Any guide to porting software?


ekianjo

Hardcore Member
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
8,261
Location
神戸市、日本 (Japan)
HI, just a very simple question since I could not find a clear answer on the wiki or somewhere else. Is there any guide to porting software (once u have the source code) on the OP? I am familiar with compilation on Linux.
 
There should be a number of good threads from days past, so do some forum searching; there should be lots of good info on the wiki (and see the wiki emntries for 'libpnd hub' and 'kernel interfaces' among others.) Toolchains are hotley debated, but there is a stickied thread which lists off the popular builds, or you can roll your own gcc pretty easily.


All told, you can do a 'standard linux' port pretty easily; the work is in pandorification -- altering screen sizes of games, changing controls of games, making use of touchscreen, that sort of thing. Porting most desktop style applications is a cakewalk.. no work, or minor work in adjusting path assumptions or dialog box sizes.. ie: If the app sssumes writing to ~ or $HOME or the like, you'dhave to correct that to write to an SD of the users choice, but even if you don't.. it'll work, just writing to $HOME on NAND which is suboptimal.


ie: Its real linux, runs QT and GTK and SDL and so forth, so straight out of the box 'driveby ports' work, usually. Just not 'feeling native', but they run fine. (Heck, you can run Debian ARM packages on here without recompilation, for instance, half the time.)


jeff
 
All told, you can do a 'standard linux' port pretty easily; the work is in pandorification -- altering screen sizes of games, changing controls of games, making use of touchscreen, that sort of thing. Porting most desktop style applications is a cakewalk.. no work, or minor work in adjusting path assumptions or dialog box sizes.. ie: If the app sssumes writing to ~ or $HOME or the like, you'dhave to correct that to write to an SD of the users choice, but even if you don't.. it'll work, just writing to $HOME on NAND which is suboptimal.

Thanks for the answer. I checked the wiki again and found some pieces of answers. Actually, I was looking more for a step-by-step tutorial, with an example at hand, on how to do a porting (starting from the installation of the ARM cross-compiler to PND creation and repo registration). Catching the info piece by piece like in the wiki can work, but I feel that I may be missing some parts of the process, or find some errors which are not explained in the wiki. That's where a tutorial would help.


Is there anyone willing to publish an example from A to Z of how they do it ?
 
Is there anyone willing to publish an example from A to Z of how they do it ?
Usually if you have your enviroment ready to work you can't remember what and how you did it. The best way is to write it down at the moment of doing. So it's your turn now. You're in best position to do this.
 
Is there anyone willing to publish an example from A to Z of how they do it ?
Usually if you have your enviroment ready to work you can't remember what and how you did it. The best way is to write it down at the moment of doing. So it's your turn now. You're in best position to do this.

I was kind of expecting such an answer. Darn! :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My personal suggestion is to hop over to the IRC channel and ask aTc about it... if that doesn't get the silly notion out of your head... then you're good to go.


;-) (j/k)


cb
 
He was joking ;)


aTc is a handy fellow, but a bit of a grump; talking to him and you'll almost certainyl be wanting to slit your wrisst afterwards ;) But he does know his stuff, if you can get through the hardship :)


More to point .. #openpandora has a bunch of good folks popping in and out, including the OP team/devs :)


jeff
 
yeah, aTc brought my blood pressure through the roof the first time I logged into the Pandora IRC channel.. I asked a simple question about gcc optimization and he went on a rant that we didn't need any more crappy porters and such.. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I decided that was the first and last time using the Pandora IRC channel.


But I continued on with it.. released a couple of games to the repo. the Development section of this forum is a good place to ask questions and get a civilized response.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
yeah, aTc brought my blood pressure through the roof the first time I logged into the Pandora IRC channel.. I asked a simple question about gcc optimization and he went on a rant that we didn't need any more crappy porters and such.. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I decided that was the first and last time using the Pandora IRC channel.


But I continued on with it.. released a couple of games to the repo. the Development section of this forum is a good place to ask questions and get a civilized response.

haha, Allright. Let me get started and come back with a few questions later on... in the dev section.
 
People who have knowledge, but who cant inspire other people using it, are poor teachers.. and this a is real waste..
 
yeah, aTc brought my blood pressure through the roof the first time I logged into the Pandora IRC channel.. I asked a simple question about gcc optimization and he went on a rant that we didn't need any more crappy porters and such.. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I decided that was the first and last time using the Pandora IRC channel.


But I continued on with it.. released a couple of games to the repo. the Development section of this forum is a good place to ask questions and get a civilized response.
You can have civilized response on IRC, even from aTc :)
 
Back
Top