get time after the weekend.

It’s a Surface Pro 4 4gb/128gb model. Running Cinnamon desk top.

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Hi Sheila. Thanks for any suggestions … I will try them out when I get time after the long weekend. I’m in Canada so our national birthday on Monday coming …

FYI. It’s a Surface Pro 4 …. 4gb/128gb model. Running Cinnamon desk top.

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Thanks for the further information

Looks like microsoft have had lots of issues with your surface device and have several help pages around it

One suggestion

When Surface is off, press and hold the volume up button and press the power button until a Microsoft or Surface logo appears onscreen.

Once you are in UEFI, touch your Surface screen and see if it responds normally. Try to navigate in UEFI by tapping various menu items.

If touch doesn’t work on your Surface, your touchscreen most likely experienced a hardware failure. Your next step is to contact the seller or microsoft as no matter what we do it still may not work.

Enjoy your weekend away

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Hi, Paul

He already has Linux Mint Cinnamon installed. He is only needing touch screen to work and that requires the Linux-Surface-kernel on github.

Believe me, I was thrilled after I installed Kubuntu on mine, but could not get it to work and found that they actually wrote a kernel for the Surface.

Let’s hope he gets it working over the weekend. :smile:

Sheila

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Yes I agree with you Sheila about already having the system installed, but we do not know if the touch part worked before or if it is now faulty so back to basics first then move on.

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Thank you again for your interest in this topic … and to Sheila for your extensive suggestions.

For clarity, the touchscreen worked as expected on the installed Windows Vista system prior to installing Linux mint. Unfortunately, the rest of the system worked as expected using Windows Vista: Poorly.

I do have a keyboard and touchscreen accessory that I bought with the Surface Pro 4 and it works fine, so all is not lost. But a bonus if I can get it running …. Stay tuned.

Stan

PS. In my reading prior to posting here, it seemed many Surface users had this problem with Linux and Touch.

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Hi, Stan

Since my tablet is SP7 and yours is SP4, here’s a wiki on that specific device: SP4

There were some issues with iptsd but I did not check if they have been resolved. The wiki article does give things to try as these are related to phantom touch inputs.

Reading all of the items on Github related specifically to the SP4, it appears the linux kernel fixes them, but as I stated earlier, some distros work better with the touchscreen tablet devices over others. Feel free to experiment and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks,
Sheila

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Mobian (Debian’s smartphone and tablet OS), is supported for SP3 but not for SP4 and later models, which suggests that hardware incompatibility may be the problem.

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