Alternately, this also lets you plug in a keyboard and do the installation directly on the device.ĭownload the bootloader and extract it to a known directory within Windows. To get around this I booted from an SD card, plugged a USB ethernet adapter in, and I was then able to ssh in. In my case wireless was also not working and I was unable to ssh in to the box. This was especially useful because if you just stick a USB key in the Surface and boot from it, you cannot have a keyboard plugged in. From rEFInd I could boot from difficult ISO images. I installed the rEFInd bootloader to Windows’ existing boot partition, and changed some settings so that instead of running Windows’ regular bootloader at startup, rEFInd would be run. When I did this, I was able to boot any image, from any device. For whatever reason, if you’re having trouble booting an image the normal way, you may want to try installing an alternate bootloader and using it to boot your install media. I was also unable to get the images to boot from an SD card. I ran into an issue where I could not get certain USB key images to boot. You should now be able to stick in a USB drive and boot from it, installing Linux as usual. Open the UEFI menu and select “Configure Alternate System Boot Order”, Drag whichever option you want to boot from to the top. Next you’re going to want to change the boot options to prioritize USB, or whatever media you are booting from. This process is also detailed on the arch wiki and there is a very good resource all about secure boot that goes into detail on the process – Rod Smith’s Controlling Secure Boot. The last option is using your own set of self signed keys. I was unable to boot using this method but the process is detailed on the arch wiki. The archiso has a signed bootloader which is supposed to allow booting with secure boot enabled. In the UEFI menu under security, you’ll find secure boot. If you are fine with that this is the easiest option. Unfortunately, when booting with secure boot disabled, you’ll be faced with a nice big red bar at the top when it gets to the Surface logo. The simplest option at this stage is to boot into the UEFI menu, and disable secure boot. This section will go through the different options with secure boot. Keep holding the volume up button until the surface logo disappears.While still holding the volume up button, turn on the computer.With the computer off hold down the volume up button.To change around the secure boot options, you need to be able to access the UEFI menu. When booting from install media, and eventually when booting your own install, you have to decide if you want to leave secure boot enabled. It takes up unnecessary space, and you’re worried about not having it you can back it up to USB key. While playing with the partitions, you may want to delete the Windows recovery partition. I chose to only partition off a 40GiB chunk.Īfter shrinking the disk you should see an unallocated space showing the size of your new unformatted partition.Īlternatively, if you don’t plan on keeping Windows around, the drive can be wiped later within the Arch install media. Select the main desk and choose to shrink the partition. Open the Control Panel and go to System and Security->Administrative Tools->Computer Management, then click on Storage, and finally Disk Management. If only just for updates, you may want to keep a small Windows partition. Even if you don’t plan on using Windows, currently the only way to get firmware updates is through Microsoft. Otherwise, you can skip to booting to install media. If you plan on keeping Windows around, the C drive must be shrunk to make room for Linux. Booting from SD Card or Difficult Media.Option 3: Use Your Own Self-Signed Keys.There were some difficulties at the beginning of installation, but once I was able to get started, installing Linux on the Surface was as easy as installing it on a regular laptop. One of the first things that I wondered when I got the Surface was: how well will this thing run Linux? I can accept having to use Windows when I’m casually using the machine as a tablet, but when I really want to get work done, I am most comfortable in Linux. Having a tablet for casual use, while still having the capabilities of a powerful computer that you can use with a normal keyboard and mouse is extremely convenient. I recently acquired a Surface Pro 4 and it was instantly obvious what a great machine it is.
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