Notes

[0E800]

Not really an issue. HUGE thank you for your time and effort and documentation.
Just going to use this area for notes.
Your version of Mint rocks on the SP3.
I installed a *ton of distros trying to find one with perfect HDPI to match the SP3 resolution. Solus looked and acted great out the box, but I had issues with getting the bootloader to work and Solus is lacking in many packages.

Your SP3 version of Mint is what I was looking for.
Now I would like to compile the kernel myself.

I am running your build_kernel_4.4.sh script.

I edited the script to download a more recent kernel ; https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/linux_4.4.0.orig.tar.gz

I noticed a few autoconf errors at the begging of the script.
sudo apt-get install autoconf libtool
Fixed those.

Line 13, 14

wget --quiet https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/linux_4.3.0-5.16.tar.gz
tar xf linux_4.3.0-5.16.tar.gz ubuntu-xenial/ubuntu/

^Issue - the directory needs to be created before the archive can be extracted to it.
Also tar needs the -C flag in order to extract to a directory.
Should be corrected to:

mkdir -p ubuntu-xenial/ubuntu
wget --quiet https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/linux_4.3.0-5.16.tar.gz
tar -xf linux_4.3.0-5.16.tar.gz -C ubuntu-xenial/ubuntu/

Questions:

1. Are you able to install Bluez5 to support 'Smart' Bluetooth?

2. How do you fix DPI for the Mints screen-saver lock-screen? I notice its clipped and doesnt look like its supposed to.

[tiggerite]

Thanks for the feedback :) to compile the kernel yourself, I would actually
suggest adding my PPA from
https://launchpad.net/~tigerite/+archive/ubuntu/kernel and

apt-get source linux-surface

There are so many new patches I've added, a few to improve the
experience/power-saving on Surfaces (especially Pro 3) and for better
stability. Plus it's easier to build from there, as you can get the
latest GCC-5 from the same PPA and it's packaged exactly as Ubuntu do (so
that Launchpad can build it).

I'll certainly look into Bluez5, blueman is okay but not that amazing (I
guess it does the job). As for DPI on the lock screen, I honestly don't
know if I can do much about that, but will dig around anyway :) glad you
like the other settings though. I tried to make it as close to the Win8
experience in terms of cursor/icon sizes as possible, because while I
dislike most things on Win8, the UI is good on the Surface (as you'd
expect/hope).

On Thursday, 7 April 2016, 0E800 [email protected] wrote:

Not really an issue. HUGE thank you for your time and effort and
documentation.
Your version of Mint rocks on the SP3.
I installed a *ton of distros trying to find one with perfect HDPI to
match the SP3 resolution. Solus looked and acted great out the box, but I
had issues with getting the bootloader to work and Solus is lacking in many
packages.

Your SP3 version of Mint is what I was looking for.
Now I would like to compile the kernel myself.

I am running your build_kernel_4.4.sh script.

I edited the script to download a more recent kernel ;
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/linux_4.4.0.orig.tar.gz

I noticed a few autoconf errors at the begging of the script.
sudo apt-get install autoconf libtool
Fixed those.

Just going to use this area for notes.

Questions:

1. Are you able to install Bluez5 to support 'Smart' Bluetooth?

2. How do you fix DPI for the Mints screen-saver lock-screen? I notice its
   clipped and doesnt look like its supposed to.

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#3

[0E800]

I got lazy and just decided to apt-get install linux-surface and was blown away.
Nice being able to get that 2-finger dragging to work.

In the event you stop patching kernels in the future, may you please post your most current patches?

Even though the OS works great, the LiveISO I create from the Surface kernel I got from your PPA are not booting from USB. I get Kernel panic and errors.

I would like to try manually patching the kernel by hand.

Btw - do you know how to use the touchscreen to activate clicks?
Example: use finger to click on 'menu' then click on 'settings' shortcut.
Expected result: the control panel window opens
What happens: Mouse cursor follows finger.

update: the pen works, tapping on the icon opens the application.
I would like to use my finger as though it was the pen.

[tiggerite]

Hey,

I'll do my best to publish the patches I'm using into GitHub this weekend.
They're all in the source package for linux-surface though as I say (except
the ones to change the configurations/flavours for -surface-bfs, -testing
and -testing-bfs, but they are trivial and not needed).

I'm surprised you are having problems creating your own LiveISO. Did you
try with JLIVECD? I find that to be the easiest method by far, you really
can't go wrong with it as it prompts you every step. You just have to
remember to press "y" when it prompts you about having changed the kernel,
and type the correct version in ;) I update it myself via the PPA, but
rather than apt-get update and apt-get upgrade I update just the
tigerite-kernel-trusty and tigerite-mint-xorg-update-trusty via:

apt-get update -o
Dir::Etc::sourcelist="sources.list.d/tigerite-kernel-trusty.list" -o
Dir::Etc::sourceparts="-" -o APT::Get::List-Cleanup="0"
apt-get update -o
Dir::Etc::sourcelist="sources.list.d/tigerite-mint-xorg-update-trusty.list"
-o Dir::Etc::sourceparts="-" -o APT::Get::List-Cleanup="0"

.. and then go through by hand doing apt-get install on each package (that
bit's painful). I don't know of a way to apt-get upgrade from just a single
PPA, unfortunately. But using apt-get update and apt-get upgrade should be
fine too, it just might increase the CD size from all the Mint updates.

I don't know of any CLI trick for making the power button act as sleep,
only the "lid" (i.e. type cover). I know though that the S3 state doesn't
exist on at least Surface Pro 3 and above, and Linux doesn't know about
"InstantGo" yet, so real suspend/sleep isn't possible anyway..

Oh and finally, I've looked into Bluez 5. It seems to be quite a pain on
Trusty and breaks lots of things. I'll see what I can do, but not on my
live system ;) so probably I'll go through a few LiveCD images trying to
get it to work :)

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 11:39 PM, 0E800 [email protected] wrote:

I got lazy and just decided to apt-get install linux-surface and was blown
away.
Nice being able to get that 2-finger dragging to work.

In the event you stop patching kernels in the future, may you please post
your most current patches?

Even though the OS works great, the LiveISO I create from the Surface
kernel I got from your PPA are not booting from USB. I get Kernel panic and
errors.

I would like to try manually patching the kernel by hand.

Also, what cli trick to assign a shortcut to the sleep/power button?

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#3 (comment)

[0E800]

Thank you for your prompt response.

I was hoping to try my luck with your patches against a Debian kernel.

I used Systemback (lazy) to create the LiveISO - its worked for me up to the point that I installed the patched surface kernel. I was thinking I could create the ISO with the most current Ubuntu-kernel (4.4.x) and then manually switch to the Surface kernel after the OS is installed.

I am kinda taken back by manually installing packages through chroot and have most likely forgotten the previous tweaks/edits I made in order to make the OS work in the past. This is one of those times I don't feel like getting up out of bed but know that I must. I will learn to use JLIVECD and see if I get better results. Thank you for the tips.

I installed Bluez5 from source, had to install a few lib-devs:

libdbus-1-dev
libudev-dev
libical-dev
apt-get build-dep bluez

before running

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-systemd
make 
sudo make install

It installed fine. However, when I tried to compile the most current version of Blueman (which I believe uses Bluez) it complained that I did not meet the Bluez5 requirements. For whatever reason it didn't find the version 5 I installed. I ended up adding the Blueman PPA and installing from there. Still not able to connect to the MX Master mouse that uses Smart Bluetooth connection. Also unable to correctly pair the Surface pen. Would like to map the purple top button.

I couldn't find a cli trick to map the power button. So I used Cinnamon keyboard shortcut setting to map the key to the shutdown dialog box. Works for me.

Hope you have a pleasant weekend.

[tiggerite]

No problem, with JLIVECD by the way you should be able to use your existing
ISO image as a base, so I don't think you'd need to start from scratch.
However as far as I know LiveCDs can only have the one kernel to boot from,
as it compresses it and adds it to the image somehow? At least I've never
tried to create one with two kernels. Plus GRUB isn't fully installed but
rather pseudo-installed just to boot that kernel?

As for Bluez 5, I'm only going from what this PPA states:
https://launchpad.net/~vidplace7/+archive/ubuntu/bluez5-backports I found
most of the packages it mentions, and backported pulseaudio 6 myself, but
as of yet haven't managed to install the packages to the LiveCD image. I
may need more yet, but here's the PPA if you want to experiment. Be warned
it may hose your installation so proceed with caution!
https://launchpad.net/~tigerite/+archive/ubuntu/bluez5

I've not tried to rebuild blueman against this yet either, naturally, and
it needs gcc-5 installed via the virtual -update-alternatives package from
the kernel PPA. I couldn't get it to build without that (it told me gcc
can't create executables on Launchpad otherwise, which seems bizarre but
there you go). You may have more luck though, and can simply take out the
build-depend from the control file.

Have a good weekend yourself too :)

On Friday, 8 April 2016, 0E800 [email protected] wrote:

Thank you for your prompt response.

I was hoping to try my luck with your patches against a Debian kernel.

I used Systemback (lazy) to create the LiveISO - its worked for me up to
the point that I installed the patched surface kernel. I was thinking I
could create the ISO with the most current Ubuntu-kernel (4.4.x) and then
manually switch to the Surface kernel after the OS is installed.

I am kinda taken back by manually installing packages through chroot and
have most likely forgotten the previous tweaks/edits I made in order to
make the OS work in the past. This is one of those times I don't feel like
getting up out of bed but know that I must. I will learn to use JLIVECD and
see if I get better results. Thank you for the tips.

I installed Bluez5 from source, had to install a few lib-devs:

libdbus-1-dev
libudev-dev
libical-dev
apt-get build-dep bluez

before running

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-systemd
make
sudo make install

It installed fine. However, when I tried to compile the most current
version of Blueman (which I believe uses Bluez) it complained that I did
not meet the Bluez5 requirements. For whatever reason it didn't find the
version 5 I installed. I ended up adding the Blueman PPA and installing
from there. Still not able to connect to the MX Master mouse that uses
Smart Bluetooth connection. Also unable to correctly pair the Surface pen.
Would like to map the purple top button.

I couldn't find a cli trick to map the power button. So I used Cinnamon
keyboard shortcut setting to map the key to the shutdown dialog box. Works
for me.

Hope you have a pleasant weekend.

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#3 (comment)

[0E800]

Adding the PPA and upgrading to bluez5 was a miss.
Review the last post on this thread:
http://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/1281/how-can-i-safely-upgrade-to-bluez-5

I had similar issues. Having to reboot in the middle of upgrade because bluez5 package update hangs.
No error during the upgrade but after a reboot I noticed cinnamon-bluetooth indicator didn't load.
Running Bluetooth Manager failed, couldn't find or enable the bluetooth device.

apt-get remove bluez*
remove the bluez5 ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install bluez bluez-alsa bluez-util bluez-tools blueman
apt-get clean
reboot

Login fails with session errors.

ctrl+alt+f3
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

Looks like things are back to normal :)

I am okay for the moment just using Windows for my 'Smart' bluetooth devices. Was just hoping it would be a little easier to upgrade to bluez5.

Side note:
What temp reading are you getting? I notice on the surface that the temp is 119-125 Celsius using the panel applet temperature gauge. On the Dell laptop using same distro (not using surface kernel) Its a steady 50 degrees Celsius.

I am guessing it has to do with the case design / very little airflow?

Best regards,

[0E800]

I tried following this tutorial to try to lower the cpu temp:
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/04/prevent-your-laptop-from-overheating.html

However, it looks like I need the package linux-tools-4.4.6-1-surface which is not available.
I am able to find linux-tools-4.4.5-3-surface.

Do you think enabling intel-pstate might help?