technical challenges
Sep. 25th, 2024 10:47 amIn retrospect, I was looking for trouble, but: I tried two things in the last few days that I should not have attempted at the same time.
One is feeling like I should understand more about Linux, so installing it on my iMac, which I am not using for anything. I chose Ubuntu, and worked out downloading the iOS, making a bootable USB drive, and installing from there. Somehow, I thought it would be able to find everything it needed without connecting to the Internet, so my first attempt was pretty abysmal.
After installing the OS, it hadn’t found the built-in Wi-Fi adapter, and even though the driver was installed, it didn’t show up properly. I connected a cable and encouraged it to go out and find updates.
In the end, I chose to reinstall everything, giving the wired connection from the beginning. Things are going much better now.
It still doesn’t entirely feel like a finished OS to be used by marginally technically competent people like myself.
The other thing I did was order a new Wacom tablet for my MacBook. I had thought I could use my iPad Pro to shore up the gap, and even use it as a CINTIQ. But using it in Sidecar mode didn’t do the things I was expecting. So: simple tablet. Ha. Whatever is going on with Wacom’s tablet, driver team, they are not keeping up with enough clarity in macOS.
It has one of those granular installers that requires an app to run to install it, then requires very specific permissions throughout settings, and a separate app to manage it. Seriously, there has got to be a simpler way to do this. It is obfuscated by apples own system preferences having same or similar named items in different areas.
For that one, I ended up running the installer driver twice, going online to webpage, and finding the specific preferences settings that needed to change under accessibility, privacy and security, etc. Also had to unplug and plug it back in, and restart my entire computer.
For a pointer device.