First information for new Pyra owners (FAQ)

[levi]

Phone support needs a chunk of work I expect, to make it usable in any form to the desktop user. But 4G data might already be a network interface visible to the system, I couldn't say. A user with a Pyra should be able to see that by typing in a terminal 'ip l'

 

[sebt3]

I don't think u-boot cares about boot flags at all, embedded systems behave a bit differently that standard PCs.

and none of them behave the same anyway

 

[EvilDragon]

How is the mobile data and phone support? Is that usable yet?

Mobile data should work, but I don't think there's any phone program available for Debian.

 

[elw3]

Well the program already installed should least be able to send and receive sms as well as sending carrier messages to eg charge a prepaid.
provided it will find the modem which it does not for me atm, probably killswitched or so.
Voice programs exist in the debian repo, but its doubtful they would work out of the box anytime soon.

 

[Swordfish II]

Audio is still a heavy work in progress right now. Unlike older devices where you simply had one audio stream which is cut off by hardware if you connect headphones, this one has multiple stream

Hmm alsa might be better for that. The trade-off is only one audio stream.

I have never been a huge pulse fan, too many issues, but i also don't use multiple streams.

 

[EvilDragon]

Hmm alsa might be better for that. The trade-off is only one audio stream.

I have never been a huge pulse fan, too many issues, but i also don't use multiple streams.

Pulseaudio runs on top of ALSA.
One issue is that we don't have AESS support in the driver yet (it only works on old kernels and hasn't been updated). AESS is needed for the hardware support of the sound chip (hardware-accelerated rate conversion, etc.)

Without that, the audio chip appears as a soundcard only supporting 96kHz with 4 audio outputs. The first two are the headphones port, the second two the speakers.
Mapping these streams, etc. is easier with PulseAudio.

Hopefully someone will get AESS working on the current kernel. Nikolaus has started to work on that, but it's not yet working unfortunately.
Getting AESS to work will improve the sound quality as well as lower the needed CPU usage (as rate conversion does not need to be done by the CPU)

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Mobile data should work, but I don't think there's any phone program available for Debian.

No but there are a few that can be compiled. You mentioned quite a while ago you made a test phone call and it worked. Did it work fully, as in you could hear each other and everything?

 

[matzesu]

Ok 3D Gaming is not usable now,

But what about Tetris? Super Mario Land ? Do 2D Emulator allready run?

And how do I get Software: do whe have something similar to the Ubuntu Software Center?


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[pyrat]

Ok 3D Gaming is not usable now,

But what about Tetris? Super Mario Land ? Do 2D Emulator allready run?

And how do I get Software: do whe have something similar to the Ubuntu Software Center?


Send from something, i guess ^^

Do you mean games in debian ? See this or that.
They may not all be available for armhf, check each package.
You can sudo apt install <package-name>
But you can also use aptitude or Synaptic (that should be in your Mate menu, System, Administration)
[Edit: no idea how any of those will work on the Pyra, because the nubs, shoulder buttons, etc. could or could not work properly or optimally, may need customization, I don't know]

 

[levi]

Debian claims to have an armhf package called gngb which is apparently a <=GB color emulator. Just be aware of point 3 in the OP; it won't fullscreen and it probably won't run well. May be enough to get a game of tetris out of it. Or you may be better off looking for native tetris games; of the ones I've surveyed just now, ltris, petris and even termtris look worth a spin, although termtris is probably only really worth a look if the others don't run well yet.

 

[Cralex]

Ok 3D Gaming is not usable now,

But what about Tetris? Super Mario Land ? Do 2D Emulator allready run?

And how do I get Software: do whe have something similar to the Ubuntu Software Center?


Send from something, i guess ^^

You have Synaptic, which lets you search for, install, uninstall, and update packages without using the command line. However, you might find the interface to be somewhat less friendly if you’re used to Software Center. I believe regular (non ARM) Debian has a version of Software Center that you can install as well if it’s there. Give it a search.

You can use the command line, synaptic and spftware center interchangeably, as they all use the same apt command under the hood.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[matzesu]

Ok, so I think until everything works properly, I will use my Picachu GBA SP whit IPS for this..
so the Pyra is at the Moment just a tiny work Computer..

For waiting time, I have also my kindle whit me..


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[pyrat]

I'm not into games (except when I am, but that's seldom). But since many people here are, maybe people could start something in the wiki about which ones (I'm thinking of debian buster packages, for ease of install without further packaging work, but might be others too) have been tested in Pyra and which not, how well they work and why (for example, if gngb needs SDL and SDL is pending, then note that so that once SDL is fixed everyone knows which games shold work then)... I don't know, I guess you all know better than me about this. Maybe even have a metapackage in a debian repository that suggests or recommends the ones tested to work (and maybe configures them for the Pyra or something, no idea).

 

[Inqui]

Ok, so I think until everything works properly, I will use my Picachu GBA SP whit IPS for this..
so the Pyra is at the Moment just a tiny work Computer..

For waiting time, I have also my kindle whit me..


Send from something, i guess ^^

Yesterday it took me a while to get something working.
I was not able to bring anything from synaptic manager to load games. Got many "file missing" and at some point i left that way. Tried to compile my own vba-m, but was to dump to start that afterwards....

Sorry not a real help when it goes deep in the system.
Finally i was able to install snap and load vba-m with a supporting armhf version.

Played around a bit with settings and it's working playable with turbo mode.
Turned off sound as its not nice at this state, will check that at sometime, but no need for pokemon for me.

So GB Pokemon Blue and GBA Pokemon Fire Red are working for me.

Thats what i wished for, at least for the next weeks.

 

[matzesu]

I don’t need my new 760 € Handheld yet for games, I have allready the 200 € GBA SP ..
if everything works, ok but at least I think I’m happy that my Voucher Code dit work and I have the Pyra Save in my Pocket ^^


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[CommanderB]

For SDL 1.2 some NEON patches exist (comparable to what Notaz did for Pandora's SDL mod)

ARM assembly to address performance of blit and fill routines · Issue #777 · libsdl-org/SDL-1.2

This bug report was migrated from our old Bugzilla tracker. These attachments are available in the static archive: ARM: Create configure option --enable-arm-simd to govern assembly optimizations (0...

bugzilla.libsdl.org

Tiler would be of course a far better solution, but wouldn't it worth a try to just cherry-pick the 1.2 version of the patch and build using --enable-arm-simd? The performance might be already sufficient for the beginning.

Unfortunately, I don't have a Pyra yet, so I can't test the approach :/

 

[EvilDragon]

For SDL 1.2 some NEON patches exist (comparable to what Notaz did for Pandora's SDL mod)

ARM assembly to address performance of blit and fill routines · Issue #777 · libsdl-org/SDL-1.2

This bug report was migrated from our old Bugzilla tracker. These attachments are available in the static archive: ARM: Create configure option --enable-arm-simd to govern assembly optimizations (0...

bugzilla.libsdl.org

Tiler would be of course a far better solution, but wouldn't it worth a try to just cherry-pick the 1.2 version of the patch and build using --enable-arm-simd? The performance might be already sufficient for the beginning.

Unfortunately, I don't have a Pyra yet, so I can't test the approach :/

Oh, that sounds nice .)
Yeah, if someone would want to work on this and get a working and optimized SDL, all we need to do is package it up for our Debian repo.

 

[matzesu]

Maybe I should read some more about Debian, and Linux and this whole Software Installation over the terminal, as I have to wait until Friday anyway..
Whit the Pandora PND System, this was maybe to easy, download drag and drop ,
At least on this Stage of Software Development, Owning a Pyra may be not that easy..


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Personally I storngly favour the command line anyway though I'm not sure how easy it will be to type fast on the Pyra. From the cases which I got it looks like I may be able to type with 10 fingers but I do not like the staggering at all.

 

[TrashyMG]

The good thing about the DBP system is unlike PND, the programs inside the DBP are available via command line as well as the desktop/menus without having to do any special mount commands and such.