This’ll probably be my last Linux post for awhile. My last Chromebook rescue post for the foreseeable future. Everything’s working as should be on all three machines. Maybe a quick comment on this post if the Windows 11 one works well for recording and editing video demos.
It’s been about a month and a half since I first got this old Acer C710 from a friend clearing out his office, and installed Bodhi Linux on it. And in all that time, I’ve been searching for a way to make the SD card work. As a background project, while researching a dozen or so Linux distributions, trying out a half dozen (three on this C710 alone), settling on OpenSUSE for the Acer CB3, learning how to remap the upper row of a Chromebook keyboard, installing Windows 11 on the HP x360, and getting its audio hardware to work.
Six-plus weeks of gaining some measure of familiarity with command-line operation in a terminal window. Familiarity with the open-source community and its groups devoted to different distros. Finding myself waaaay over my head reading pages of code beyond my comfort zone, and backing away. Of digging through search results day after day for “SD card not working in Linux” or “Linux MMC card drivers” or “Broadwell SD Linux drivers” (once I discovered that detail about my machine) and Google’s AI ignorantly, repeatedly returning “How to install Linux from an SD card.”
And a decade’s worth of posts on message board after message board saying, “Give up and use a USB adapter.”
Jennifer said, “Tell me when you make it work.”
We’ve been married a long time.
A few things have kept me going. (1) Sheer cussedness. (2) The knowledge that no matter how badly I might screw things up, I could probably start from scratch by reinstalling an OS, and the worst that could happen would be bricking a machine that had been headed to a landfill anyway. (3) Rumors that Gallium OS (no longer supported) did it on some machines. And (4) a couple of mentions of workarounds, too esoteric for me to understand at first.
Eventually, however, I learned how to open and edit config files in a terminal window, and that despite there being no “sdhci.conf” file in my “etc/modprobe.d” folder, it was worth a try to create one and include the line “options sdhci debug_quirks2=4”.
I have no idea what that means, but it works. As you can see from the screenshot, there’s an SD card showing in the file manager. Removing it makes it disappear, and inserting it makes it reappear. I can read from it and save to it. That screenshot itself was in fact saved to and uploaded from the SD card.
With that final conundrum solved, and all three Chromebooks operating as intended, I can get back to my usual work of writing and publishing games.
And anti-fascism. In fact, come to think of it, there’s a Linux distro I want to try out on the Acer CB3, specifically because of the OS’s anti-fascist community, and the fact that it’s a somewhat deeper part of the code pool for me to wade in. Hmmm.
You’re a good person and a good game designer, and you write about lots of topic that interest me. I enjoy reading your updates.
I’m sure you know this, but interviewing is a crap shoot. Most places are trying to get hardworking geniuses for nickels. I worked hard, but the biggest factor in my career success is luck. I never used ColdFusion or PHP, but I have some Perl under my belt – and of course anyone working on the web these days has touched Javascript and CSS.
In the 1990s I was still in college, but one of my uncles told me that if I could spell “CGI” I could get a $70,000 job programming. I was too nervous to enter the job market without a degree. I wonder how differently my life would have gone.
It’s funny, I can’t get my kids to care about Linux. You and I both experienced the 1990s Windows that was terrible and expensive. I got into Linux because of cost and stability at first, and stayed for the other features later. With my kids, they don’t have top end computing equipment but I put together adequate mid-range computers for them. And I have plenty to dislike in Windows 7 and newer, but the security and stability is astounding compared to Windows ME and older. So they never struggled to afford a Windows license or had to deal with ten crashes per day. I show them my Linux setup, and they don’t care.
Thanks for the comments, Mike! It’s nice to know someone’s actually reading these posts. 🙂
My own intro to this tech stuff was being almost laughed out of a tech writing interview. A friend was leaving, told me with my degree I could pretty much count on getting the job, and gave me a salary to ask for. From there, it was a comedy of errors. Car broke down on the highway. Had to walk to a payphone (pre cell days) to say I’d be late. Arrived sweaty. Asked if I could code, “No.” Asked what salary I expected. I repeated friend’s advice. Interviewer choked. Never heard from them again. I vowed it’d never happen again.
When my next boss (educational publishing) asked if I wanted to manage their Web presence (1990s) and said I could take classes half on office hours, I dove into perl, JavaScript, CSS, ColdFusion, and PHP, most of which involved some familiarity with Linux servers. Knowledge I put to use during Fast Forward Entertainment’s brief life.
Code, poetry, game design, they’re all types of spellcasting, right? 🙂
That’s awesome! I salute your dedication – no sarcasm.
I’m nearly as stubborn. In the early 2000s, before I was quite as neck deep in family responsibilities, I tinkered with Linux on desktop computers a lot. I ran into problems, and sometimes I had your level of grit and got solutions. Sometimes I gave up and tried another version of Linux.
But I work in tech, and in the 2010s the Linux expertise I had developed with my habit became a great career boost.