installing linux on my surface pro 8
from pandorabox@lemmy.world to privacy@lemmy.ml on 18 May 02:57
https://lemmy.world/post/29825870

Hi everyone! I know im not good with technology. I brought a surface pro 8, 3 years ago. I obviously understand that was a mistake and i should have listened to programmer cousin. Its gonna be slighty difficult to install linux on it.

I’ve researched several youtube videos, but i was wondering if anyone had any tips?Obviously the attachable keyboard has to work and i want the touch screen to work. The surface appealed to me when i brought for those features.

With all the privacy concerns of windows, i want to commit to switching my operating system! Thank you everyone for their help with all my privacy questions. Ive been getting into foss and learning kotlin.

#privacy

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CashDragon@realbitcoin.cash on 18 May 03:12 next collapse

Best thing to do is just to try it. Backup up your data and install Linux. Use Linux Mint.

aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 18 May 03:54 next collapse

Use the surface-linux custom kernel github.com/…/Supported-Devices-and-Features#featu…

It seems from the feature matrix that all features are supported except your builtin camera. I personally use this kernel (arch with hyprland) and it works perfectly. The nvidia dgpu is sometimes a pain tho

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 04:07 collapse

Thanks so muchh!

brigade745@lemmy.ml on 18 May 03:55 next collapse

I’ve a Pro 7 with Fedora. Best decision ever. I don’t miss anything from Windows. And better yet, PRIVATE!!!

To get you started, check this: github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 04:07 collapse

Thanks so muchh!

Maiq@lemy.lol on 18 May 04:11 next collapse

So I installed Fedora on my surface. It was a huge pain in the ass. Then I went the with easy arch install of Garuda and everything has been pretty painless. I’m not really suggesting you follow suit as arch distros do require a bit of maintenance others don’t. But you can research garuda and see if it’s a fit for your needs and see if the maintenance is worth it. One benefit of the arch install is almost everything worked right out of the box. Didn’t even need a usb heyboard for installation. Full disk encryption was easy to use because the keyboard just works. That wasn’t the case in fedora, i has installed with full disk encryption and would have to pull out the USB keyboard every boot just to unlock and boot then I could plug the surface keyboard back in to use. Just a heads up if you are wanting to use full disk encryption. You can also set up the encryption to unlock via USB and while not that hard to setup that might be more work than you want to be doing.

Whatever distro you pick you should install the linux-surface kernel and drivers for the stylus. They can be found here, along with specific instructions.

github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 04:16 collapse

Ill check out the arch!! Ive heard ubuntu was easier but if arch is easier ill check it out. Thanks for the info!

Maiq@lemy.lol on 18 May 08:16 collapse

Arch isnt that hard to use, just more maintenance, you have to update often and you can break things easier. It is defiantly harder to install. Thats why I recommend Garuda as it has a nice gui installer. It comes fully riced too. KDE dragonized is what i went with. The non gaming edition.

You will have to maintain your new system with fresh updates very regularly. You will have to get used to going through .pacnew files. Luckily there are easy ways to do this using meld to view pacnew files side by side with their corresponding config file that helps you migrate data easily.

Being an arch based distro your on the bleeding edge of linux and this means sometimes you will get cut! But an update will come along fairly quickly to heal those wounds. For instance the screen rotation broke a few months back. Easy fix in udev config though.

Debian based distros are pretty bullet proof, takes a but more to fuck one up. You’ll have to wait a lot longer for the things arch users get every day.

Personally i don’t find garuda to be that hard to maintain but Im used to arch already so I know what to expect and more of how to fix things. One of the best things about garuda is it uses brtfs by default and sets up snapper for you so when things go wrong you have an easier time fixing things.

You can always try it out and if it’s not for you you can move on to the next distro. And hop until you find what your looking for.

Best of luck!

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 10:31 collapse

Definitely!

I suck at updating things, so definitely not for me. 🤣🤣 i have windows now, as soon as i see an update, i put it off for 2 months. Same with my phone.

I gotta get better at linux!!

dparticiple@sh.itjust.works on 18 May 05:21 next collapse

Definitely doable! I’ve run several Linux distributions on Surface devices. I had good experiences out of the box with Ubuntu and Mint, and not-great experiences with Debian Bookworm (even with the Nvidia driver, it could never seem to work out that the external monitor on my machine was a primary. I did not try the Surface-specific kernel, however. Good luck!

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 10:28 collapse

Thanks❤️ you can do it with mint? Good to know!

sxan@midwest.social on 18 May 12:54 collapse

Your first Linux install? Definitely Mint.

dparticiple@sh.itjust.works on 18 May 21:42 next collapse

I’ve been using Linux since the days of Slackware on floppies, and I still like Mint. It seems to just work – I’m not at all averse to “more hardcore” distributions, but would rather get on with my work. That being said, the Surface kernel is a nice piece of software and worth considering for an optimal experience on Surface.

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 23:17 collapse

Thanks so much! I definitely was look into that!

glitching@lemmy.ml on 18 May 12:02 next collapse

to add to what others already said, the work from linux-surface is being adopted in the mainline, so it is possible that your hardware is already supported in a modern distro, like Fedora. boot it off a live USB image and poke around, you’ll get a better feel for it.

pro tip, at the GRUB menu press ‘e’ to edit the first item and then add rd.live.ram and that should load the image to RAM. you can then remove the USB and it’ll be way faster to navigate and it won’t touch your existing SSD install.

sxan@midwest.social on 18 May 12:53 collapse

Dude. I’ve been using Linux since 1995, and I never knew about rd.live.ram.

I don’t use grub much anymore with UEFI around, but for those bootable USBs that’s gold.

MVP

glitching@lemmy.ml on 18 May 13:38 collapse

that’s for Fedora, for Ubuntu it’s toram I think? or was that for older versions… Esc during boot to verify, if it goes “loading to RAM” then you know it’s working.

sxan@midwest.social on 18 May 15:43 collapse

It’s not a grub function? Bummer. My rescue images are either Arch or Alpine.

Blip6338@lemmy.ca on 18 May 22:41 next collapse

I have a surface 8 pro too and the easiest way to set it up was to use Aurora (or bluefin if you prefer Gnome). All the drivers were preloaded and if you want to use luks with the tpm it is a breeze to setup.

universal-blue.org

You can achieve the same with other distros, I’ve done it with Arch and Nixos too but if you don’t have a solid Linux background I strongly suggest Aurora or Bluefin for an easy and solid installation.

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 18 May 23:17 collapse

Ill check it out!! Thanks so much!

beachsquid@lemm.ee on 19 May 00:00 collapse

Im using my 8 Pro with Ubuntu. Some hickups here and there, the camera does not work, but nothing that has made me want to use Windows again (I have dual boot, but have never used it).

github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface

pandorabox@lemmy.world on 19 May 02:26 collapse

Thanks! i was thinking the same! I just backed up everything om a hard drive and think im gonna be done with windows in general. About to go full linux🤣