I installed Fedora on a Surface Laptop 5 and later found that the system cannot shut down or restart properly, apparently because some Surface-specific drivers or kernel support are missing. The necessary packages and patches are available through the Linux Surface project, but I would prefer a distribution that includes them already or installs them automatically after setup. Are there any distros that provide a reliable out-of-the-box experience for this hardware?
4 Answers
FydeOS may include support for some newer Surface laptops and tablets because it is designed around newer portable hardware. Compatibility can vary by model, though, so it would be worth checking specifically for the Surface Laptop 5 before relying on it.
Most mainstream distributions probably won’t include Surface-specific support by default. The hardware varies a lot between devices, so distro developers generally avoid bundling every vendor-specific driver and instead expect users to install specialized kernels or packages afterward.
Ultramarine Linux has a Surface Edition that includes the Linux Surface kernel and related tweaks out of the box. It is Fedora-based, with additional repositories and adjustments, so it may be the closest match to what you’re looking for.
Fedora can work well on Surface hardware, and some users find it gives the best overall experience. If you want to stay with Fedora, installing the Linux Surface kernel and its supporting packages may be more practical than switching distributions.
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