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How could I setup a dual boot for Ubuntu and Windows 8 on my Microsoft Surface Pro with 128 GB.

Note: My dual boot solution is below.

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Brandon Clark
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1 Answers1

67

Video Demo

EDIT: July 11, 2014 @ 6:00PM PST

This has been updated to reflect changes in 14.10 AMD64. (14.04 LTS works fine but 14.10 works awesome out of the box.)

  • Removed boot repair process. ( This seems to be fine in this release. If you have issues you may want to make sure Grub2 is installed and to run the boot-repair process.)

  • Added bootloader section, again. (Note: Someone fixed the bootloader issue that was causing customized loaders not to work for GRUB2.)

First

Create a partitioned drive.

  • Press search button on your keyboard type 'boot'.
  • Select 'settings >> Create and format disk partitions'

enter image description here

  • Select C drive, right click and select 'shrink volume'.
  • This is your choice but I use appox. 29.3 Gigs(30,000 MB): Shrink respectively.

enter image description here

Second

Follow the instructions on Geek.com.

  • DO NOT CONNECT TO INTERNET FOR INSTALL!
  • Stop at prompt to delete disk or partition.

  • Return and follow instructions.

    note: I suggest using your SD drive as there seems to be USB compatibility issues in some cases. Also you can simply mount the ISO in Windows and copy the contents to the storage drive, SD or flash.

Third

Prepare partitioned space for install.

  • Change the selection from 'Delete and Install' to 'Something Else' at the bottom.

enter image description here

  • It will ask if you want to unmount your installation device. Select 'No'.
  • Now select the free space and press the '+' button under the partitions.
  • Select from the drop list 'swap' and select the 'logical' radio button and 'insert at beginning' and finish. Select anywhere from 400 to 600 MB to be safe at least.

enter image description here

  • Now select the free space and press the 'change' button - again.
  • Select from the drop list 'Ext4' and select the 'primary' radio button, 'insert at beginning', 'format' button checked and '/' as root and finish. Use the remaining space you have reserved.

enter image description here

  • Finish install process on the Ext4 partition you created.

Now you can restart.

Fourth

The Intel cpu needs a fan sensor update. I suggest doing this with lm-sensors.

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
sudo sensors-detect
  • Select 'YES' to everything and follow the end instruct
  • It will ask you to run some sudo commands after it is done.

Fifth

Not required but if you have made it this far you want a awesome beautiful device. That ugly boot loader didn't do it for me so I created a boot loader just for the surface.

  • Go Download from my github.
  • Follow README instructions to setup.

enter image description here

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    Why are we formatting the partition as FAT32 only to format it as EXT4 later? Isn't that pointless? – Nathan Osman Mar 09 '13 at 02:19
  • Your screenshot suggests that gparted is simply reformatting the partition as EXT4 instead of converting from FAT32 to EXT4 (which is impossible as far as I know). – Nathan Osman Mar 09 '13 at 03:01
  • I didn't realize you could even get another OS to run at all on one of these new MS tablets. I thought uefi would stop you dead. This is really cool! I guess that has to do with the fact that it's an i5 and not an arm. – Joe Mar 14 '13 at 05:01
  • After installing successfully, how do I boot into Ubuntu to continue with the process (what you've listed as the 'Fourth' step)? When the installer prompts a reboot after completion, my Surface restarts into Windows 8. I've tried reinstalling twice, each time changing the location of the boot loader from the default (dev/sda ATA c400-MTFDDAT128M (128.0 GB)) to /dev/sda2 (my efi partition) and /dev/sda7 (my ubuntu install partition). Apologies if this is a dumb question, and thanks for the work you've shared here. – TX-NY-CA Jun 14 '13 at 22:09
  • I have turned it off. I followed the instructions, in order, as written by Geek.com and yourself. Double checked just now: Secure Boot Mode is Disabled. Ubuntu is installed according to the USB installer's disk manager. Maybe the problem is with grub2? – TX-NY-CA Jun 19 '13 at 02:01
  • Turning off the other module accompanying secure boot had no effect. More curiously, the 'Use A Device' option from my Advanced Startup menu has disappeared, so I cannot try out your other recommendation. It was there in the past. I tried putting in other blank USB devices, as well as the Linux Live USB and none at all, but I am still left with Settings > Change PC Settings > General > Advanced Startup leaving me only three options: Continue, Troubleshoot, Turn off PC. Am considering a factory restore. – TX-NY-CA Jun 21 '13 at 19:40
  • Downloaded the 12.04 65bit iso and was able to successfully install and boot into the OS. The wi-fi repair process seemed to go smoothly. But the final steps, those after reboot, were ineffective. The first would prompt a lot of code, stating ACCEPTED on tasks, then pause on a line about a timer ending in an elipsis. The second command in the other window, run and completed, had no effect on this. My router bleeped and displayed having been connected to by my computer, but the wireless connections indicated no such event. Mouse froze, could not copy text. – TX-NY-CA Jun 24 '13 at 21:15
  • Failed with other wireless source as well - am not sure I typed WEP input correctly. Used this as reference: network={ ssid="" scan_ssid=1 key_mgmt=NONE wep_key0= wep_tx_keyidx=0 } – TX-NY-CA Jun 24 '13 at 21:17
  • Wish I had the knowledge to be more specific. Am considering giving up and waving goodbye to Ubuntu after two years use. I've spent 20+ hours trying to get the OS to simply run and connect to wireless. Apologies for overtaking these comments - I don't know where else to go. – TX-NY-CA Jun 24 '13 at 21:30
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    Alright - I've got the Wi-Fi going. The embarrassing truth: I had connected successfully already but did not know it. I thought the Network Connections Panel and Wireless Icon in the top bar would reflect any changes. No. I simply had to open my browser and give it a go. Now that the extent of my ineptitude is made clear (haha), I admit I cannot understand how to install the boot menu. When I run the second line of code, I get the feedback cp: cannot stat./surface': No such file or directory ` I've never used GitHub - am I missing an obvious step? I'm guessing I am. :) – TX-NY-CA Jun 30 '13 at 01:48
  • FWIW, I just installed Windows 8.1 from scratch (wiped factory partitions) and then Ubuntu 13.10 alongside it as per this guide, and didn't need Step 5 and 7; the wifi just worked out of the box. – Pie21 Jan 01 '14 at 01:33
  • Sorry, false alarm (as I suppose you guys know; newbie here). Wifi worked out of the box in the live demo, but once installed it didn't. Following through to Step 7 got networking working with network-manager. – Pie21 Jan 05 '14 at 04:23
  • How is it possible to do step 4, which installs boot repair from the repos before doing step 5, which sets up wifi? I'd like to follow this guide on my surface, but suspect I'm missing something here. – Mittenchops Jan 13 '14 at 17:41
  • Weird, I installed 13.10 and wifi did not work. In fact, neither the touch nor type keyboards worked so I couldn't get into the prompts to complete installation. – Mittenchops Mar 15 '14 at 21:40
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    @Mittenchops There is a bug currently that makes my system have the same issues but only from time to time. You may want to try and reboot a couple times or you may have had something go wrong in the installation process and may need to delete what you have done and try again. I will suggest downloading the daily image for 14.04 though as I seem to be having less bug issues. I will be adding an update soon to reflectt installation of 1.04 only. – Brandon Clark Mar 17 '14 at 20:53
  • Man, I hope this ends up working on the 14.04 release version. =/ – Mittenchops Mar 17 '14 at 21:23
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    Here's a thing I've been struggling with (and solved it), so I'll add it for the few who are confused about this as well. If you happen to download the i386 version of Ubuntu (not the AMD64), then chances are it might not boot and you'll spend hours trying it to boot. I read over that part which was a costly mistake :) – Melvin Roest Oct 13 '14 at 08:48
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    I also couldn't find 25_custom, so I added the question. Two hours after this comment I answered it as well. The answer should be reflected in this tutorial for 14.10, because it's confusing the way it is now!

    http://askubuntu.com/questions/536470/ubuntu-14-10-cannot-find-25-custom-in-etc-grub-d/536486#536486

     – Melvin Roest Oct 13 '14 at 10:37
  • @BrandonClark, how usable is Linux on the Surface Pro? I'm thinking of buying a Pro 3 because I really like the specs, but nonworking Linux would be a deal breaker. From what I've read, the Type Cover seems to be the problem. Would you recommend dual-booting, or using a VM? – A. Donda Apr 30 '15 at 17:00
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    @A.Donda I believe it is very usable. I am doing all of my graduate work from mine and I am developing a SaaS system providing a questionnaire application providing analytics and a developer portal. In addition you can always install from windows but you loose some of the speed but it really isn't that big of deal unless you rarely work in Windows (convenience of boot to Ubuntu). Otherwise it is great hardware. – Brandon Clark Apr 30 '15 at 17:31
  • @BrandonClark, thanks for your answer! So the Type Cover is not an issue anymore? What version of Ubuntu are you running? – A. Donda Apr 30 '15 at 18:05
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    @A.Donda If the type cover doesn't connect on boot, disconnect it and reconnect it and press some key and mess around with the mouse pad to lets Ubuntu know it is there and the HUD profile is loaded, you'll see the mouse appear when it is reconnected. As far as version I may suggest sticking with the LTS because I just upgraded to 15.04 and there are kernel issues and a new menu generated for grub that separates Upstart process to a separate boot option and default to no Upstart. – Brandon Clark Apr 30 '15 at 18:40