Surface Laptop 7 (Intel)

Hardware Support
1

I just got an Intel version Surface Laptop 7 and got zorin installed however, the internal keyboard does not work and neither does the camera. I can use an external keyboard and the trackpad works but internal keyboard does not. Im on 18.1 with latest updates. Speakers also dont work

2

You can take a look at this

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I have seen this but it is for the ARM version not intel

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Look here. That is for non-ARM Processors:

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5

Thanks for this, will try and update

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Thank's, so easy, I didn't know that exist :wink:

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7

It cant seem to start iptsd service

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it says iptsd.service does not exist

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there is an explanation here for this service

Important: Support for iptsd only goes back to the latest LTS release at the time of writing (Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04). If you are using an older release, and the above command fails, then please remove iptsd from it. You will still be able to use basic singletouch through the kernel driver, but multitouch and the stylus will not work.

1 Like
10

Ok i skipped it and touchscreen still working but internal keyboard still not working

11

Ok got everything working except camera and audio

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12

look at the end of the page I provide :

  • If you have issues with lower quality audio, you likely need to adjust your PulseAudio config: in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf set speex-float-5.
  • You may want to look at the additional Utilities and Packages.
  • Install libwacom-surface for better stylus and touch support e.g. in GNOME, but note that due to a bug in Ubuntu 26.04 this will actually remove the GNOME desktop environment (gdm3, gnome-shell etc).
  • If using a Surface Book 2:
    • surface-dtx-daemon, allowing you to better control the clipboard detachment system
    • surface-control, allowing control of the dGPU
  • Camera support is still a work in progress. Some devices (specifically Surface Book and Book 2, Pro 4, 5, and 6, as well as the Go and Go 2) require you to build and install libcamera for that to work. See Camera Support for details.
2 Likes
13

Unfortunately, Microsoft and Intel do a lot of (unnecessary) proprietary shenanigans with the Surface range.

I don't know why Zorin have a help page for Surface devices where they mostly repeat the linux-surface project's generic instructions but add in that systemctl command that isn't mentioned on the main project at all, instead of just linking through to the instructions on GitHub.

Extra unfortunate for you, the Surface Laptop 7 is currently listed as unsupported by the main project, though they do point to another project specific to the SL7 which has more details about what works, what doesn't, and what experimental hacks you can try if you dare:

In terms of audio specifically, it's listed as working, though from a quick skim through the issue comments the fix is part of the alsa-ucm-conf package and it's entirely possible that a new enough version of that isn't available on Zorin due to its LTS base.

Cameras are notoriously the least-supported aspect of any Surface device when running linux, though that project does seem to have a few suggested patches you can apply manually but I've never looked into doing that myself and can't offer any advice on it.

Honestly, an LTS distro like Zorin is not the right option for Surface devices and especially not newer models. You would be better with a rolling release distro or at least a mainline point release to have a chance of new enough packages with minimal hackery.

My Surface Go 2, much older than the SL7, works well with Fedora's mainline 7.x kernels now, but I did have to use the linux-surface 6.x kernels initially for keyboard and multi-touch support.

1 Like
14

Thank you for the info, really wanted to stay on Zorin but I guess I might have to change if i cant get camera and audio working.