Ubuntu on a Windows Surface Go 3

28 Sep, 2024

A few years back, my partner purchased a lemon via work: the Microsoft Surface Go 3 tablet. The hardware wasn't bad, but Windows 11 ran terribly on it. I recently persuaded her to let me install Ubuntu, and now it sits on the coffee table, within hand reach for the whole family to use as a media player, news reader and web browser.

Windows 11 on a tablet

It doesn't say much for Microsoft's commitment to their own tablet if Windows 11 slows it down so much. (I have vague, unhappy recollections of a Windows Nokia phone back in the day). It surprises me that the Surface Go 3 still sells for such high prices on the second hand market; we found it sluggish and practically unusable with Windows 11.

The tablet has 4GB of RAM and what appears to be a single core processor with 1.10 GHz base speed. There is a version of the tablet with SIM card slot, but that was more expensive. The power supply is a 65W adapter with a unique plug, not USB-C.

Everything in the Windows environment worked, it was all just slow. The stylus pen is a good accessory. When held, it feels like a quality product and enables 'right-click' mouse functions with a dedicated button near your index finger. When you hover the pen over the tablet, a small circle appears showing approximate location of the tip on the screen. I was impressed with this device, but have not been able to get the pen to work in Ubuntu.

I tried installing Windows 10 on the tablet first, and that was a better experience. The Surface had a faster response time, and was less frustrating in use. However, with support for Windows 10 coming to an end October 2025, it seemed logical to try Ubuntu while I was tinkering with the device anyway.

Ubuntu on the Surface Go 3

Ubuntu on Surface Go3

After reading up on other people's experiences installing Ubuntu on Microsoft tablets, I felt it was safe to give it a try. (I was worried about bricking the Surface, which isn't mine.)

Installing Linux desktop on a tablet works in the same way as with a laptop: download the ISO image of the Linux distro of your choice, flash this onto a USB stick, with a programme like Balena Etcher, gnome-disk-utility or the dd application in the Linux command terminal. (See Documentation below).

I used a USB-C to USB-A adapter in order to be able to connect my USB stick to the Surface Go. I used an adapter with several USB inputs in order to be able to connect a mouse an keyboard, as suggested on some of the tutorials, but that proved unnecessary in the end; the touch screen worked from the first installation page onwards.

To reboot to the USB device you have to power off the tablet, and hold down and power at the same time.

My first attempt to install from the Ubuntu USB stick failed. I then learned I had to change some settings in the Surface UEFI menu.

In order to get there, hold power and volume up simultaneously when turning the device on. This may feel unfamiliar to some, as it did for me, but it was easy to do. Under 'Boot Configuration', I moved the option to boot from USB Storage to the top position. In the 'Security' settings I changed Secure Boot from 'Microsoft Only' to 'None'. After successful installation, I had to go back into this menu at set 'Secure Boot' to 'Microsoft & 3rd party CA'.

Other than that small hurdle, installation of Ubuntu worked the same as on a laptop. I was able to use the touch screen right away, and that mostly worked well. More about this in a moment.

Linux-surface on Github

The tutorials I followed recommended an additional step to the installation of Ubuntu on a Microsoft Surface tablet: installing the linux-surface kernel. This is meant to improve touch screen functionality.

The instructions on the Github page are clear. I followed the steps for Debian / Ubuntu, but it didn't work. The tablet became unusable, so I had to start over with a fresh install of Ubuntu. I had already set up the tablet for family use the first time, and I didn't feel inclined to try linux-surface kernel again. The touch screen features in Ubuntu mostly work fine out of the box.

Applications and Firefox

As a family tablet is intended to be picked up by anyone, I turned off the requirement of a password when booting up. I had to dig into the settings to also turn this off when the device goes to sleep, and once that was done, it was ready to be used.

I asked my family members not to create individual user profiles or even log in to personal accounts (email, social media, etc.). It feels nice to have one general use device for the whole family that can be picked up and opened just like a book. This used to be the norm, decades, when families often had just one in the house. How times have changed!

Given this tablet will be used by everyone and should be easy to pick up and use, I aimed for the minimum number of applications, and added bookmarks in Firefox for everything else.

I did download the Calibre reader app and imported our collective e-book libraries. Tablets are great for reading, especially PDF manuals or articles.

Calibre on Surface Go3 Mastering Monero on Calibre on the Surface Go 3

Other than this, I would recommend doing everything else (news, audio and video streaming, Wikipedia and general browsing) in the Firefox browser, again, without logging into a specific account. As someone who has not used tablets much, I am impressed by how good the visuals of web pages look on the screen!

Thankfully, the Surface Go 3 has a normal hardware headphone jack (I curse the loss of that feature in modern hardware), but I also connected our various bluetooth speakers and headphones to it.

Issues

As mentioned above, there were some issues with the touchscreen:

Ubuntu's own software windows, such as the App Center, extend beyond the size of the Surface screen when opened. Additional to that, finger touch up or down scrolling does not work in these menus (while it works perfectly in Firefox), nor does two finger pinching or stretching to zoom in and out. Annoyingly, you have to locate the vertical scrolling bar on the right edge of the app window, and it only scrolls down
Typing on the virtual keyboard works fine, but not always. When try do do a search within sites like YouTube, I get a different virtual keyboard, one that doesn't have a well-functioning back button for deleting typos. I had similar problems when entering the system password in Ubuntu's own menu
This broken in-system keyboard also does not provide haptic feedback, which makes typing passwords a guessing game, especially when there is no visual feedback for entered characters
Similar sizing issues occur when I try accessing a book in my Calibre library, which opens Ubuntu's E-book Viewer app. However, after a little bit of fiddling with size and orientation, you can open recently viewed books directly from the E-Book Viewer, and that works much better.
I have not been able to get Microsoft's stylus pen to work in Ubuntu

Perhaps some, or even all of the above can be resolved with the linux-surface addition, but I was not able to install that successfully.

Using the browser version of applications with Firefox solves most of these issues, however.

Conclusions

Installing Ubuntu on a Microsoft Surface Go 3 tablet improves its speed and usability significantly. If everyone in the family agrees not to sign in to personal accounts, the Ubuntu tablet can function as an easy-to-grab family media device.

The technical skills required to install Ubuntu on a Microsoft Surface tablet are medium to low.