Ubuntu on a Microsoft Surface Book - 1st Generation

The Surface Book (1st Gen) had a manufacturer's defect that caused the LCD to bulge because of a defect in lithium ion battery in the screen.

While the laptop is still usable, the colours on the edge have a yellow tinge, which while annoying, you can still live with.

I use Windows primary for the Office apps. Excel in particular ties me to Windows since it's such an excellent application - without equal in Linux. None. As for the other Office programs, the Office 365 web versions have enough of what I need to ditch the bloated binaries provided for the operating system.

But keeping an excellent laptop, for the sole use of Excel seemed a bit excessive, so I bought a cheaper Lenovo ThinkPad (E14), on which I'm actually using to write this. And installed Windows and the Office suite on that. Then converted my Surface Book to Ubuntu.

What works?

1. Touchscreen - works.
   
   
2. Surface Pen - works.
   
   
3. Secure Boot - works.
   
   
4. Power management - works.
   
   
5. Screen rotation - works.
   
   
6. Sleep/hibernate on lid closed - works (sometime, rarely, issues on wake-up).

What doesn't work?

1. Windows Hello - hello? of course, there's no Linux software component for face-id using this camera. To be quite honest, it rarely worked well on Windows either, So I never used it.
   
   
2. IR camera - related to #1 just above.
   
   

I bought the Surface Book for work - when Windows was the world I lived in. And the Surface Pen is a really nice tool. Much better than the Apple Pencil when it comes to tactile feel on the screen.

So I'm really happy that the Pen side of the laptop is still secure, and that the Pen works just deliciously.

installation

For instructions, head over here [https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup]

The instructions are very well written, and thanks to the team.

To be safe, follow the instructions to DISABLE SECURE BOOT, even if you're installing Ubuntu.

You can enable secure boot, after the installation is complete, and you're happy with your better functioning system.