64 bit Linux on a 32 bit UEFI device

A Dell Venue 8 Pro Story

Recently I got my hands on an old Dell Venue 8 Pro. It is a very nice portable Atom-based tablet for which I have a host of ideas. In my opinion, Windows is very clunky for tablets, so I wanted to try Linux. Enter two full weeks of losing my mind.

Originally upon looking at the BIOS in detail, I had thought that the Atom was somehow a 32-bit CPU. I was wrong. Dell did a cursed thing and crammed a 32 bit UEFI BIOS into the device while the CPU was 64-bit. This means that the .efi file must be a 32bit file. 

So lets say you have a similar Atom device. This is what you must do

1. Use Rufus or a different burner program to flash your OS to your USB stick

​2. Look for BootIA32.efi in the /EFI/Boot folder
Make sure it is there. If not there are ways you can "hack" one yourself but I don't recommend it. Deepin Linux has one on their newest version

3. Plug the USB into your device and go into the BIOS. 

4. Move your USB device to the top. If you have the item called "Add file option" for the boot menu use that and select your Bootia32.efi under /EFI/Boot

5. Boot! 

and that is it. I hope that this saves you the trouble I went through. Good luck and happy Linuxing!