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I'm not seeing an option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows on my Surface 2017. I made a bootable 16GB (14.7GB) USB drive with Ubuntu 18.04 using Rufus.

I have done the following:

  1. Turned off Secure Boot.
  2. Set Secure Boot to allow Microsoft and third-party software.
  3. Partitioned my hard drive, then tried to install with unallocated space.

  4. Partitioned my hard drive, then tried to install after creating a new drive.

    screenshot

  5. Defragged my drives before partitioning using Optimize Drives on Windows.

  6. Turned off Fast Boot through the Control Panel. (https://windowsreport.com/fix-dual-boot-windows-10-ubuntu/)
  7. Turned off hibernation through an elevated Command Prompt. (> powercfg.exe /hibernation off)
  8. (As of 2020/1/20) Tried various permutations of Rufus options for boot selection (FreeDOS, UEFI:NTFS), partition scheme (MBR, GPT), target system (BIOS (or UEFI-CSM), UEFI (non CSM), BIOS or UEFI), even volume file system (FAT32, NTFS) and cluster size.

When I attempt to install, it says no operating system was detected, and gives me the options of erasing the hard drive or Something else. When I choose the latter, the next page shows my two devices (500GB each) with practically no free space to install on and no sign of any partitioning. Screenshot

Any ideas?

Edit 2020/3/5: It turns out that the 1TB version of the Surface Pro 2017 actually has two physical 512 GB drives that are merged into one drive using Storage Spaces, which makes them unrecognizable to the Ubuntu installer. While I have seen people ask about how to merge them back together after accidentally breaking the configuration, I haven't found any information on how to break it in the first place. Obviously, I want Windows to still be functional after removing it. If anyone can give any pointers, I will be massively grateful, as I've been stuck with this issue for literally months now.

asa9ohan
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  • Have you tried pressing the volume down upon starting your PC with your bootable usb? – Itakura Jan 23 '20 at 07:40
  • @Itakura That's not doing anything for me, it just boots into Windows normally. I also tried the volume up option, and that boots me into Windows in safe mode. To change my boot settings, I went into UEFI mode with Shift + Restart. – asa9ohan Jan 23 '20 at 08:34
  • Can you clarify if the problem is with seeing the "install along side windows 10" option or that it does not let you install what so ever ? I can think of two causes for either of those issues.
    1. You have bitlocker enabled. Disable it and try again.
    2. Surface comes with RAID enabled so no matter what you try until you disable it you wont be able to install new OS or create an actual partition (you were able to create one within the RAID not outside) but if you disable RAID you windows install will break so you have to have the installer on hand for that too
     – Oscar Jan 23 '20 at 08:44
  • @OskarL Thank you for the reply. The installer gives me only the options of erasing the disk or "Something else", and when I choose "Something else" there is no free space to install on. I have not tried to press the Install button on this screen because I am afraid it will compromise my Windows installation, but it probably just wouldn't install regardless because there is no free space. I have tried temporarily disabling Bitlocker from Control Panel > Manage BitLocker, but nothing changes. I'm now trying to turn off BitLocker completely, but it's taking a while. Will post back with updates. – asa9ohan Jan 23 '20 at 09:15
  • In this case I am guessing it is because of the RAID. I have noticed when having RAID enabled you can not install Ubuntu whatsoever so like you say it will wipe your windows as well as Ubuntu might not actually work. (at least not on the Dell models I deal with I always end up changing it to AHCI) But also you won't be able to partition the drive (apart of within the RAID it self) which explains why you don't have the option to do installation along side windows. Word of advice if you are going to attempt it (next comment) – Oscar Jan 23 '20 at 09:31
  • Change RAID to AHCI or Off
  • Install Windows with the recovery disk
  • Install Ubuntu and configure Grub
    • – Oscar Jan 23 '20 at 09:31
  • @OskarL According to the first answer to this question, some UEFI systems are modern enough that AHCI is turned on by default. Indeed I cannot find a boot mode setting in my UEFI settings, and googling for AHCI settings with the Surface Pro 5 revealed nothing relevant. I even followed an alternative method to set AHCI from the registry but found that my registry keys were already set to those values. – asa9ohan Jan 23 '20 at 10:20
  • @OskarL Also, I just finished turning off my BitLocker encryption. Ubuntu still cannot detect my partitions. – asa9ohan Jan 23 '20 at 10:22
  • I am trying to install Ubuntu on my surface pro 2017 1TB systems. Having the exact same issues. Did you ever find a solution? – Simon Beer Aug 09 '21 at 00:38
  • @SimonBeer By some stroke of luck I was in fact able to remove the Storage Spaces config by using a drive formatting tool (unfortunately it's been so long I don't remember what it's called) that I found in the toolbox of a possibly bootleg Windows 10 installation image (.iso). I confirmed that it worked by listing my drives in the command prompt, after which I was able to install Ubuntu onto one of the 500gb drives without any issues, and my Windows stayed intact as well. – asa9ohan Aug 09 '21 at 17:37
  • @SimonBeer After some rummaging around, I think I found the iso file that I originally used for this. If you need it, you can ask me for it. – asa9ohan Aug 09 '21 at 17:50