Liberating a Windows Surface RT

[AmericanPi]

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- Hey y'all
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Just picked up a Surface RT for a 100 bucks.
I'm going to throw sone mint on it....i might.
If I can get the touch screen to work yada yada.

Thoughts, experiences?

[Pierre]

does it contain an Intel CPU ?.
or - is it indeed an RT based system ?.

[MintyO]

does it contain an Intel CPU ?.
or - is it indeed an RT based system ?.

I don't know this for sure, but I have a suspicion that it won't be a suitable home for Mint.

[pdc_2]

Hi AmericanPi;

there are some (ubuntu) reports installing on the Surface Pro: one from 2013 http://www.geek.com/geek-pick/how-to-in ... o-1539262/

there is much discussion on a sealed secure boot but this post https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/c ... rt_owners/ suggested it could be changed; and the discussions mention that

________

in this post, commenting on Mint https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/c ... _cinnamon/ ....... there is plenty of homework there for you

which Surface Pro do you have ............ as there seem to be several

___
and some more posts which all sound cheery http://www.lovemysurface.net/run-linux- ... ace-pro-3/ .......which has a youtube video

and http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-install- ... ace-pro-3/

........some talk of a late "patch" to block the above ........ but maybe not http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/10 ... _ms16_100/

_____________________

and for touch-screen support in the linux kernel, https://<blocked blogspam>/2016/08/07/linux-m ... surface-3/ this reports suggests 4.8 would have it ..... and I think we are up to 4.10.1 now http://www.infoworld.com/article/317581 ... -mint.html

[AmericanPi]

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TX for all that info pdc.
Pierre- I have an ARM based machine
- NVIDIA TEGRA 3 Quad Core 1.3Ghz, 2Gb RAM, --with Windows 8.1 activated.

It's ok no biggie but it would be so much more useful as a linux machine.
- I'll report what I learn from thr stuff pdc posted.

[RT_victim]

Were you able to find some solution? The last time I contacted windows, they said that it is ARM processory on Windows RT 8.1. Forget Linux, you cannot even update to Windows 10 . They are basically stopped supporting this. It is frustating to have this unuseful desktop. Have any of you tried adding skins of Mac ios on the Windows RT ?

[CmHall9]

I acquired a lightly used Windows 8 Pro Surface (2013 model).
Without even thinking of whether it was compatible I wiped the hard drive and installed a fresh version of Linux Mint 19.
The installation went great. The wifi worked and the OS even recognized that there is a touch screen.
I've run all updates, installed a few apps and so far I have had no problems. In fact it works great.
I know it's been a year since your initial post but with the latest updates I would try installing Linux again.

[Anunumoose]

Thats cool you installed linux in a surface pro, you cant on an rt i bet... howevrr you are comparing apples to oranges.. anyone can install linux on a surface pro... on a surface rt you cant even install applications within windows unless its from the app store... theyre junk unless ur just using it like a chromebook or something

[Hoser Rob]

Searched "ubuntu Surface RT", this was the 1st hit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comment ... eight_now/

Note that it seems to be an iffy proposition in Ubuntu, which supports ARM hardware, which Mint does not. So no Mint on that thing.

[Petermint]

You might look at the Raspberry Pi OS and similar options. The Raspberry Pi uses one of the many ARM variations, ARMv6. You find the chip id then look for the ARM instruction set, v6, v7, etc, then find a Linux for that version of ARM.

The Raspberry Pi OS is 32 bit Debian for compatibility although their new CPUs are 64 bit. They use LXDE to run ok on the lighter weight ARM chips. They also distribute an Intel version named Pixel. The important bit is the ARM instruction set, the v6, v7, etc. That gets your OS working in the processor. After that you have the usual device driver problems.

There is/was an Ubuntu MATE compiled for the Pi, which is the closest you get to Cinnamon on an ARM device.

[diapason]

I love the title of this thread! If only a solution would appear.

I have a brand new Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet complete with power keyboard case and two USB drives. It is a very nice piece of hardware spoiled by a useless operating system. It was only out of the box for a few days when I bought it in 2013 and it has been gathering dust in a cupboard ever since.

It would be nice to be able to make use of it and I trawl the forums in the hope of an answer to getting Android or Arch Linux onto it. I have tried various things which have been suggested but never with success. The problem is that it is impossible to get past the locked secure boot. Even if I access the command prompt as Administrator, and try to run a file of any sort from a USB stick, I just get told that the file cannot be run on the computer and I should look for something in the Windows App store (which seems to be defunct now).

I have had no luck with the method outlined in Xda Forums for getting GRUB to load and the Windows version of plop boot manager will not run either. If it wasn't such a nice bit of hardware I would have binned it ages ago. Perhaps it is just destined to become a museum piece.