I set up a couple profiles with different colored backgrounds so that I can easily visually distinguish terminal windows when I have several open at once. For example, I usually switch the profile to one with a red background when I ssh into a server to help avoid confusion about which system I’m running commands on. I also cranked up the font size a bit in all profiles to make it easier for me to read.

If you want to improve significantly, go read someone else’s code and modify it. Try to fix a bug in a program you use, add a feature you want that doesn’t exist already, or even just do something simple for the sake of proving to yourself that you can do it – like compiling it from source and figuring out how to change some small snippet of text in a message box. Even if you don’t succeed, if you put in a serious effort attempting it, you will almost certainly learn a lot from trying.

Edit: changed wording to try to be clearer

Glad I could help you make progress – I hope you can get it all the way working now. Good luck!

How 'bout that! :D

If the SSD itself is OK, then it was probably trying to boot the SSD still. The blank screen issue might have to do with the graphics drivers then? I remember having a similar blank screen problem with Ubuntu a long time ago where I had to put in “nomodeset” as a parameter in GRUB when booting until I got the right drivers set up.

the tablet supports pxe boot. Do you think I could get mileage off of that if I set up a server on my other laptop and connected them via ethernet?

Maybe. If it’s not too much trouble to set up and you can’t get the USB to work again, might as well try it before throwing in the towel.

I’m rather confused by the fact that the USB drive worked for you before but doesn’t any more and yet seems to be OK on other systems. Is there anything like “fast boot” enabled in the BIOS maybe? (Try turning that off if so.)

Also, when you’re trying to boot from the SSD, can you get anything out of GRUB by tapping shift or escape (or maybe other keys) while it’s trying to boot?

Do you think that removing the ssd will help?

It’s a sanity check to help you rule out things like unintentionally booting from the wrong device. Can’t boot from hardware that’s not there! If the USB does work with it removed, then something you believe about how the device boots is false and you can then try to figure out what. A lot of BIOSes will “helpfully” try the next device in the sequence if it can’t successfully boot from the first one – which can be really confusing when debugging.

Some other thoughts for things to check: does the device confirm that it can actually see the USB drive in some way? Does a USB keyboard work in the port you’re using? If there’s more than one USB port, have you tried a different port? Do your USB drives work in another computer?

I rebooted to the installation media to try another install. It was black too.

I assume you’ve probably already checked, but in case not, is the boot order correct? What happens if you remove the SSD entirely and try to reboot to the USB without it?

Also, does the SSD boot in another computer?

If you can’t get anything to boot on the tablet, I’d RMA it.

Google puts telemetry in the default keyboard app. Let that sink in for a moment.

I have a few of those, and while the ones I bought have worked out fine so far, I think it’s worth cautioning people that they are annoyingly loud doing basic operations.