Over the past several days, I have been trying to install Linux on my surface pro 2 because Windows is having issues with hogging memory, which is preventing me from finishing a drawing.
First I tried Linux Mint. After several freezes of the Bluetooth program, I was able to get my 8bitdo controller to connect, however i learned that neither using it as a wireless keyboard nor as dinput works. Mint was not detecting input from either mode, but it could detect xinput. Krita, however did not recognize the inputs because they were not keyboard keys, so i had to install a program to convert xinput signals to key presses.
Additionally, the on-screen keyboard on Mint has two options: always on when enabled, or on when a text box prompts. The former sucks to use because you have to toggle the keyboard in accessibility settings every time you want to turn it off or on, and the latter never detected a single text box in my experience. So the on-screen keyboard simply doesn’t work on Mint.
I tried installing Kubuntu. I installed the Linux surface drivers recommended on r/SurfaceLinux. This resolved an issue where the pen and eraser were seen as the same. My controller also worked Flawlessly in keyboard mode right out of the gate. The Bluetooth program didn’t freeze once. The on-screen keyboard is also acceptable. By all accounts the experience was a significant improvement.
Then I tried calibrating my pen. This did not work. The cursor was consistently 2-3 mm up and to the left of where i was holding my pen. KDE with wayland also does not support non-linear digitizer calibration. This is a problem because the errors in my tablet’s digitizer are non linear. On windows I had created a script to add extra calibration points to rectify this. I can’t do this in KDE with wayland. I could switch to X11, but then all the QoL improvements for touch screen/tablet use would be gone.
So I’ve been fiddling for hours trying to make a script in krita that will allow me to correct my pen inputs with an error matrix. Krita is refusing to even recognize the script is even there. Probably a Krita problem, not Linux, but blegh. I wouldn’t have to do this if the system pen calibration worked.
But of course, my 5 year old experience with how troublesome Linux was is invalid today, and Linux has gotten so much better and Just Works™ now /s
Sounds like it is working pretty well to me.
I understand the frustration, but Linux only works because the community works on it together. You sound like someone who has some technical knowledge, maybe you can help the kubuntu team make the calibration a feature?
“Sounds like it is working pretty well to me” when I spend multiple days trying to get Linux working for one purpose (to draw) and am unsuccessful.
This is why “current year is the year of the Linux desktop” is hilarious to anyone who doesn’t use Linux.
The Microsoft Surface is known to be especially difficult to get working with non-Microsoft software.
The stylus pen for my Thinkpad X1 Yoga gen 4 works perfectly out of the box in PopOS.