Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablet Installation 238 GiB 7.66 memory

[kevin02594]

I hope it's appropriate to post this here. I searched for information on this topic before, and didn't find much. If it's helpful to others looking for information not older than 2024, great.

I purchased a gently used MS Surface Pro3 from Swappa to play around with Linux installation. I received it and installed Mint 21.3 on it. Because I had seen information that a different kernel was needed, I attempted 3 times to install the surface kernel, reading their Git Hub on it several times. Each time failure led to complete Mint 21.3 reinstall.

Finally, I noted a comment on the surface kernel Github that the kernel MAY NOT BE NEEDED at all,yl depending on how the user of a Surface Pro has or lacks certain features.

Ultimately, I have found this: I do not need to install the surface kernel at all. Everything works!

In addition to the regular install, I installed Onboard keyboard. I activated "gestures", and installed "Touche" to supplement gestures and program finger touches for right and left mouse click, then added Touche to the program start up applications list.

For the cameras, I installed "Cheese". Both front and rear cameras work, and photos can be taken. As for quality, I'm not sure how far that will go, but don't intend on using the SP3 to take photos or videos anyway. But I know the cameras work, therefore joining a Zoom meeting shouldn't be a problem.

The bluetooth feature works for the keyboard cover and other accessories. I used it to watch downloaded video on a plane trip, connected to my bluetooth headphones. The SP3 barely fits into the plastic bracket on the back of the seat in front of mine.

I added a 3 port 65w GaN charger with a USB C to USB C cable to a pigtail adapter for the SP3 charge port, and another USB C to USB C for the keyboard cover, and joined them together with heat shrink tube. This elimates the brick that is part of the OEM charger for the SP3.

I do see the settings for a touchscreen stylus in Mint 21.3, but do not have a stylus to test.

All in all, this is an easy one. Everything .works, without Bill G. and his company.



System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-92-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4
tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Microsoft product: Surface Pro 3 v: 1 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Microsoft model: Surface Pro 3 v: 1 serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3.11.2650 date: 04/30/2019
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 39.2 Wh (101.0%) condition: 38.8/42.2 Wh (92.1%) volts: 8.6 min: 7.6
model: SIMPLO X898289 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: N/A cycles: 11
CPU:
Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-4300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Haswell
rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1609 high: 2174 min/max: 800/2900 cores: 1: 798 2: 1536 3: 1928 4: 2174
bogomips: 19953
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Microsoft driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a16
class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Microsoft LifeCam Front type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:2 chip-ID: 045e:07be
class-ID: 0e02
Device-3: Microsoft LifeCam Rear type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:3 chip-ID: 045e:07bf
class-ID: 0e02
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2160x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 571x381mm (22.5x15.0") s-diag: 686mm (27")
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Seiko Epson res: 2160x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 216 size: 254x169mm (10.0x6.7")
diag: 305mm (12") modes: 2160x1440
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Microsoft driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-92-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Marvell 88W8897 [AVASTAR] 802.11ac Wireless vendor: SafeNet driver: mwifiex_pcie
v: 1.0 pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 11ab:2b38 class-ID: 0200
IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Marvell Bluetooth and Wireless LAN Composite Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 1-6:4 chip-ID: 1286:204b class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
sub-v: 7015 hci-v: 4.2 rev: 8300
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 59.55 GiB (25.0%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SK Hynix model: HFS256G3AMNB-2200A size: 238.47 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 8L00 scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 233.18 GiB used: 59.54 GiB (25.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 9 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-6:4 info: Marvell Bluetooth and Wireless LAN Composite Device type: Bluetooth
driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 1286:204b
class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Device-2: 1-7:2 info: Microsoft LifeCam Front type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 3
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 250mA chip-ID: 045e:07be class-ID: 0e02
Device-3: 1-8:3 info: Microsoft LifeCam Rear type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 3
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 250mA chip-ID: 045e:07bf class-ID: 0e02
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 63.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: 2211 apt: 2185 flatpak: 26
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
1: deb http: //repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
Processes: 257 Uptime: 4h 15m wakeups: 2 Memory: 7.66 GiB used: 2.29 GiB (30.0%) Init: systemd
v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.0.4 inxi: 3.3.13

[Hoser Rob]

I found more than one "surface kernel" on github. One is too old for Mint 21 and may well have other problems, these 'custom' kernels usually do. The other is for Fedora, I wouldn't touch that. Which one is it? I don;t think I'd trust any of them anyway really.