Mounting your SD Card under Chrome OS

There are 5 topics we need to deal with here:

1 What kind of SD Card slot do you have? 2 Can you use the SD Card slot you have, or will you use a USB adapter? 3 Checking Chrome OS can see the SD Card you inserted 4 Enabling Linux(Beta) to see the SD Card that Chrome OS can see (because Google made your ChromeBook extra secure). 5 When OSCAR gives you a file dialog box so you can tell it where it can read your SD Card data from, you need to be able to tell it, and that depends on all of the things above.

Luckily for us, we only need to go through this complication the first time we import data from an SD Card.

2 Can you use the SD Card slot in your ChromeBook or ChromeBox, or do you need to use an adapter that plugs into a USB slot 3 Remember having to enable Linux(Beta)? Well Oscar runs under Linux(Beta) and most of it can be transparent to you. Where it isn't transparent is the first time you import data from your SD Card

So leave that window for the moment, and let me know if your Chromebook has a full size SD Card slot like your CPAP machine has, or whether it has a micro SD Card slot. It's almost certain it will have one or the other. If it has a full size slot, all is well. If not, you will either have to get a full size SD Card to USB adapter to use with your existing card, or you will have to get another micro SD Card of the kind that comes with an adapter from micro to full-size.

If we assume that your Chromebook has a full size SD Card slot, then put the card from your CPAP machine in the Chromebook slot. It's probably a good idea to set the write protect first, (and remember to unset it again before you put it back in the CPAP, although I will verify for you that it should not be required.

The Chrome OS will put up a small window asking if you want to open the SD Card in the files App or to Open Settings. We do want to Open in the Files App, and we have to do this, because it is part of Google's extra security for Chromebooks that removable devices must be specifically allowed to be "shared with Linux". You only have to do this part once.

So when the files App opens, you will see your SD Card listed towards the bottom of the left half of the app, as SD Card. Again, we want to select this legend "SD Card" by clicking once on the touchpad on "SD Card" and then holding down the alt key while clicking once anywhere on the touchpad (or right clicking if you are using a mouse). We will then see a submenu which has as its 4th and bottom choice "Share with Linux". We will select this choice, and we'll have to confirm it in another popup. Picture of Chrome OS screen here.

Now the Linux subsystem will be able to see the SD Card with all your CPAP data (although we haven't told Oscar where it is yet). When you are done with Oscar, you will need to use the files App again to safely eject the SD Card.

So now go to the window we got from Oscar, and we can accept the language choice (or an alternative). It will then ask where to store it's data, and offer a default choice, which would be safe to accept on a new system. then it will want to know if you want to import any Sleepyhead data, and I think the answer should be no at least for the moment. It's thinking there may be Sleepyhead data on the machine already, and in your case there won't be. If you wanted to import Sleepyhead data from your old machine, it could probably be done, but I haven't tried it yet, and we would have to work out how you would transfer from your old system, and how Linux would see the files.

So after you've declined the Sleepyhead Import, you will be at the Welcome screen, and you will have to create a new profile. I'll assume you know how to do that already. It's a new machine, you can use any name you like, and the name is all that is required in the four boxes of setting up a new profile.

After that, you'll want to import from your SD Card, which we already have on the Chromebook. You may be used to using the F12 key on the keyboard, but as you can see the Chromebook doesn't have those function keys. The rightmost key above the numbers might work, but I don't think I've tried that yet, so let's just use either the "File" menu of the "CPAP Importer" data button on the welcome page.

When you click on that, you will see a box with a progress bar in it and 2 buttons marked "choose a folder and Cancel. The progress bar runs for 20 seconds and it doesn't matter which button you press, I believe the installation you have will always wait for 20 seconds before it gives you a bigger box in which you can tell it how the Linux subsystem knows the SD card. So o suggest you just wait out the 20 seconds until the File Dialog Box appears. We know about this bug and it may get fixed by the next release. mjphyi is going to fix it in the chrome OS packages.

When you get that box, unlike windows, there are no C: or D: or any drives with a colon in them.

If you are plugging your full size SD Card or your Micro SD Card directly in to your ChromeBook, then The SD Card is known to Linux as /mnt/chromeos/removable/SD Card If you are plugging your full size SD Card or your Micro SD Card in to your ChromeBook through a USB adapter, then The SD Card is known to Linux as /mnt/chromeos/removable/USB Drive

and how we get that into the dialog box is to go to the left panel (titled "Places") and click on "File System" Then go to the panel slightly to the right titled "Name" and double click on "mnt" Then in the same panel titled "Name" we double click on "chromeos" Then in the same panel titled "Name" we double click on "removable"

Then we need to remember whether we used a USB adapter or not If we plugged an SD Card in directly, Then in the same panel titled "Name" we single click on "SD Card", or If we plugged an SD Card in through a USB adapter, Then in the same panel titled "Name" we single click on "USB Drive",

and then we click on the "Open" button in the bottom right of that box.

That should start Oscar importing from the SD Card, and when it is done, you should be able to use Oscar as you did before.

If it all works, you can just shut down Oscar normally, and then the Linux subsystem will be shut down when you shut down your Chromebook.

It will not automatically start again when you start up your Chromebook again, you will need to find it in the Launcher set of windows and click on it there.

Verify and revise: Once the Linux subsystem is running, there will be an icon on what Google calls the "shelf" which will be the black bar running across the bottom of the screen (unless you moved it to the left or right edge). If you see it there, you can alt-click (or mouse right click) on it and a submenu choice will be to "Pin" the icon to the shelf. This will be an easier way to start it. (This icon will also allow you to stop the Linux subsystem, but remember that Oscar needs this to run.)

Remember also to use the Chrome OS Files App to eject your SD Card, and remember also that although your data may be backed up to your Google Drive under Chrome OS, your Linux data will not be, and so you should separately, on your own take regular backups of your Linux data, because that is your Oscar data.

================================================================================================================

We may not need to meet the black window with Beta-2 and later, although it may appear. Beta-1 had no icon so we had to type OSCAR at the shell prompt. If you can find that black background window, that's going to be the key to getting you going. It should be appearing after you've clicked on the Launcher button (with the circles in it on the bottom left of your screen). like on windows, holding down the alt key while pressing on the tab key will cycle through all the windows that are open, so that may be helpful assuming you're not seeing it because it's under another window. Or the chromebook way to do that would be to press the key on the top row that has the rectangle with the 2 vertical bars just to the right of the rectangle. That shows smaller versions of all the windows.

Donate to Apnea Board