Even at that age, some computers can do plenty.

I built my “old” gaming desktop in 2009. It currently runs Linux with Plasma. I still use it to do 3D modeling for 3D printing.

They seem to be Italian.

MX is a branch off antiX, and they put “anti-fascist” at the top of their homepage.

I was just tossing out a random number based on a bunch of posts I’ve seen. Don’t overthink it. :)

Speaking just from my experience:

It’s small, it’s stable, and it supports legacy hardware.

In addition, its Xfce implementation is polished and easy to use. It has a straightforward package installation utility.

I’ve used a whole bunch of lightweight Linux distros, and MX’s level of polish is uncommon for a distro that can easily live on a 16GB drive

MX has become my go-to for low-power, outdated computers.

It runs on a toaster. It installs on 64-bit systems with 32-bit EFI. The base install supports touchscreens. It fits on a 16GB SSD with room to spare. 2GB RAM is plenty. It has an active development community.

If your computer is less 5 years old, there are better options. But if you’re trying to keep a Chromebook out of the junk yard, MX is a good choice.

What’s a circumference pop?

The biggest mistake one can make with Linux?

Using windows instead.

My pre-UEFI system can boot from a USB drive.

Most still-functional ones can.

What’s great is neither of you are wrong from your own perspectives - and both of you are free to share your message and preferences.

Oof. Painful to hear your 5 is being so clunky. Hopefully Endeavour helps!

A powerhouse of a gaming PC ;-)

Maybe try Endeavour? I haven’t used Cachy, but I’ve heard it’s a little more unstable. And I know I’ve gotten Endeavour to work.

Here’s a list of what I’ve got actively installed now, in case it helps:

SP4 - Endeavour, SP6 - Ubuntu vanilla, Mint Cinnamon

I don’t have access to a 5, otherwise I’d play around and try to help.

That’s… odd. I wonder if it’s a Garuda thing.

I’ve now installed four different flavors of Linux on a variety of Surface devices. Haven’t had that happen to me, but I also didn’t try Garuda.

Sorry to hear about that.

You add the new kernel’s repository to your repo list. During updates, Pacman will pull what it needs from the various repos.

That’s the short-short version. Possibly not technically accurate, but that’s basically what it does.

After I ran the setup commands, edited the config file, then ran the command to install + update, it updated without me having to manually select any files.

Yeah, I’m sure Bluetooth is just from something I missed. Some config I need to update, or something.

Touchscreen and pen both work perfectly with the new kernel.

Quick follow-up, because tonight I installed EndeavourOS on my Surface Pro 4. (It’s not Garuda, but it’s still Arch.)

If you can follow instructions and copy/paste Pacman commands, you can install the Surface kernel. I did hit a couple of unexpected errors along the way, but the error messages were very specific. So it was easy to resolve them.

The instructions page is written very well, and there’s a whole section dedicated to Arch.

There are only two things I haven’t done yet: set up secure boot, and enable Bluetooth. Both of those things are pretty well documented, I just haven’t tried to do it yet.

Frankly, that leaves you with two options:

1. Be patient and learn, so eventually you have a working system.

2. Don’t have a working system.

The Surface Pro is a very proprietary device. It requires the extra work in order for Linux to function on it.

There are communities of people who will be happy to help you on your journey to learn, but unless you go through the effort you won’t solve your problem.

It’s not in the bios, it’s a system configuration.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/848698/wake-up-from-suspend-using-usb-device#848699

https://askubuntu.com/questions/848698/wake-up-from-suspend-using-usb-device

Here you go, I found the links I started from. I’m on Bazzite, but Fedora and Debian seem to work similarly around this.

Edit to add: I just looked up Cachy, I see that it’s Arch. I’m not sure if Arch configures this in the same way, but hopefully this will at least lead you In the right direction.

I don’t remember all the steps, but it had nothing to do with the controller itself.

I had to edit system configuration - I entered the identifier of the motherboard USB device, and I told the system to allow it to wake the system from sleep. I’d have to search for the actual steps.

Sigh.