Surface pro 11 snapdragon x1p

[Raymond-Epitech]

This discussion is for efforts toward providing compatibility with the surface pro 11 x1p.

[jglathe]

Nice. Will post updates here when there's something to test.

[jglathe]

Initial branch for testing, will be put on next image. https://github.com/jglathe/linux_ms_dev_kit/tree/jg/sp11_x1p @dwinham @JeromeDeBretagne

[jglathe]

Well, this could be either short-lived or prescient, we'll see. Apparently there is no x1p42100 based version of the Surface Pro 11, only the newer sp12. Not dropping the branch yet.

[jglathe]

New image is uploading, just tested to boot with Ideapad 5 2in1: resolute-desktop-arm64+x1e-20260214_extended_jg.iso
It contains 26.04 Daily Snapshot 26/02/14, and added boot menu entries. Also for all variants of the sp11, even the hallucinated one.

[Raymond-Epitech]

hwinfo log
Same behaviour on the re-written media.

Also GRUB takes ~5sec to autoselect while it tells that it will autoselect after 30sec, is that normal?

[Raymond-Epitech]

I ended up emptying an external ssd to get a faster media (10Gb/s). After booting from it, I get the exact same behavior so probably not a media issue.
It's an nvme enclosure with the original 256G nvme for my surface inside i replaced the internal one with the one in hwinfo logs parted as shown below:

Left half of it empty for dualboot.

[jglathe]

Hmm okay. I tried to boot the image on the Windows Dev Kit 2023 (SC8280XP) and it reboots after a few seconds. Only earlyboot seems to go... so there may be something amiss, because it gets recognized by stubble, but looks like a critical driver is missing.
We could try an oddball approach: add the dtbs to the plucky (25.04) image and see if it boots.

[Raymond-Epitech]

so i should flash plucky 25.04, add the dtb file for surface pro 11 x1p, add the grub entry and try again? Or is there more involved?

[jglathe]

I would advise against that. We need to keep the integrity of the ISO intact, not as easy to just add a dtb and menu entry. Let me generate one, with the right offsets.

[jglathe]

New image is uploading with the full menu: plucky-desktop-arm64+x1e-20250827_extended_jg_7.iso

[Raymond-Epitech]

Same exact behavior, unable to go past grub. Cannot select desired entry with flex keyboard or external usb keyboard.

[Raymond-Epitech]

Ok, Used ventoy because i was tired of wrighting images all the time, turns out it goes past the point i was stuck on on every boot attempt, I was able to boot resolute and i'm now in the installation ui! I will try it out and keep you updated. Idk why it wouldn't work with normal grub?

[Raymond-Epitech]

... like discussed in this wiki here, but its (a bit) outdated. I want to update audio again, and update the wiki as well.

It seems kinda risky... But I'm down to try it out. considering others did manage to get audio running on surface pro devices, i guess we are not starting from a blank slate.

I will wait for your wise words and not try anything stupid as i can see you recommend taking precautions with this.

[Raymond-Epitech]

Ok, one funny thing... After doing all the things, i don't get a propper battery reading anymore:

Only one cell is recognised. Idk what's up with that :')
On og kernel (from the initial setup), i get both cell, so i might have screwed something up...

[jglathe]

Hmm maybe my tree is missing a patch for this?

[Raymond-Epitech]

The battery problem was because of a typo on my device tree.
I found it when pushing to fork. After git-restoring the file and re-building kernel, etc.., the issue was fixed. Sorry for the confusion 🤦 .

I have a question.
After building the kernel with some patches, and installing subsequent packages, when running non-patched kernels, i still get the surface aggregator patch and my flex keyboard is recognized.
I set the new dtb created with the patched kernel as the one used by flash-kernel. (should be irrelevant as it was not modified to fix aggregator)
The surface aggregator is it's own open-source firmware that is built with the kernel and loaded by it if set as a module. (at least that's what i understand when reading source)

Does that mean that any firmware loaded by any similar kernel can be edited and re-built for any of said kernels or is that a bad idea or abnormal?

Here is my fork with current patches I applied (them being 'hacks' like aggregator sleep recovery and wifi).

---

I managed to fix Bluetooth using this guide! 😄 (according to dwhinham's repo's README)
(For future reference, windows outputs physical addresses with a - as separator. Replace them with : as shown in the guide.)

I would build a script/guide to automatically fix Bluetooth after outputting it in windows but I'm not sure about how useful that is considering it's only a few commands.

[jglathe]

re drivers and firmware: not all. Often the drivers load firmware blobs where the source of the blobs is not public. One exception is audioreach-topology, these files are generated by the definition in the repo.

[Raymond-Epitech]

WIP

Summary of the installation and setup process:

this guide is not complete as it is missing some features (audio, touchscreen, webcam...)

Requirements:

• Installation media
• USB keyboard & mouse, flex keyboard needs further setup (you could manage with only a mouse using virtual keyboard but it is not recommended)
• Free time :)

Preparing Windows:

It is required during this installation process to get files from windows (firmware, network card information). If your windows partition is encrypted with bitlocker, you can either disable it or use an external peripheral to transfer said files to your linux install.

From Windows, open your partition manager and reduce the size of the windows partition in order to create an empty volume (ideally larger than 15Go). This is where we will install ubuntu.

For bluetooth to work on your installation, you will need the physical addresses of your network card. You can output them from windows as described in this guide. You can either write them down or copy them to a file on a shared partition or external media.
Note that windows outputs physical addresses with a - as separator. Replace them with : as shown in the above mentioned guide.

If your device is encrypted (bitlocker), you should copy firmware files to an external media.
Firmware files can be found in the paths below:

• C:\Windows\System32\qcdxkmsuc8380.mbn
• C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\surfacepro_ext_adsp8380.inf_arm64_1067fbcaa7f43f02\adsp_dtbs.elf
• C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\surfacepro_ext_adsp8380.inf_arm64_1067fbcaa7f43f02\qcadsp8380.mbn
• C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\qcsubsys_ext_cdsp8380.inf_arm64_9ed31fd1359980a9\cdsp_dtbs.elf
• C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\qcsubsys_ext_cdsp8380.inf_arm64_9ed31fd1359980a9\qccdsp8380.mbn

Copy these files to a folder on an external media.

Live image:

• Flash the esolute-desktop-arm64+x1e-20260214_extended_jg.iso from this google drive to the installation media.
• Restart your surface and disable secureboot in the efi menu.
• Set the usb media as default boot option in the efi menu.
• Boot the live image from your installation media.

If you encounter issues booting from the installation media, you can try flashing Ventoy to your media and copy the iso to the images partition that is created on it. You can then try booting the live image from it.

Installing Ubuntu:

To install Ubuntu from the live image, you first need to follow the usual interactive installation app that is launched automatically when starting the live image. In there, you can set-up dual boot, partitioning, etc...

When the interactive installation is complete, DO NOT REBOOT, you still have to manualy edit grub boot config to read the proper device tree for the surface pro 11.

to finish (and edit if a new image including patches is released)

[jglathe]

Maybe a link to https://github.com/jglathe/linux_ms_dev_kit/wiki#installing-with-the-newish-resolute-2604-ubuntu-extended-image would be a good completion. Thanks for the writeup!