(4) Ubuntu 18.10 installed on a microSD: worked on a 4... how do I boot on a 5? : SurfaceLinux

](https://www.reddit.com/user/hoanglpr/)

level 1

Here's what I did on my SP2017:

Disable Secure Boot in the BIOS
Under Windows start the Disk Management tool
Shrink the main windows partition by at least 100MB at the start and at least 200MB at the end
Grow the efi partition by the at least 100 MB you freed at the beginning, depending on your partition layout you might have to move the recovery partition
Now reboot into a Linux installer from USB, here I'll describe the settings for Ubuntu, but I've also successfully done it with Arch, it should work with any Linux distribution (with UEFI support)
Start the Ubuntu installer and follow it like normal, until you get to the installation type, here choose "Something else" to enter a custom partition layout
The efi partition should be automatically selected to be used as such, if it isn't select it manually
Create a new partition on the SSD in the place freed after the Windows partition, format it with something like Ext2/3 and select its mount point as /boot
Create a new partition on the SD Card (if you want to you could also encrypt it with LUKS) and select its mount point as /
If asked, tell the installer to install the boot loader to the SSD
Finish the installation and reboot

[

level 2

Hi bud, I created a bootable microSD for Tails OS. I choose Recovery and Advanced startup, but there is no option for microSD card. My device is Surface Go running windows 11. I'm not sure what is wrong or what I'm missing.

[

](https://www.reddit.com/user/Loubegamon/)

level 2

Hi, I have a Surface go 2 which does not allow booting from an SD card. I want to use android distribution Bliss OS 14.10.x (x86_64). How can I use your guide for this distribution? The options with partitioning the disk are not the same there. Thank you

[

](https://www.reddit.com/user/Loubegamon/)

[

level 2

3 years later here

Buying a used Go

Is this trick possible with an OS that doesn't give me control over grub? To be more precise, ChromeOS using Brunch?

[

level 3

Super late as well, did you ever get this to work? Just got a base model Go 3 for super cheap and love love to do this.

[

level 4

Sadly no, never got it to work, sorry. I got rid of my Go about a month after I posted this.

[

level 5

That sucks. I’m going to give this a shot anyway, found some people that say it is possible. Wish they would just allows us to boot from SD.

[

level 6

Sadly yeah. I assume you also have the 128GB model?

It might be possible if you install Linux, Grub to a different partition (like this guide says) and then delete the Linux partition while keeping Grub

[

level 7

No, I got too good of a deal on a new base model (64GB), so dual-booting is kinda out of the question, lol

[

level 8

No dual boot for just an hour (16GB partition?) to install Grub then get rid of it

BTW Grub2Win didn't work on an SD card for me

[

level 9

Sorry, only saw the top part of your comment. I will look into that.

[

level 3

I'm glad that it helped you

[

level 4

Would you know of any way to install a bootloader to do this with Chrome OS Flex? I have a Surface Go 3 and would love to boot Chrome OS Flex from the SD card.

level 2

I'm new to this things , so sorry for any stupid question i might ask.

First I disabled Secure boot. Now I'm on windows , I did shrink the main partition and created a volume of 100mb , the I tried to extend the windows efi partition but it doesn't let me do it , even with DISKPART in the prompt it doesn't let me extend it. What am I doing wrong ? Please could you help me out, Thanks.

[

level 3

What is the exact error you are getting? And could you send me a screenshot of the disk manager?

level 4

Sorry for replying so late. It doesn't give any error it just doesn't show me the option to extend the windows efi partition https://imgur.com/a/WWvkDQy

[