I spent about 20 minutes yesterday installing Linux Mint on an old, out-of-date Mac Mini as I mentioned. It’s an older model without a wireless adapter, so I had to connect it to the Internet via network cable. I stretched an overly long for the distance piece of Cat5 cable between the little box and the hub under the desk, and…. It could not find the network.
So I spent a couple hours today going through forums, asking the clankers, and typing Linux commands to troubleshoot the connection.
And then I thought, huh, I what if I just connect it directly to the router on the hutch? The cable run is about the same. So I did, and it worked.
Well! Good to put my A+ Certification to use. I know, I know! A+ is computer hardware. But about the time I got that certificate 25 years ago, I was still taking networking classes, too. I did not put them to work (have not had to rely on them for a living yet), but I’ve built computers and pulled cables/crimped connectors. But, in the intervening time, I’ve gotten old less practiced in it.
So: Now I have another Linux box (the other is a developer-caliber machine with 32Gb of RAM, for example).
What should I do with them?
The funny thing about having a testing lab here is having so many devices that one only uses sporadically.
