Announcing Droidora - - - HELP WANTED

[MarioPandio]

Cheers Cyberworm, I got proactive earlier this morning already and used an xubuntu live CD for a dual boot, got the files all sorted am upping them to megaupload, for any windows/Pandora users to grab! Edit: if that's okay with yourself that is?


I got the Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2) error on my first boot and had to dash to appointment, so haven't seen it boot yet. I'll be testing it with Dave1234's SD installer too (you'll have to swap the uImage and boot.txt manually after it runs) to see if it works with that aswell. Thanks for the response though and of course the porting work

 

[Cyberworm]

Of course that's okay with me

 

[Foxgod]

Interesting project, will this allow us to run android games that people play on their phones, such as angry bird?

 

[darfgarf]

such as angry bird?

that's the fps version where you're one bad ass-bird killing everything alone right?


that's the thing with android, once it's running there's no reason any app won't run (obviously there is for weird native using ones etc)

 

[TrashyMG]

that's the fps version where you're one bad ass-bird killing everything alone right?

I kind of see it like Max Payne meets Big Bird from Sesame Street.

 

[WizardStan]

As for the app store: No. Google has a document listing requirements for a device to be "Android compatible" and that includes things like an accelerometer. Only if the device is Android compatible it may get access to the Android Market.

Eeeehh, technically. Unofficially there are ways of getting on the app store. There are also ways of downloading the installers to your PC and then installing manually.


So not entirely without option, just without official support.

 

[Nardella]

Perhaps you can make the app store THINK the Pandora has the required specs, I have also heard that there are unofficial app stores.

 

[darfgarf]

Perhaps you can make the app store THINK the Pandora has the required specs, I have also heard that there are unofficial app stores.

there's no point, you can install the market on any android device, and it'll work perfectly fine, only advantage of that would be installing software that needs things that don't exist, which wouldn't ever work


the alternate app stores aren't amazing, nothing more than a page of links to apk downloads

 

[meandu229]

Cheers Cyberworm, I got proactive earlier this morning already and used an xubuntu live CD for a dual boot, got the files all sorted am upping them to megaupload, for any windows/Pandora users to grab! Edit: if that's okay with yourself that is?


I got the Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2) error on my first boot and had to dash to appointment, so haven't seen it boot yet. I'll be testing it with Dave1234's SD installer too (you'll have to swap the uImage and boot.txt manually after it runs) to see if it works with that aswell. Thanks for the response though and of course the porting work

Would love to see this, Id do it but gonna be rushed next few days

 

[WizardStan]

Perhaps you can make the app store THINK the Pandora has the required specs, I have also heard that there are unofficial app stores.

The problem isn't with getting software to think the hardware is capable, it's getting Google to give us the marketplace software. Google only gives it to devices that meet their requirements.

 

[Nardella]

Okay, it was my understanding that you needed the marketplace to get apps onto a droid device, clearly I was misinformed.

 

[MarioPandio]

Well I've failed utterly to get beyond the error message today with what little time I've had, despite trying rootdelay values from 1 to 10 and alot of SD card ejecting but the files are here :


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PSLY6MS5 tar.gz (with the .git folder)


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FLGRAF9O (7z without .git folder)


I dont know if the permission changes in the wiki (in bold below) can be performed on the Pandora either, or if the GIT download in ubuntu was required for more than grabbing the 'compiled' folder of files, which perhaps renders it moot anyway?


After preparing the sd-card copy both the uImage and the autoboot.txt file to the first partition of the sd-card. After that unpack rootfs.tar.bz2 onto the second partition:


$ sudo tar xjvf rootfs.tar.bz2 --numeric-owner -C /media/rootfs/


$ sync


Before you can use Droidora now, you'll have to set the proper rights:


$ sudo chmod 777 -R /media/rootfs/*


$ sudo chmod 6755 /media/rootfs/system/xbin/su


$ sync


The first command will make every binary executable (actually every file, but this way it's easier) and the second one will set the right uid for su to gain root access.





My intention had been to get it running, then tar or zip up the resultant filestructure again + the uImage and boot.txt (to manually place) so anyone could quickly unpack it onto SD or use the SD installer to do the same.





I shall try again tomorrow with more SD cards, fresh downloads etc incase its a card fault or something

 

[MarioPandio]

I got clobbered by the original release of that in the unusual tar.xyxzywhateverthehellextensionyouarethingy

I must return to the new version at some point. Lots to check out already though...what with RIOTT games, I just discovered Albion and that's given a taste for point n click stuff, so Scummvm guide from mcobit has pointed to a trove of titles legally....my Pandora is well fed

 

[Lord Moonscar]

This is a good alternative android app store apk file

 

[Tom`]

Well I've failed utterly to get beyond the error message today with what little time I've had, despite trying rootdelay values from 1 to 10 and alot of SD card ejecting

I really don't know what I'm talking about, but it sounds a bit like what happens when you try to load from a filesystem you don't have the drivers for (like if you compiled the driver as a kernel module, but you can't load it since you don't have the rootfs available yet). I don't know if that's the case here, but I've encountered similar error messages for that reason in the past. It could be that you need to e. g. set up an initrd with whatever you need to boot the system.

 

[MarioPandio]

Had a fresh try this morning on a new SD card set up with gparted from the Pandora, untar'd, changed permissions and ...Yay! Except it showed the splash screen, reached the desktop and after a short time dropped back a console of messages and is hanging there with occasional SD light activity.


About to get cut off for a fibre optic install and faster internet for a few hours now! Bugger

 

[notaz]

What is the kernel based on?


You could have cloned the kernel from your source, not just copied the files and pushed them to GIT, stripping whole history. Now it's real hard to see what was changed, and what it's based on.

 

[Cyberworm]

Had a fresh try this morning on a new SD card set up with gparted from the Pandora, untar'd, changed permissions and ...Yay! Except it showed the splash screen, reached the desktop and after a short time dropped back a console of messages and is hanging there with occasional SD light activity.


About to get cut off for a fibre optic install and faster internet for a few hours now! Bugger

Oh, that's the screen that appears when Android is in stand-by. Try pushing ALT+F7 a few times until you see the locked screen and then push the Pandora button a few times until it is unlocked again.

What is the kernel based on?


You could have cloned the kernel from your source, not just copied the files and pushed them to GIT, stripping whole history. Now it's real hard to see what was changed, and what it's based on.

It's based on 2.6.37. I'll try to improve the repository (upping the original source and then my additions). Thanks for the feedback.

 

[meandu229]

Im up and running used the sd installer then changed the autoboot.txt to ext3 and mmcblk0p3 (from p2 because of swap) and it worked,, before I changed the autoboot I was getting the kernel panic sync error. Seems to work fairly well, still a long long way to go but for a 1st release is good, astro file manager works but ive tried a few games and had no luck such as angry birds appears to run but above the screen so all I see is the bottom of the title screen at the top of the screen

 

[MarioPandio]

Good to hear the SD installer worked. In my case it claimed it couldn't open the required files from the archive. I presumed it was looking for Pandora files and failing to find them, so did it manually. I also didn't know about waking it back up with Alt+f7, so thought it was crashing out somehow (thanks for the pointer Cyberworm). Nice to see it so far though