I think I should just choose Arch.
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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Chalk it up as a lesson learned. There are some hoops you have to jump through, when installing Linux on a machine built and set up to use windows. One of these is secure boot.
IIRC the older surfaces have some challenges. But usually, there are just a few switches you have to set right in the BIOS/UEFI-interface and then some things to be aware of when installing Linux (that don't really have anything to do with being a windows machine, but with older hardware). One thing is to be aware, i& your running it in BIOS or UEFI mode. Afair, that has implications from the partition table on your system drive down to the possible partitioning-schemes of some system folders.
And I don't have experience with surface laptops, but I don't think you'd need any obscure kernels from github. The mainline Linux Kernel should be fine, if you set it up correctly. And you shouldn't be using Kernels from somewhere else, if you don't absolutely know what you're doing. (And even then, you'd be better off compiling it yourself, with the right settings).
Usually though, it's just a matter of having the right kernel-params set during boot and loading appropriate models, which can all be done with a stock kernel, either by using the right boot-flags or even on a running system.
Compiling kernels, to my understanding, is something for Gentoo users, tinkerers and embedded system devs. Or if you want a streamlined installation on your laptop with minimal overhead; though that already puts you in the tinkerer category in my books.