SUCCESS!

Failed on Windows 7 Home and Starter, Failed on Ubuntu, after an initial failure, succeeded in an old Windows XP machine I had been meaning to throw away.

I was successful also in installing GarnetVM, just as I suspected, it needed the update. But after installing dosbox, the keyboard program for it failed to install, oh well.

But now that I have GarnetVM working, I feel much more at peace with what I don't know about this device yet. Now off to figure out the hotsync problem (and how to run VM from the card) . . .