How to run Linux on Surface Book 2

[Blake_MN]

Hello,

 

I use a SB2 as my everyday pc and I'm thinking of dual booting Linux on it. I have never used Linux outside of engineering labs, but I am comfortable with coding. I need to have both windows and Linux installed because I use too many windows based engineering programs on a daily basis. I'm running the 15inch SB2 with an i7 and GTX 1060. I've read about people having problems with the touchscreen, camera, detachable keyboard/dedicated gpu. I'm looking for any guidance/tips in how to get Linux running on it and the best way to have both windows/Linux installed. Could I run Linux from an SD card or external drive?

 

With all the talk about Linux recently, I see the appeal. I am interested in just getting comfortable and messing around with Linux. 

 

Thanks 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, Blake_MN said:

Hello,

 

I use a SB2 as my everyday pc and I'm thinking of dual booting Linux on it. I have never used Linux outside of engineering labs, but I am comfortable with coding. I need to have both windows and Linux installed because I use too many windows based engineering programs on a daily basis. I'm running the 15inch SB2 with an i7 and GTX 1060. I've read about people having problems with the touchscreen, camera, detachable keyboard/dedicated gpu. I'm looking for any guidance/tips in how to get Linux running on it and the best way to have both windows/Linux installed. Could I run Linux from an SD card or external drive?

 

With all the talk about Linux recently, I see the appeal. I am interested in just getting comfortable and messing around with Linux. 

 

Thanks 

If you just want to mess around and try things, could always just run a linux VM to get your toes wet and have some fun. 
 

Running off anything except a SATA or nvme SSD is not going to be very fun. SD cards and such have been slow speeds compared to SATA, specifically extremely low IOPS. I’d either dual boot or run a VM.

[RONOTHAN##]

5 minutes ago, Blake_MN said:

I've read about people having problems with the touchscreen, camera, detachable keyboard/dedicated gpu.

The touchscreen is a Linux problem. There aren't a ton of desktop environments or window managers that support it, but all of the big ones (that I know of) do support it. If you're gonna run it with a touchscreen, the DE I usually recommend it Gnome. It's not the lightest weight one out there, but it looks nice IMO and have some of the best touch gestures on Linux. 

 

The camera is just because Microsoft didn't release camera drivers. 

 

The GPU issues are because Nvidia GPUs and Linux don't like each other. Nvidia's drivers on Linux are pretty bad. 

 

11 minutes ago, Blake_MN said:

Could I run Linux from an SD card or external drive?

Yeah, you could, though depending on the drive the experience might not be the best. 

 

13 minutes ago, Blake_MN said:

I'm looking for any guidance/tips in how to get Linux running on it and the best way to have both windows/Linux installed.

For basically any "noob-friendly" distro, you'll get an option to enable dual booting with Windows. Do keep in mind that you'll want to do backups fairly frequently, Windows and Linux will occasionally fight for who gets the bootloader, so one of them will break on occasion. If you have the option to use two different SSDs for it, one for each OS, that would be ideal. 

[samri93]

Hi there,

 

If you wish to use linux on SB2 on full OS, you might wanted to check on this github,

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup

 

This also helps you to identify which hardware is usable for each surface:

https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supported-Devices-and-Features

 

 

 

Cheers

[fUnDaMeNtAl_knobhead]

I may be late but I booted linux mint cinnamon on my Dad's Surface Pro 4  and the touch screen works and the distro is based on ubuntu and the de is based on gnome hope it helps