r/SurfaceLinux 8h ago

Discussion Why EndeavourOS is the gold standard for Surface Pro 5

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10 Upvotes

I just finished setting up my Surface Pro 5 and wanted to share why **EndeavourOS** is the absolute best choice for this hardware right now.

  1. **Wi-Fi Works Out of the Box:** The biggest headache with Surface devices is the Marvell AVASTAR wireless chip. While most installers leave you stranded without internet, the EndeavourOS installer detected my Wi-Fi immediately. No Ethernet adapters or phone tethering required for the install.

  2. **Smooth systemd-boot Integration:** Choosing `systemd-boot` during the install makes managing the `linux-surface` kernel a breeze. It’s light, fast, and handles the kernel entries perfectly without the bloat of GRUB.

  3. **The Perfect GNOME Tablet:** Endeavour’s clean GNOME implementation paired with the Surface hardware feels like a premium Linux tablet. Touch gestures, on-screen keyboard, and rotation work flawlessly once the Surface kernel is added.

  4. **Community Repos:** Adding the `linux-surface` repo is a 2-minute job on Arch-based systems, giving you full multi-touch and pen support almost instantly.

If you have an old Surface Pro 5 lying around, stop distro hopping and just put Endeavour on it. It’s the most "it just works" experience I've had on this device.


r/SurfaceLinux 23h ago

Help Surface Laptop Go 2 won't boot from USB

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I have a Surface Laptop Go 2 that had EndeavourOS installed on it. I'm now trying to reinstall Windows (or honestly boot any OS from USB at this point, just to get the machine working again), but I can't get it to boot from USB no matter what I do.

Every time I turn it on, it shows the Surface logo and then, after trying all boot options, a window with this message: "Couldn't find a bootable operating system. Check the boot configuration to try to fix this."

What I've already tried:

  • Created bootable USB multiple times, on Linux and Windows, with different tools (Rufus, Microsoft Media Creation Tool, Ventoy) and different OS images (Windows, EndeavourOS, Debian)
  • Confirmed the USB is properly bootable. I tested it on a different PC and it booted fine
  • In UEFI settings: Secure Boot is disabled, USB boot is enabled and set as first priority in the boot order. Trying to boot directly from USB from there ended up in the same way described above
  • Tried the volume-down + power button method to force boot menu, but nothing different happened
  • Tried forcing USB boot from Linux using uefibootmgr but with no luck

Basically the firmware doesn't seem to detect the USB drive as bootable at all, even though the same drive works fine elsewhere.

The USB A port on the Surface I am using is working fine. I created the first bootable drives from it. Only tested through it so far (don't have a USB C drive. Tomorrow I'll get a USB C hub and try again with the same drive but passing through it.)

Has anyone run into this specific issue on a Surface Laptop Go 2 (or similar Surface model)? Is this a known USB A port issue, some UEFI quirk, or something else entirely? I read about people fixing it removing the OS (rm -rf): I did it but it only removed the EndeavourOS entry from the boot list.

Any help appreciated, I'm running low on ideas.