Fedora on Surfacebook 2?

Ask Fedora
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to install Fedora KDE (newest version) on my Surface Book 2, but I can’t get past the boot screen. I always get a white dot in the top left and a small keyboard icon in the bottom right. I left it running overnight, but nothing changed. Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

:one: My Setup:

  • Device: Surface Book 2 (i5 8th Gen, 8GB RAM, integrated graphics & NVIDIA dGPU)
  • BIOS Settings: :white_check_mark: Secure Boot → Disabled :white_check_mark: TPM → Disabled :white_check_mark: Boot Order → USB Stick first

:two: What I Tried:

  • Created Fedora USB using:
    • :white_check_mark: Fedora Media Writer
    • :white_check_mark: Rufus (GPT / UEFI mode)
  • Booted from USB, but stuck at the white dot (top left) & keyboard icon (bottom right)
  • Tried both “Start Fedora” and “Test this media & start Fedora” → same issue
  • Added “nomodeset” in GRUB boot options → still stuck
  • Created a new USB stick (because the first one became read-only) → still no change
  • Left it running overnight to see if it was just slow → nothing happened

:three: Next Steps?

  • Is there a known issue with SurfaceBook 2 & Fedora KDE?
  • Do I need special drivers for Surface hardware to get past this point?
  • Should I try another distro? :frowning:

I’m a complete Linux beginner, so I’d really appreciate any advice. :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

Hi there!

I know of this project, but not sure if surfaces don’t support booting at all.

you could try to install a universal blue surface ISO on your device. They base directly off Fedoras “Atomic Desktops” and add a lot of hardware customizations and quality-of-life improvements to their systems.

Their KDE variant is called “aurora”:

follow their website, but this would be your download link I assume

When looking for help about these systems, look for atomic-desktops silverblue rpm-ostree

3

EDIT:
ye what worked for me was this: Workaround for installing Linux on Surface Pro where unable to boot (tested on gen7)

Get Ventoy - choose your stick - throw Fedora 41 ISO on it - wait…
Don’t forget to select GRUB2.

The only issue now? I ditched Windows (like my Dad ditched me) and went all in on Fedora. Have something over 200GB storage and only 40GB are free, so I had to make space. Picked my main drive, it started loading… waited till 2 AM, not even halfway done. Woke up today—just a bit over half ._. “The installation is being prepared”

Maybe I should’ve reset to factory settings first?
Is it normal for this to take so long?

4

Yoo

No that’s not normal, a full preparation and installation should take between 10-20 minutes depending on the hardware.

5

Hmm, it’s loading but very slowly—it’s a Surface Book 2 from 2018.

For “install destination,” I chose my Samsung drive, which is my main drive, completely filled (over 200GB) with only 40GB free. I decided to wipe everything, and since then, it’s been loading slowly but steadily.

What could I have done differently to prevent this long loading time?

do you know what to do if its not finished when I’m home again?

6

The total installation size should be under 10GB i think.

Did you also remove the existing partitions on the drive, or did you only delete the data that was on it? I’m not sure what the cause could be, but if somehow the original partition types remained intact and are still ntfs, perhaps that could play a role.

7

No, there were no partition types—just one drive, and I selected it.
I got something like: “Are you sure you want to delete everything?” and clicked Yes.

Maybe I should just wait and see what happens? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? :smiley:

8

Yea that seems like a reasonable approach :wink: