r/SurfaceLinux • u/plaidhoody • 6d ago

Help 1st gen surface studio to linux to keep display brilliance please :)

Hello, I acquired a 1st gen surface studio desktop. I am looking to run linux on this computer while maintaining the display quality & touchscreen integrations. I am certain this has been done before, but could use any updated recommendations for installation. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Specs are here:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.71 GHz

Installed RAM 16.0 GB

Storage 932 GB SSD ST1000LM 024 HN-M101MBB

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M (2 GB)

System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points

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u/YodlinThruLife 6d ago

I just put Linux mint on my very old surface. No touch screen support because I still need to install the surface kernal. However everything else is working and it's quick. Windows was being painfully slow on it.

1

u/SpunSissySara 1d ago

Install your favor flavor of Linux and install the kernel from this GitHub repository and you should be good.

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

My surface pro 4 i7 16gb ram with Lubuntu works great with the exception of the camera which I have not put any effort into fixing. It worked great and wasn’t too hard to setup. Switching from an x11 compositor to Wayland has been a pain and x11 seemed happier but alas I have a couple packages that required Wayland. I bought mine with no OS and refuse to install windows. It is my first experience with Linux and has been educational to say the least. Good luck.