some big letdowns right away and very slow progress

[bicameralmind]

I think what you are saying is you have only windows box????
If your computer has usb3 (for speed) and a decent usb3 stick,
a live usb is definitely worthwhile,, its been months since i have used win
I don't know the win commands,,  try balena

I was able to flash a replacement Posh not Plasma manjaro distro onto the emmc but it was too dicey using an old windows 10 to do that all the time. Balenaetcher triggers too many errant windows interrupt requests for format and drive insertion. Buggy usb ports and adapters. My bad. Flashes work but report as failed. Syyu worked great. Instead of depending on scaling scripts right now, I am reading webpage text via the terminal, a really secure welcome change. I can play music but maybe not video, and the camera is so bad it is like putting objects on photographic paper and flashing a light to burn the contrast. That is ok for now. The soundcard is nice. I want to kill vibrate. Now I am ready to test the simm so this thread is now resolved. Thanks!