Linux on a Microsoft Surface Tablet (GO 2) - Installation and basic setup

In this video, I'll explain how to turn a Microsoft Surface GO 2 into a fully fledged Linux tablet. I'll talk about initial steps, the installation and about how to get a usable virtual keyboard and an optimized Gnome desktop. In addition, you can learn how to install additional drivers for your device (the GO 2 works out of the box, but newer Surface models won't) and how to make the cameras work. !!!Update 2025!!! 1. After working with 3 different GO 2s I highly recommend the m3 version. 2. Things have become easier to have a working gnome desktop since I created the video. Basically, you just need this extension: https://extensions.gnome.org/extensio... 3. If you want to dig deeper into tuning your system, I recommend https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot... Chapters: 0:07: Preview / Intro 1:19: Surface GO 2: specs 2:13: Why did I buy this particular device? 3:34: Requirements 4:23: Choosing a linux distro 6:00: Updating Windows to update the firmware 6:36: Changing the bios settings 7:40: Booting Linux from the USB stick (using Windows) 10:13: Getting a decent virtual keyboard (Improved OSK = gnome extension) 14:14: Gnome tweaks 15:27: Adapting the settings for a low-spec device 19:04: Installing the surface-kernel for better hardware support 21:03: Replacing the snap version of Firefox 24:14: Enabling the cameras Terminal commands (everything following * is a just an explanation): *Improved virtual keyboard, tweaks, dash to dock (dconf-editor is optional) sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions gnome-tweaks dconf-editor *Surface-kernel: https://github.com/linux-surface/linu... sudo apt install extrepo extrepo-data sudo extrepo enable surface-linux && sudo apt update sudo apt install linux-image-surface linux-headers-surface libwacom-surface iptsd *optional, if you want to enable secure boot: sudo apt install linux-surface-secureboot-mok sudo update-grub *Firefox + getting rid of snapd: https://onlinux.systems/guides/202205... *1. Stop the service sudo systemctl disable snapd.service sudo systemctl disable snapd.socket sudo systemctl disable snapd.seeded.service *2. Remove snap apps sudo snap list sudo snap remove firefox sudo snap remove snap-store *3. Remove snapd + cleanup sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd sudo rm -rf /var/cache/snapd/ rm -rf ~/snap *4. Pin the deb-version of firefox *Create a file sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences.d/firefox-no-snap *Write to that file (Ctrl + shift +v) Package: firefox* Pin: release o=Ubuntu* Pin-Priority: -1 *Save the file (Ctrl + o) *Exit (Ctrl + x) *Add the repository for the "regular" Firefox version sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa *Install firefox sudo apt install firefox *Camera support: https://github.com/linux-surface/linu... *Install the dependencies $ sudo apt install \ git build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config libgnutls28-dev openssl \ python3-pip python3-yaml python3-ply python3-jinja2 \ qtbase5-dev libqt5core5a libqt5gui5 libqt5widgets5 qttools5-dev-tools \ libtiff-dev libevent-dev libyaml-dev \ gstreamer1.0-tools libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev *Build libcamera $ git clone https://git.libcamera.org/libcamera/l... $ cd libcamera $ meson build -Dpipelines=uvcvideo,vimc,ipu3 -Dipas=vimc,ipu3 -Dprefix=/usr -Dgstreamer=enabled $ ninja -C build $ sudo ninja -C build install *Groups and permissions $ sudo usermod -aG video $USER $ newgrp video Spanner-PNG: https://www.pngall.com/spanner-png/do...