Steam Deck Dock Saves New Mac Mini
I bought a M4 Mac Mini and was not at all prepared to get it set up.
Sorry for the very editorialized title, I've been nose deep in the news since Election night.
The new Mac Mini is pretty overpowered. Geekbench puts the lowest config Mac Mini at 3x faster than my i7 gaming PC so naturally I had to buy one because my Rust builds are getting out of control.
Apple is usually known for being leagues ahead of the competition in terms of setup experience. When you buy new AirPods you just open them near your iPhone and pretty much instantly they connect. Coming from Samsung Galaxy Buds it really was magic the first time I saw it. So, when I bought the Mac Mini I didn't even put a thought into the setup process. I'm a Software Engineer that hoards wires and electronics so I've never had an issue setting up a device. Until now.
One flagship/controversial feature of the new Mac Mini is that the only general IO is USB-C. I didn't put much thought into this expcept that it's the obvious direction for a consumer electronic. That is until the setup screen was asking me to connect a keyboard and mouse. Being Apple they assume that you have their Magic peripherals. All of my keyboards are either USB-A or Bluetooth. So thats an issue. Luckily I have a few massive Costco totes full of miscellanous wires and dongles. Female USB-A to Male USB-C is pretty niche but I thought I could cobble a few things together, and I did, but no luck the Mac wasn't picking it up. After getting a few configurations together I decided I wouldn't be able to get it to work this way.
At this point I figured out that pressing the power button twice puts the Mac into pairing mode and makes it scream instructions in every language. Would have loved some better docs on this, but regarless; Progress! Too bad it was bugged and would just load forever once I put in the passcode for my keyboard. Once I eventually got into the Mac it showed that it successfully paired each time, just the setup window was bugged and wouldn't let me move on.
Finally I realized that a USB-C dock of some sort would likely work. Unfortunately my company is currently a shit show so I don't have a dock from my company, but I do have a dock for my Steam Deck. I connect it to the front, connect my barebones keyboard I do for initial PC setups, and nothing happens. wtf. The dock usually needs power so I plug it into the wall too, still nothing. At this point I'm about to go to Walmart and buy a Magic Keyboard. Luckily I make a living by randomly toubleshooting things and I move the dock to a back port, AND IT WORKS.
So the point of this post is just a PSA that if you are a Old PC user like me that you might have some new hurdles to cross with some of this new fangled technology thats coming out.