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[SP11] Support for Surface Pro 11 with Intel #1694
Description
Tested Ubuntu on a Surface Pro 11.
Out of the box with a 6.8.0 kernel I could boot Linux, NVMe, the internal display and the touchscreen worked, for installation I had to use an external keyboard.
Installing the linux-surface kernel added support for external displays and Wifi.
Environment
- Hardware model: Surface Pro for Business 11th Edition with Intel
- Kernel version: 6.12.3-surface-2
- Distribution: Ubuntu (KDE Neon)
What works
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- Performance Modes (I can select Power Save/Balanced/Performance in KDE under Power Profile)
- Buttons (volume buttons)
- Sensors (Lid closed)
- Touchscreen
- Pen
What Doesn't work
- Keyboard
- Touchpad
- Speakers
- Battery Status
- Cameras
What is Untested
- Sensors (ambient light)
- Suspend
Attached diagnostics.tar.gz
It would be great if this could help to get at least the keyboard and touchpad supported. Willing to test any patches :)
Activity
lukas-hetzenecker commentedon Feb 23, 2025
I just compiled a kernel with these changes, and this added support for
Speakers are still not working though
7HE-W0R1D commentedon Feb 27, 2025
Hi! May I ask if your keyboard is the haptic surface flex keyboard or the surface signature keyboard? If it's the flex keyboard, does it still work in Bluetooth after it is disconnected from the device? Thank you!
lukas-hetzenecker commentedon Feb 27, 2025
Hi! I have the flex keyboard - I tried it with these instructions, but could not quite get it to connect. I think it should be possible to get it to work, but for the time being I gave up.
lukas-hetzenecker commentedon Mar 5, 2025
@7HE-W0R1D got the flex keyboard to work following the instructions, not sure anymore what I did differently on my last attempt
7HE-W0R1D commentedon Mar 8, 2025
Thank you for the info! Tho I ended up with a laptop 7 instead of a pro 11 for myself but it's always great to see Linux making progress on these beautiful machines❤️
vixalien commentedon Mar 9, 2025
Hi @7HE-W0R1D. How well does the laptop 7 work for you?
rushlife commentedon Mar 11, 2025
is there any chance for Microsoft SL7 for business (intel) keyboard now working with latest kernel 6.13.6-1 ?
lukas-hetzenecker commentedon Mar 11, 2025
solved with latest release, will open a new issue about speakers not working
unfortunately no idea about SL7, I fear you would have to try it out
qzed commentedon Mar 11, 2025
@rushlife SL7 would need a similar patch. Please open a new issue for that and ideally post the result of our diagnostics script or an acpidump (https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Testers-and-Contributing#support-for-new-devices). With that, creating such a patch should hopefully be easy (at least if it's similar enough to previous models).
rushlife commentedon Mar 12, 2025
It's too late; I returned the laptop to the seller because I was afraid that Linux would never run well on it. :-(
7HE-W0R1D commentedon Mar 14, 2025
I have created a new issue here (#1710) for Intel Surface Laptop 7 :)
rushlife commentedon Mar 14, 2025
You guys are the best, maybe I will buy it back :-)
7HE-W0R1D commentedon Apr 5, 2025
Hey @lukas-hetzenecker , does Bluetooth and touchpad still work on your Pro 11? My Laptop 7 killed its Bluetooth on Linux after a recent firmware update so I wonder if it's the same case for Pro 11. Also, though I know we have different touchpad connections, have you encountered issues where the touchpad can only be used with one finger and every multi-finger gesture failed to work?
Than you!
lukas-hetzenecker commentedon Apr 8, 2025
No issues so far, and seems to be still working, even after Windows did some firmware upgrades
7HE-W0R1D commentedon May 22, 2025
Sorry to bother again @lukas-hetzenecker , but I wonder if you can do the "click and drag" action with two fingers using the flex keyboard. That is, click the touchpad with one finger, and move another finger on the touchpad to drag. For me with the flex keyboard and sp10, the cursor stopped responding once I started moving the second finger.
vixalien commentedon May 29, 2025
Would it be possible to add support for this to the wiki ?
gtxg16 commentedon Sep 26, 2025
@lukas-hetzenecker Speakers still not functional for you?
wytchblade commentedon Feb 25, 2026
Hi @lukas-hetzenecker , could you point me to the ISO that you flashed that worked for your surface Pro11? I have my surface pro in hand but the problem is that I am unable to actually get out of a boot loop. Any advice on this as well? Thank you so much for your time!
Timeo04 commentedon Feb 25, 2026
Hey @wytchblade
for me it worked for example with the Fedora 43 Workstation ISO downloaded from the official website without any modifications.
Which exact model (with which CPU) of the Surface Pro 11 do you have?
And how does the boot loop look like?
wytchblade commentedon Feb 25, 2026
Hey @Timeo04, thank you for getting back to me! I am using the Surface Pro 11/12in. model with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus. The boot loop basically goes like this:
However, I did something new today: I installed an image from a friendly user https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sc_CpqOMTJNljfvRyLG-xdwB0yduje_O
I put this image on a Ventoy-enabled usb-stick and I was actually able to boot in with the image! I see the ubuntu desktop and everything. However, a few issues I ran into were an EXTREMELY dim screen, which was magically fixed on a subsequent boot. Wifi does not work, and battery percentage is not shown. Let me know if you need anything else.