A wiki article would be great. I'd be happy to contribute my experiences with my Surface Pro 4 if I eventually get round to installing Gentoo on it.
On Sat, 4 Feb 2017 at 22:30 Daniel Frey <[email protected]> wrote: > On 02/01/2017 01:34 PM, Alex Thorne wrote: > > While I haven't tried this I would be very interested to hear how it > > goes, what hardware you can get working etc. Do keep us updated. > > > > An update... > > After a lot of experimenting, rebuilding kernels, figuring out what's > needed and not... this took a few days, I have it working somewhat. > > I am using gentoo-sources-4.9.6-r1 for this test. I did a lot of > experimenting to see what's needed for the tablet only (not the dock, > for example.) I've managed to trim the kernel down a fair bit removing > drivers that are not needed. > > This is what I have working so far without tweaks on plasma and systemd > (only installing userland packages and configuring the kernel. After two > days I found a starter .config with could've made things SO MUCH EASIER. > Oh well.): > > -standard AHCI controller > -Displayport port on tablet > -Sound > -Speakers work fine > -Headphones work (speakers on tablet automute) > -Microphone works (used audacity to record my voice) > -MicroSD slot (I didn't even know it HAD one until I read the specs! > (it's well hidden under the kickstand) > -Power button (pops up plasma's logout/shutdown/restart dialog) > -Windows button on the front of the tablet (opens K menu) > -Volume buttons on the side of the tablet > -Both front and rear webcams (tested using Kamoso) > -USB3 port (a given, really...) > -Wifi (using mwifiex_pcie) > -Bluetooth > -Touch screen > -Finger touch works, no multitouch though > -Pen works on display, and taps will do a left-click > -Buttons on pen do not seem to work. It will pair with Bluetooth > but x11 doesn't seem to register an input device. > -Screen brightness is directly supported (intel_backlight), can change > the display by using /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness or > by using KDE's brightness slider in the Power applet in the tray > -Battery is detected and showing power levels > -Type cover (this worked with no patches in 4.9.6-r1) > -Keyboard section works normally > -Trackpad works, but doesn't seem to recognize multitouch > -Closing the lid appears to put plasma to sleep. Opening the lid wakes > the tablet and asks for password > > Some things to maybe figure out: > > -Type cover touchpad multitouch > -Touch screen multitouch > -Pen bluetooth pairing for the buttons > -Proper HiDPI detection (used /etc/sddm.conf but when using an external > display it was all messed up. However, my monitor is very old and > doesn't support EDID properly which may be the problem.) On occasion, > when the lock screen comes on, it doesn't detect the display correctly > when woken up and scales it incorrectly. > > I must say, out of the box it actually works reasonably well. I skipped > the distcc setup - I knew that the i7 has overheat problems in these > tablets but I have the i5 version and it has been working fine with no > overheating problems. > > I also borrowed a dock from work so I plan to tweak the kernel some more > to see if I can get the USB3 and USB2 ports working, as well as the > displayport and headphone jack. > > Other things of note: I found out through the Mint kernel that it can > register the sensors in the device, under Industrial IO setup. However, > there doesn't seem to be anything in userland that can use this sensor > to automatically rotate the display. > > I have taken tons of notes through this process. Maybe I should start a > wiki article... > > Dan > > >
