The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Grasshopper on August 18, 2022, 07:22:56 am
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Hi, I'm looking to set up a simple Linux based read-only gaming system. I want it to be read-only at the hardware level.
In the past, I've found that the cheapest and easiest way to do this is to install the games and emulators on a full sized SD card, and then access the SD card through a card reader with the card's write-protect tab set to the lock position.
I've got several older (but rather slow) card readers that respect the write-protect tab i.e. if the tab is set to the 'lock' position then the reader will prevent any data from being written to the card.
However, I bought a couple of branded card readers recently, and they simply ignore the write-protect tab!
Does anyone here know of any currently manufactured (and preferably USB 3.0) card readers that still respect the write-protect tab?
Thanks in advance.
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i think when SD cards moved away from consumer devices like cameras and into the world of computers as drive media, the write protect tab became a rarely used and ignored item... thus a device that respects the WP tab and also works on a computer is few and far between...as most operating systems NEED to access the drive for writing.
perhaps this is something that might be better handled with software.
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there are hardware write-blocker solutions if you look for them.
these are important when trying to dump SD cards etc. because by default (even if you don't press a single thing) Windows will write data to any card / device that gets inserted (yes, even if you don't tell it to initialize the device)
as many cards for arcade games / consoles / plug and play systems contain raw data, not a standard filesystem of any kind, Windows doing this will destroy the data and break the games.
Linux in general tends to not write unless requested, but if you want to absolutely guarantee there are no write accesses, you need to find a hardware solution.
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Indeed. Windows is notorious for silently writing data to disks without asking for permission. Prior to Windows 10, just reading a file resulted in the 'last accessed' timestamp being updated! It's hard to believe that someone senior at Microsoft signed-off on that decision when you consider that flash memory has a limited number of write cycles.
Another example, which has burned me a few times, is their damned photo viewer. If you magnify the image then nothing happens, as you'd expect. However, if you rotate the image, Windows will overwrite the original image with the rotated version completely silently! And to rub salt in the wound, the image conversion is carried out in a lossy way!