Jon Pretty

Could be a problem with UEFI compatible boot? If so, you should force that legacy boot from the BIOS install your OS and then update it to support UEFI. Got similar problem when installing my OS(es) on my laptop

Even if you make it bootable, I don’t know you will have enough driver support for your keyword and touch screen. I had a similar issue when I had a surface book laptop two years ago.

I really hope the keyboard can work, but I don't mind not having no touchscreen. I was running Linux on a Surface Pro 4 (without touchscreen) and it was fine.

had the same issue with a surface i was given a while ago while working at microsoft, gave it to a friend’s mother who has arthritis and collected my karma points

I've had some success with other Surface devices (Studio 2, Pro 4) in the past, but I bought them when they weren't brand new releases, so I wonder if I just need to wait a few months for Linux distros to catch up...

Any specific reason you went for MS Surface instead of something like Dell XPS 13?

Bad experience with my last Dell XPS 13 and Linux! Now I have isolated the problem to: Linux, or me.

Hey, how come you didn't buy a laptop known to support linux, like thinkpad, let's say? Do you need other windows software on it?

I chose it for having a fast, recent CPU and a good keyboard. And because I had no idea that there were laptops which won't even *boot* Linux. I've always been able to fix every other driver issue I've cared about, and common, mainstream computers are more likely to be supported.