Type Cover 3 not working even after kernel patch

[nuclearsandwich]

The patch listed here after being applied to Archlinux kernel version 3.16.

The following comes from dmesg

[  298.210436] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
[  298.384153] usb 1-3: No LPM exit latency info found, disabling LPM.
[  308.384780] hid-multitouch 0003:045E:07DC.0008: usb_submit_urb(ctrl) failed: -1
[  308.384822] hid-multitouch 0003:045E:07DC.0008: timeout initializing reports
[  308.385080] input: Microsoft Surface Type Cover UNKNOWN as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-3/1-3:1.0/0003:045E:07DC.0008/input/input21
[  308.385573] hid-multitouch 0003:045E:07DC.0008: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Microsoft Surface Type Cover] on usb-0000:00:14.0-3/input0

[benasse]

Type Cover is working for me with patch from http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-install-linux-on-surface-pro-3

[nuclearsandwich]

Awesome, I'll check it out this evening. Thanks.

[benasse]

if you don't want to rerompile the kernel, you can install the pakage folowing this link : http://cicogna.fr/share/linux-3.16.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

[Vistaus]

@benasse: Thank you so much for that package! I would love it if there was a way to have the keyboard working but the trackpad disabled though.

[nuclearsandwich]

@Vistaus You should be able to disable the trackpad via XInput at the very least.

[Vistaus]

Nope. xinput recognizes the trackpad as part of the Type Cover 3.

[vistaus@heimenssp3 ~]$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Microsoft Surface Type Cover id=7 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ NTRG0001:01 1B96:1B05 Pen id=8 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ NTRG0001:01 1B96:1B05 id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Arc Touch Mouse SE id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
[vistaus@heimenssp3 ~]$

[Vistaus]

Btw, any chance that someone can build a 3.17 package with this patch? I tried patching it but it didn't really work. I'm not too familiar with patches/kernel compilation either so...

[nuclearsandwich]

Sorry I've been letting this stuff go. I had to revert to Windows to get firmware updates and have been trying to force Windows onto an SD card. If I'm successful in that endeavor I'll document it.

@Vistaus does the touchpad use the synaptic drivers or evdev? If the former, you should be able to disable it in software via synclient.

[Vistaus]

It doesn't use synaptic, synclient doesn't recognize it either.

[benasse]

Someone has worked on the subject since?
Someone managed to make it work with the 3.18 kernel ?

[Vistaus]

Haven't tried the 3.18 kernel yet but the 3.17 kernel (with the Type Cover 3 patch applied, of course) makes the Surface Pro 3 very unstable in my experience. Have tried it a couple of times over the last few weeks. Too unstable. 3.16 from the package you provided earlier in this thread (from that French mirror) is the most stable still.

[benasse]

To get the touchpad working, add the following lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Surface Pro 3 cover"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
        Option "vendor" "045e"
        Option "product" "07dc"
        Option "IgnoreAbsoluteAxes" "True"
EndSection

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2231207&page=2&p=13070900#post13070900

[Vistaus]

@benasse: I know, i have that. But the 3.17 kernel is still unstable with the Type Cover 3 esp. 3.16 is stable.

[gcaillaut]

How can I enable two finger scrolling ? It worked perfectly in the manjaro live CD, but it isn't working after the installation.

I added the following lines in my 50-synaptics.conf

    Option "EmulateWheel" "True"
    Option "EmulateWheelButton" "3"

So I can scroll with my finger when the right button is pressed. But this isn't what I want, I want to scroll with two fingers :(. I saw that the synaptics driver seems to have such an option, but unfortunately I wasn't able to make my touchpad work with this driver, so I'm stuck with evdev.
Someone has a solution ?

[Vistaus]

Stuck with the same problem here. I want to disable the touchpad or enable scrolling but it's not possible. I've tried a lot of things, even direct evdev things, but not working :(

[Vistaus]

I'll try the 3.18 rcX kernel ASAP and see if that makes things better. 3.17 with the known patch was very unstable so I'm still stuck on the patched 3.16 so far. Hopefully 3.18 will be more stable.

[nuclearsandwich]

I've been meaning to test with the current stock kernel but I've misplaced my Type cover. I bought the Surface specifically to bring my own keyboard so it hasn't been a high priority concern for me.

[Vistaus]

Tried with 3.18 rc5 unpatched today. Results in a kernel panic during boot. Will investigate further.

[Vistaus]

Status update: 3.18 rc works now. But the Type Cover 3 doesn't :( Still needs patching. Will do that now and report back.

Edit: it does error out when patching:

vistaus@heimenssp3:/Downloads/linux-3.18-rc5$ patch -p1 --ignore-whitespace -i typecover3.patch
patching file drivers/hid/hid-ids.h
Hunk #1 succeeded at 642 (offset 11 lines).
patching file drivers/hid/hid-core.c
patching file drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-quirks.c
Hunk #1 FAILED at 73.
1 out of 1 hunk FAILED -- saving rejects to file drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-quirks.c.rej
vistaus@heimenssp3:/Downloads/linux-3.18-rc5$

@benasse In case it doesn't work out, I now see that you also have packages for 3.17.2 on your website. Did you also apply the camera patch on those packages?

[Vistaus]

So after patching 3.18 rc5 works good, so far. Need to test more as it wasn't directly unstable with 3.17 at first either. The only downside is that the touchpad stopped working, both in 3.18 and the patched 3.16 for some reason :/ Not that I care though, I wanted it disabled anyway. But the downside is is that my external mouse acts a little flaky with emulating a middle mouse click on my left mouse button. A couple of X restarts seems to have solved that for now, but let's not jinx it lol.

Anyway: at least typing works as good as on 3.16 so you can compile 3.18 rc5 if you want to, you just need to patch it like 3.16 (and 3.17); that patch error can be ignored.

[Vistaus]

Status update: booted this morning (same 3.18 rc5) and now the touchpad is enabled again. And just for the record 'cause I know some of you do care about the touchpad (;-)): it's the same as on 3.16/3.17, no two-finger scrolling and stuff.

[gcaillaut]

I had the same problem yesterday. I tried to build the 3.16.7 kernel with the touch cover and the camera patch. It took one reboot to re enable the touch pad (the keyboard was working). After that, it seems to work like a charm, touch cover and both camera.

It's the first time I build a kernel, so I guess I did some mistakes. Could you explain how do you build and make a package ? I'd like to share m'y little work but I fear I did a bad work :( (e.g. kernel option I should enable or disable)

[Vistaus]

I've created a how-to for patching, compiling and installing the kernel (including Type Cover 3 and Camera patches!): Vistaus#8

[nuclearsandwich]

@Gaah https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_packaging_standards should get you started on the right path to creating packages. A very simple package would be https://github.com/nuclearsandwich/mwifiex-firmware-git

[benasse]

@Vistaus I have upload the pakages with the camera patch now.
For information, I build the kernel using ABS :
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernels/Compilation/Arch_Build_System

[lizalc]

There is support for the Type Cover 3 in the linux-next branch. I haven't tested it yet, but presumably the code there is more complete than the patches floating around (there is code in there that I haven't seen in any of the patches I've seen before).

I'll be testing this out later today and will also try backporting it to 3.17 (and potentially 3.16, but I'm no expert with this).

[Vistaus]

That's great! Is linux-next what will become 3.19? Currently running 3.18 rc5 patched.

[lizalc]

Linux-next is a staging area for the next kernel merge window. So there is a chance that support will be merged into 3.18.

[lizalc]

Here is the patch that went into linux-next: http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg116763.html

I tested it on 3.17.4 and the keyboard works, but the trackpad doesn't. Though I haven't had any success with that at all yet.

[benasse]

I have found this redit : http://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/2w7rvm/touchpad_sp3_on_ubuntu_gnomeunity/ .

[felipeota]

Here's a patch to have multitouch working and two finger scroll. It's for the 4.0 tree.
https://gist.github.com/felipeota/afb5f510f5b315f8bed8
I can backport it to another kernel if you need.

[colorprint]

Many thanks, it works fine on 4.0-rc5!

[colorprint]

It seems right click not works with this patch :(

[felipeota]

Yes, that's one of the main problems, I am looking into that. Meanwhile you can get right click by tapping with two fingers.

[felipeota]

The issue is that the type cover only has one big button. In the previous patch the type cover was in mouse mode, that is one finger and it emulated two buttons by detecting which side was being touched. But in multitouch mode it only sends one button as information, so it is the job of the X11 driver to figure out which is the click. I don't know if there is a synaptics setting for that.

[felipeota]

Well after some digging it turns out that synaptics does support this usage through the clickpad and softbuttons option. Both the click and drag and right click work if you add a file to your Xorg.conf.d option with this:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Default clickpad buttons"
        MatchDriver "synaptics"
        Option "ClickPad" "true"
        Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 82% 0 0 0 0 0"
        Option "SecondarySoftButtonAreas" "58% 0 0 15% 42% 58% 0 15%"
EndSection

Note that this will match any touchpad you plug into your surface, you can make it more specific by matching the manufacturer and device.

[FrauH0lle]

Thank you very, works like a charm!

[colorprint]

Works fine with Option "ClickPad" "true"
Thanks!

[jonasnurjonas]

Hi felipeota,
I use a luks encrypted disc and need to provide a password for decryption right after the kernel has booted. Your multitouch patch disabled the type cover keyboard, so I can not type in a password any more. If I readd the removed "USB_DEVICE_ID_MS_TYPE_COVER_3" lines, the type cover keyboard starts working again, but multitouch does not work.
Can you help?
regards
jonas

[colorprint]

it is strange, patch works fine for me, and keyboard works fine on the grub boot menu, for example...
try to reconnect the keyboard...

[jonasnurjonas]

I'm using ubutnu with kernel 3.19 and the german type cover. Camera, acpi-wakeup & surface-button patched applied. All working. I tried unplugging the keyboard also, but no success.

[lizalc]

You need to add the 'hid_multitouch' module to your initramfs to get the
keyboard working during boot.
On Apr 3, 2015 6:37 AM, "jonasnurjonas" notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm using ubutnu with kernel 3.19 and the german type cover. Camera,
acpi-wakeup & surface-button patched applied. All working. I tried
unplugging the keyboard also, but no success.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#4 (comment)
.

[jonasnurjonas]

Hi shvr,
thanks for the hint, that did the trick! multitouch trackpad and keyboard are now working.

[osamabingates]

Hi jonasnurjonas,
it would be very nice if you could explain how u added hid_multitouch to initramfs....I have been waiting long to be able to use my surface 3 with ubuntu and a working touchpad is very vital for me :-)

[osamabingates]

I tried to add hid_multitouch to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules by:

sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
and then just put hid_multitouch to the bottom of the file and then i updated with

sudo update-initramfs -u
and then rebooted but it did not work...

A sidenote, i have updated my 15.04 to the latest kernel 4 with rc7, so i guess i do not have archlinux but this is the closest i have gotten to an answer to the touchpad problem on surface pro 3...

[jonasnurjonas]

Hi osamabingates,
have you patched your kernel? The update of your initramfs looks ok.

[pRiVi]

I have sometimes a delay, up to 2 minutes, if you remove the typecover and reattach before you can use it again.

I have already Linux 4.0.0.

Can anybody confirm this?

[Vistaus]

@felipeota: I did what you said but the touchpad still isn't working. Running Linux 4.0 (latest available from Arch repos). I want to get it working though 'cause then I can disable tap-to-click (which is annoying the hell out of me right now; the touchpad doesn't work but tap-to-click does).

[ieatborg]

Hello,

I noticed some strange behaviour on keyboard layout and don't know if such a thing is already known.

I recently installed Arch on my Surface Pro 3 and configured it for my Type Cover for german layout.
So on tty(1-6) and in KDE and every Application in KDE it works properly.
But in kdm I got (how many others) the problem that the layout is >> us << .
Yesterday I fumbled a bit on my xorg.conf.d files and landed on a loginscreen with no function on my keyboard and even no function on my mouse. My bad but not the point.
The point is:
I unplugged my mouse and plugged in a USB-Keyboard (german layout).
I didn't unplugged my Type Cover.
Then I tried to type someting and it works (still not the point).
Now the strange thing. I tried the >> ö << key on my USB-Keyboard and woops I got an ö in kdm logginscreen....
So I typed ö on type cover and heres the point.... a nother ö on loginscreen.
WTF!?

So I fixed my files and restarted kdm.service.
In kdm logginscreen I typed ö key on type cover and got semicolon >> ; << us-layout.
Typed ö on (still plugged in) USB-Keyboard and got ö.
Typed ö again on type cover and got ö.

Magic or a bug? Respectively is it related to type cover driver or kdm?

Ps.: Sorry for bad english.

[Edit]
For everyone who might be interested.
I solved the problem with adding
setxkbmap de
to /usr/share/config/kdm/Xsetup
Now I have german layout on my type cover.

[felipeota]

@Vistaus did you patch the kernel and added the xorg conf? Can you give me dmesg.log and xorg.0.log right after boot?

[Mbra771]

Hello,
I'm just trying to bring my work to Surface. Unfortunately, neither suspend works, even multitouch. I use Ubuntu and had compiled a new kernel with the patches.
Cameras, touchpad, WiFi works.
Suspend would be very helpful for me.

Are there any packages with a final kernel for the Surface for Ubuntu with all patches?
Sorry for bad english. Iam from Germany too :-)

Regards, Micha

[nuclearsandwich]

Hi Micha / @Mbra771

Sorry for the delay in response. I don't have any news about Ubuntu on the Surface Pro 3.

Recent Linux kernels (4.0+) have support for most things. I think the camera still requires patches, although I'm not certain, and suspend requires custom ACPI configurations for recognizing the buttons but I think it's at least possible now.

I would suggest trying the latest release of Ubuntu, if you were using an earlier one, and either checking the parent guide to this one https://github.com/rubiojr/surface3-ubuntu-trusty or the Ubuntu forums for more help.

Feel free to keep posting in the hardware specific issues here but remember that this repository is focused on Archlinux-based distros.

[ravedog]

Hey guys,

I have a Surface 3 with Swedish/danish/Norwegian type cover 3 and trusty installed. No matter what i cant get that type cover working. The touch pad has been working since day one but i cant get the keyboard to work. I have vendor id 07e2 when checking with lsusb (removing and plugging in the type cover). I tired kernels already having the patch (3.19 and 4.0) and i tried patching and building myself a 3.16 myself (modified with my vendor id and "out of the box"). Nothing works. Any ideas on how to move forward here? Cheers! -R

[lizalc]

@ravedog, yeah, you need a patch. I have a working one written against the latest -rc kernel (4.1-rc8) that you can find here: https://github.com/shvr/fedora-surface-pro-3-kernel/blob/master/typecover3-multitouch.patch

The patch might need some editing to work on previous kernel versions if you don't want to use the -rc releases but unfortunately I don't have the time to backport it right now.

[ravedog]

@Shvr: Awesome, ill try that right away. Cheers!

[ravedog]

@Shvr Tried but failed. On a 14.04 with all the nessessary packages installed and 4.1-rc8:
$patch -p1 --ignore-whitespace -i typecover3-multitouch.patch
$cp /boot/config-4.0.0-040000-generic .config
$make menuconfig
$make-kpkg clean
$fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-surfacepatchedkernel kernel_image kernel_headers
With output:

...
                INSTALL_PATH=/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8/debian/linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3//boot  install
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8'
scripts/kconfig/conf  --silentoldconfig Kconfig
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8'
sh ./arch/x86/boot/install.sh 4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3 arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
                System.map "/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8/debian/linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3//boot"
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3 /home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8/debian/linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3//boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal: 84: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal: cannot create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d//01autoremove-kernels.dpkg-new: Permission denied
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal exited with return code 2
make[3]: *** [install] Error 1
make[2]: *** [install] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8'
make[1]: *** [debian/stamp/install/linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8'
make: *** [kernel_image] Error 2
test@test-Surface-Pro-3:~/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8$

Any ideas? Cheers!

[lizalc]

I don't really know much about Ubuntu's process for building a custom kernel, but it looks like a permission issue. Note:

run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3 /home/test/Downloads/linux-4.1-rc8/debian/linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3//boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surface-pro-3 /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal: 84: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal: cannot create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d//01autoremove-kernels.dpkg-new: Permission denied run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal exited with return code 2

[ravedog]

Saw the permission errors but It usually fine to compile under normal account , but this time it wasn't. When ran elevated it worked fine, however the deb pkgs had some issues making installation exit on 2.

root@test-Surface-Pro-3:/home/test/Downloads# dpkg -i install linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel_4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb linux-headers-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel_4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
dpkg: error processing archive install (--install):
 cannot access archive: No such file or directory
Selecting previously unselected package linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel.
(Reading database ... 304738 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel_4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb ...
Examining /etc/kernel/preinst.d/
Done.
Unpacking linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel (4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom) ...
Selecting previously unselected package linux-headers-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel.
Preparing to unpack linux-headers-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel_4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking linux-headers-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel (4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom) ...
Setting up linux-image-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel (4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom) ...
Running depmod.
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
Generating grub configuration file ...
Warning: Setting GRUB_TIMEOUT to a non-zero value when GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is set is no longer supported.
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.0.0-040000-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.0.0-040000-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.19.0-21-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-rc6-surface3
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-rc6-surface3
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.11.4-surface3
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.11.4-surface3
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.11-ckt20-surface-pro-3
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.11-ckt20-surface-pro-3
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done
Setting up linux-headers-4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel (4.1.0-rc8-surfacepatchedkernel-10.00.Custom) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 install

Seems like the kernel went in alright although and the issues was just complaining about a directory that wasn't there. Cheers for the patch mate!