Ubuntu
linux package

Surface Pro 4 Touch/Pen requires IPTS

Bug #1652815 reported by Ben
48
This bug affects 8 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hardware: Microsoft Surface Pro 4, 4gb/128gb nvme drive

Expected Behaviour: Pen/Touch function

Actual Behaviour: Pen/Touch do not work or respond to anything

Kernel/Ubuntu Versions: All

Cause: Hardware requires IPTS (Intel Precision Touch & Stylus) to function. This is because touch processing is accelerated by the Intel Skylake GPU.

IPTS driver can be found here: https://github.com/ipts-linux-org/ipts-linux-new/wiki

Kernel compile under Debian with other Surface-specific patches can be found here: https://github.com/jimdigriz/debian-mssp4

On Reddit there are some custom kernels floating around with support patched in: https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/4t64zt/getting_the_sp4_running_with_ubuntu_1604/

UPDATE: The IPTS driver needed some updates for 4.10, allegedly this is a working version: https://github.com/axelrtgs/linux-kernel-ipts-4.10
Discussion here:https://github.com/ipts-linux-org/ipts-linux-new/issues/3
The same person has a linux-firmware-ipts, which (again, allegedly) includes the firmware: https://github.com/axelrtgs/linux-firmware-ipts

See original description
Revision history for this message
Brad Figg (brad-figg) wrote : Missing required logs.

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1652815

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.10 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.10-rc2

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
mellotron (mellotron) wrote :

Tested with 4.10.0-041000rc7-generic on 16.04 LTS - I do not have touchscreen capabilities on my Surface Pro 4.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
tags: added: kernel-bug-exists-upstream
tags: added: kernel-bug-exists-upstream-4.10-rc7
Revision history for this message
mellotron (mellotron) wrote :

Joe, I don't think Ubuntu's ever worked withe SP4; people need to use the special kernel from this PPA for the detachable keyboard to work: https://launchpad.net/~tigerite/+archive/ubuntu/kernel

Revision history for this message
mellotron (mellotron) wrote :

I think a good start here would be to set CONFIG_INTEL_IPTS=m in the kernel config.

Revision history for this message
Ben (ben-mueller1998) wrote :

As of 4.10, keyboard support is in the mainline kernel, though multitouch on the touchpad is not.

However, even though CONFIG_INTEL_IPTS may be there, last I checked IPTS support wasn't actually merged into mainline. Any word on this?

Revision history for this message
Sergio Schvezov (sergiusens) wrote :

I've added to apport data to LP: #1670109

For the record, 4.10 is the first Ubuntu kernel to support the 'Microsoft Surface Type Cover' keyboard and touchpad, but the touchpad support is very basic (no multitouch).

For the touchscreen and pen to work one would need the out of tree patches mentioned in the original report.

Ben (ben-mueller1998)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Chris (turbine1991) wrote :

If anyone's interested in building this kernel without any technical experience, I've added the "Surface Pro 4" build target using the patches provided by axelrtgs to my easy Ubuntu kernel compilation scripts.

Please visit for instructions:
https://github.com/Turbine1991/build_ubuntu_kernel_wastedcores

Revision history for this message
Chris (turbine1991) wrote :

I appears that "axelrtgs/linux-kernel-ipts-4.10" doesn't provide a few of the necessary firmwares.

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