The Microsoft Surface Go 1, with its compact size and versatility, used to be an excellent choice for users seeking a portable computing solution. Unfortunately the performance is as is it’s size, limited. My goal is to have a useable tablet sized linux device.

Why NixOS?

NixOS stands out among Linux distributions for its innovative approach to package management and system configuration. Using a declarative configuration language, NixOS enables users to define their system’s state in a reproducible way. This makes it an ideal choice for those who value transparency, consistency, and the ability to roll back changes.

I’m following the steps from linux-surface with NixOS 23.11.

Step 1: Getting NixOS and disabling secure boot

Begin by downloading the NixOS ISO from the official website, and write this to a usb-stick.

Before continuing the installation process, it’s unfortunately required to disable Secure Boot on your system. Secure Boot is a security feature designed to prevent the execution of unsigned or unauthorized code during the boot process. While NixOS is a trusted and reputable operating system, it does not have a signed bootloader that aligns with Secure Boot requirements. Follow the Microsoft documentation to disable SecureBoot.

Step 2: NixOS Installation

Proceed with the installation by booting from the USB drive and follow the standard installation instructions. Establish a connection to your Wi-Fi network and execute the customary installation steps.

Expect a smooth installation process without encountering any issues.

Step 3: Optionally configure NixOS Distributed builds

Given the speed (or lack of) and the need to compile your own kernel for nixos-hardware, it’s best to enable a distributed builder, follow Enabling Distributed Builds on NixOS.

Step 4: Use nixos-hardware for full support

The nixos-hardware project, provides different NixOS profiles to optimize settings for different hardware. It has quite extensive guidance for Surface devices.

Configure nixos-hardware in your flake.nix.

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{
  # Add nixos-hardware to your inputs
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-23.11";
    nixos-hardware.url = "github:NixOS/nixos-hardware/master";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, nixos-hardware, ... }:
  {

    nixosConfigurations = {

      ngo = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
        modules = [
          # Point this to your original configuration.
          ./computers/ngo.nix
          nixos-hardware.nixosModules.microsoft-surface-go
        ];

        # Select the target system here.
        system = "x86_64-linux";
      };
    };
  };
}

The new nixos-hardware config will likely compile a linux kernel, which on the Surface Go 1 is a very slow affair, take a look at step 3 for remote building.

Step 5a: Enable surface-control

Surface Control controls various aspects of Microsoft Surface devices on Linux from the Command-Line.

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config.microsoft-surface.surface-control.enable = true;

# Add surface-control to your user
users.users.nathan.extraGroups = [ "wheel" "docker" "media" "networkmanager" "surface-control" ];

Step 5b: Make the Camera work for Firefox / Edge

For now the camera works with libcamera and Firefox.

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nix-shell -p libcamera -p firefox --command "libcamerify firefox"

TODO: Will update in the near future

I have a general idea, but will need to experiment a bit more with video4l

Step 5c: Configure a different Display Scale

By default Gnome only lists 100% and 200%, to enable more options execute this as your main user once:

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dconf write /org/gnome/mutter/experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"

See details inside the nixpkgs#114514 issue and workaround.

Conclusion

Installing NixOS on my Surface Go 1 revived this little device. The setup is relatively straightforward and quite rewarding. Exploring distributed builds, and nixos-hardware was a nice bonus!