Okay, so I’ve been messing around with my old Surface Pro 4, and I thought, why not try to put Linux on it? It’s been gathering dust, and Windows 10 is going to be out of support soon anyway. So I started this little project.
First off, I had to choose a distro. After digging around a bit, it seemed like Fedora, anything Arch-based, or Debian/Ubuntu were the way to go. They apparently work best with the Surface Linux kernel. I ended up going with Ubuntu because I’ve used it before and it’s pretty user-friendly. You know, I just felt more comfortable with it.
The first thing I did was back up everything important. You never know what might go wrong, right? Then I downloaded the Ubuntu ISO and made a bootable USB stick using one of those tools, I think it was called Rufus. Pretty straightforward, honestly.
Next, I had to get into the UEFI settings. That’s the fancy term for the BIOS on these newer devices. To do that, you gotta hold down the volume up button and the power button when you turn it on. I messed up a few times, but eventually I got it.
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Once inside UEFI, I disabled Secure Boot. Linux and Secure Boot don’t always play nice together.
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Then, I changed the boot order so it would boot from the USB first. Gotta tell it where to look, you know?
With that done, I plugged in the USB stick and rebooted. The Ubuntu installer popped up, which was a relief. I followed the steps, and chose to install it alongside Windows. I wanted to keep Windows around just in case things didn’t work out, or if I needed it for something specific. I did shrink the Windows partition to make room for Ubuntu. They gotta share the space on the hard drive.
The installation itself was a breeze. It took a while, but I just let it do its thing. After it finished and I rebooted, I saw the GRUB menu, which lets you choose between Ubuntu and Windows. It was working!
Now, I’m not gonna lie, there were a few hiccups after installation. For example, I had to install this thing called the “linux-surface” kernel to get everything working just right, especially the touchscreen and Wi-Fi. And there was also this little step to import the keys used to sign the packages. I remember I found a guide on some wiki page that walked me through it all. That was actually not that bad.
My Experience So Far
Ubuntu runs pretty well on the Surface Pro 4, much better than I expected, to be honest. It’s snappy, and most things just work. The touchscreen is responsive, Wi-Fi is stable, and it feels like a whole new machine.
It is definitely a fun little project. If you’ve got an old Surface Pro 4 lying around, maybe give it a shot. Just be prepared to do a little bit of troubleshooting, but it is fun, right? It’s worth it in the end, at least for me it was. I’m happy I did it.
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