Curious,

[Auritribe]

I don't remember seeing anything about how the filesystem works on the GP2X. My memory is hazy and I'm at work so try to bear with me. I believe the the GP32 used .fxe files, so is it like that with the GP2X?

where I'm coming from is this, traditionally in linux all the binaries are stored in a place like /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin , or /usr/sbin
etc etc.

I was wondering, since this is a linux based handheld, how the executables would be stored. I dont know WHY I'm asking exactly, I had a reason before but I forgot, I'm very curious as to how the OS on the device works. One of the things that always made linux a little bit more complicated was the fact that the Binaries, and the resources usually were in different locations.

You'd have say, the program in /usr/bin , and then all the media files (images sounds) stored in something like /usr/share or /usr/local/share

So, I don't know where I'm going with this but I'm sure someone knows what I mean.

Edit: I think I meant to say file structure / hiarchy etc.

 

[lucoxade]

The binary files don't have to be in any of the bin/ folders they can be run from nearly anywhere. They are kept in the bin folders as that is where the shell will look for them first.

More than likely all the linux gubbins will be hidden in the NAND and all the user executable files/games will be drag and droppable straight onto the SD/spare NAND, just a guess tho, a dev will be able to tell you for sure.

 

[Aimless_E]

Your right, you did mean structure/hiarchy

regardless of the OS applications, libraries, data files can be stored anywhere on the harddrive. The program/game just has to know where you put them to execute correctly.

I think thats what you wanted to know

 

[woogal]

The launcher looks for .gpe files in /mnt/sd and /mnt/nand (the internal memory), and apps will also store data in one of these locations. The are of course the usual /usr/bin, /usr/local etc locations, but you shouldn't really start messing with those. This is only for linux apps - I'm not sure what the standard will be when non-linux apps start appearing.

 

[Auritribe]

The launcher looks for .gpe files in /mnt/sd and /mnt/nand (the internal memory), and apps will also store data in one of these locations. The are of course the usual /usr/bin, /usr/local etc locations, but you shouldn't really start messing with those. This is only for linux apps - I'm not sure what the standard will be when non-linux apps start appearing.

​

Ok, I think it all makes sense now. It searches for executable files on the card and then shows them in their proper category?

 

[woogal]

With the launcher, you select games then it asks if you want to look in sd or nand. After that you get a file browser showing folders and .gpe files, so you can organise your card into whatever folders you want and the launcher will only show the .gpe files and keep the data files hidden.

 

[Auritribe]

With the launcher, you select games then it asks if you want to look in sd or nand. After that you get a file browser showing folders and .gpe files, so you can organise your card into whatever folders you want and the launcher will only show the .gpe files and keep the data files hidden.

​

Thank you very much, that clears up everything

 

[DaveC]

The launcher looks for .gpe files in /mnt/sd and /mnt/nand (the internal memory), and apps will also store data in one of these locations. The are of course the usual /usr/bin, /usr/local etc locations, but you shouldn't really start messing with those. This is only for linux apps - I'm not sure what the standard will be when non-linux apps start appearing.

​

Hopefully it will stay clean and simple like the GP32. It is much easier to move/delete etc when the programs are in one logical place and mostly one file. I hate it when programs spray all kinds of shit in every directory. Then when you delete or move you almost always miss something, so annoying. I don't know why some developers think that is good

 

[DaveC]

With the launcher, you select games then it asks if you want to look in sd or nand. After that you get a file browser showing folders and .gpe files, so you can organise your card into whatever folders you want and the launcher will only show the .gpe files and keep the data files hidden.

​

That sounds involved and time consuming. It was nice on the GP32 when you just turned it on and you pick your game/app and go.

Having to navigate through a bunch of screens sounds annoying. Hopefully someone will come up with a replacement for that.

 

[Blah]

With the launcher, you select games then it asks if you want to look in sd or nand. After that you get a file browser showing folders and .gpe files, so you can organise your card into whatever folders you want and the launcher will only show the .gpe files and keep the data files hidden.

​

That sounds involved and time consuming. It was nice on the GP32 when you just turned it on and you pick your game/app and go.

Having to navigate through a bunch of screens sounds annoying. Hopefully someone will come up with a replacement for that.

​

Umm... DaveC, that sounds more like Slubmans firmware than "ohh bunch of annoying screens...Waaahh!! Replace it! Linux Sux!!! Im moving to PSP!111!!".

 

[reallynotnick]

I would really prefer to just get rid of the screen that chooses between the SD card and Nand and just have it automatically pick the sd card, I am not planing on using the 20mb of nand memory. Plus what if a fireware update requires more room, I say leave the nand alone. Or at the very least just have it read from both without you having to pic one. That would speed the picking process alot!

 

[PSyMastR]

I still dont know why GP://Game wasn't the folder to use on the GP32. And why did GPMM be used instead?

 

[judge0]

The launcher looks for .gpe files in /mnt/sd and /mnt/nand (the internal memory), and apps will also store data in one of these locations. The are of course the usual /usr/bin, /usr/local etc locations, but you shouldn't really start messing with those. This is only for linux apps - I'm not sure what the standard will be when non-linux apps start appearing.

​

Some sort of standard should be agreed upon before a lot of apps / games start appearing, each of which requiring a different directory structure.

ie Joe Blow releases PongMania, which requires sprites to be located in /mnt/sd/games/datawhile Jane Dow releases SkipMaster Deluxe, which places her custom support libs in /mnt/sd/games/data.

Uninstalling PongMania would trash Janes game, leading to endless flame wars . . .

Seriously, this could be discussed amongst the more advanced devs, and proposed in a poll in GP2X development for the community to agree upon.

This probably doesn't apply to any devs writing straight machine code apps which ignore linux altogether.


This post is a direct response to keeping my thumbs from twiddling while I await shipment of the durned unit . . :blink:

 

[Jarska333]

This post is a direct response to keeping my thumbs from twiddling while I await shipment of the durned unit . . :blink:

​

Don't let the post hatch break your nose. It doesn't fit, anyway.

 

[judge0]

This post is a direct response to keeping my thumbs from twiddling while I await shipment of the durned unit . . :blink:

​

Don't let the post hatch break your nose. It doesn't fit, anyway.

​

My nose ?

 

[Jarska333]

Maybe that too, but atleast the GP2X package wont.

Hold on, do people in other countries even have post hatches?

 

[lucoxade]

Maybe that too, but atleast the GP2X package wont.

Hold on, do people in other countries even have post hatches?

​

Hmm post hatches from eggs?

We have letterboxes in England

 

[Cahaz]

I would really prefer to just get rid of the screen that chooses between the SD card and Nand and just have it automatically pick the sd card, I am not planing on using the 20mb of nand memory. Plus what if a fireware update requires more room, I say leave the nand alone. Or at the very least just have it read from both without you having to pic one. That would speed the picking process alot!

​

20mb?

first time i hear that only 20mb of the NAND memory will be usable by the user to store what he wants.

Are you sure of what you say?

 

[woogal]

Some sort of standard should be agreed upon before a lot of apps / games start appearing, each of which requiring a different directory structure.

ie Joe Blow releases PongMania, which requires sprites to be located in /mnt/sd/games/datawhile Jane Dow releases SkipMaster Deluxe, which places her custom support libs in /mnt/sd/games/data.

​

Another way is to store each app in it's own folder and keep the data in that same folder (like the msdos way of doing things). The launcher automatically chdir's to the location of the exe, so for example duke3d normally looks for all it's data files in the same location as the exe which means as long as the exe and all the data files are in the same place you can call the folder whatever you want and place it wherever you like in the /mnt/sd directory structure. Would mean you'd have to press twice to launch (once to select the folder, then once again to select the exe within it), but it would also mean no hunting around for data files if you want to delete the app.

 

[judge0]

Maybe that too, but atleast the GP2X package wont.

Hold on, do people in other countries even have post hatches?

​

If Canada does they've kept it a secret from me . . .

Uhm, what is a post hatch? h34r:

@woogal - Sounds like a plan if all follow. Do you have any info on how the system handles permissions? ie is the system always in SU?