Four Ways To Get Microsoft Surface Go 2 To Boot Into Linux Installation USB Drive

A follow up to an older video on how one can go about installing Ubuntu on a Microsoft Surface Go 2. Check out that video here:

You can feel free to ask me a question in the comments if you like. If you have specific questions about running linux on Surface devices though, you may be better off asking the r/SurfaceLinux folks on reddit.

SurfaceLinux reddit link:
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Video Index:
0:00 - Introduction
1:15 - How The BIOS Is Setup
1:44 - Method 1 Windows Advanced Start
3:21 - Method 2 Mashing The ESC Key
4:12 - Method 3 Efibootmgr (Recommended For Linux Users)
5:57 - Method 4 Brute Force Method
9:00 - Why Method 4 Seems To Work???
11:26 - Why Method 4 Isn't Ideal...
11:42 - Conclusion
11:59 - Like The Video?

[mnmz]

Thank you, this was very helpful and I was able to successful boot off my USB on the first try! Keep up the great content.

[KlvvJ]

Method 3 helped me!!! thank you soooo much.

[MeisterGambi]

Thank you, method 3 worked for me. Excellent advice!

[yerunski]

I was expecting a hassle trying to install Ubuntu Desktop 22 LTS on it, but it was much easier than I thought. What I did: Turn off Secure boot and enabled USB boot in the BIOS. Booted from a USB drive prepared with Ventoy, containing the .ISO for Ubuntu.
And voila, the installation started. I had no issues removing the existing Windows 10 partitions. Easy peasy!

[seewaage]

Thanks for your help with this! It actually worked. 🙂

[bluboxes]

Method 4 worked beautifully. thank you!

[frederichofer]

Awesome! You helped me a lot with this video! Well done!

[HD-lpku]

Life saver! Appreciate the work you do.

[janmirror]

I have installed chrome os on a surface go 2 and I was unable to boot from usb anymore, than, after many unsucces methods, I found your video and managed to install linux with method nr. 3! Thank you!!!

[PhilipSchweitzer]

Wish I didn't need the brute force method, but at least I found it here

[Subh]

you also need to disable bitlocker encryption, if it is enabled in Window 10.

[olegaliev]

My Surface Go 1st gen can boot from USB with Win 10 installed via Ventoy in USB stick. I heard that it's because of UEFI NTFS support.

[ffffff]

You can insert an usb hub One containing surface2recoveryfiles. and one containing linux then boot into surfacereoveryfiles and in the blue menu select boot from usb and then select the linux one.

[abcdefmo]

Is there any way to comfortable edit ODT files (LibreOffice?) under Linux without mouse and keyboard with the touchscreen only? Any document editor with text selection markers like on mobiles? On Windows only MS Word has this feature

[toddamccoy]

thanks a ton. I acquired a GO1 and it doesn't run windows 11 well and a linux tablet was more appealing anyways.

[gamaltk]

Thank you! That was indeed a pain to do.

[alb]

Interesting video. I am familiar with installing Linux, as dual boot as well. Can this be done on the Surface? I mean, just in case you need to run something that's just available for Microsoft

[xshadow-]

Deleting all Windows partitions with a Windows installer was like my third thought. There must be something on the inside there if Windows is the factory OS that makes booting anything else nearly impossible. So far I'm trying to do it with methods 1 and 2 but it ain't working.

[davidgrim]

I can say not all distros are equal. Could never get Ubuntu to boot with Windows 10 dual boot but both Debian and MX Linux (which I am using now) work great. Did use the Ubuntu usb to format the drive space though.

[toxictrapper]

Hi there! I am currently looking to buy a surface go (1st gen or maybe 2nd gen, have not decided yet) to use for coding (I am starting to learn coding and looking for backend blockchain development) and need to use it when outside the home (i have a pretty decent pc at home) was wondering if using linux would be better for this purpose compared to windows and if so, which one should i install? Thanks a lot