Hello, Just Joined The Community

[ekianjo]

Also: is there an alternative way to 'shift'? I've noticed that when using the pandora keyboard, when you want to write a captial A, Q, Z, or make the symbols < >, that it's very hard! You have to hold the shift key down with one finger of a hand, and stretch your other hand all the way across the keyboard, in such a way where you don't drop your pandora? Is there a "better" way?

 
Do a caps lock just like on a regular computer.

That hardly helps the situation. It would be nice if one could "sticky" the shift so the next (non simultaneous) letter pressed were shifted. (As the n900 does it)

Sorry how is that different from caps lock when doing fn and shift?

 

[Yellow Kitty]

Well, the left shoulder button is mapped to Shift and the right is mapped to Ctrl. 

Aha! It worked. Thanks Shenmue.

@Ekianjo: I learned the hard way that the 'shift' button isn't "sticky". I thought it was broken at first. But you have to hold it down. I did figure out that "caps lock" was useful

@RygD: Yes, those numbers. Someday I'll learn to customize my pandora like you!

I installed PanDebian yesterday!

By the way, can somebody teach me how to escape out of games and emulators to return back to the desktop? I tried Vice x64 a few times and playing OpenTTD and I had a difficult time closing them. I had to press and hold the Pandora button... then push random buttons until something happened.

 

[mcobit]

As with computer programs, there is no uniform way to close applications.


Most of the time, Esc, Q, or Pandorabutton should work.


Also there are documentation entries in the menu for most apps. You can read them to get the basics.

 

[rygD]

Someday I'll learn to customize my pandora like you!  

Most is pretty simple.  Right click on things and see what you can do.  If you want to try Live system info it is here.  There is a config file you can edit to move it where you want on the display.  Another great tool is Pandora System Info.  There is a lot of really good stuff on the repo.  Maybe you should just get everything and try them out and delete what you don't want to keep.

Check in the repo description or in the documentation to see if there are instructions for exiting games.  I sometimes forget and if it isn't one of the common ways I have to reboot...

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Try openbox, it's another nice alternative, lighter and very customizable than xfce.  It's on the repo too.

 

[Yellow Kitty]

@RygD & Shenmue: I installed Live System Info, Pandora System Info, & Openbox. Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

I noticed with the OpenBox GUI that when you push the pandora button to get into > System, it doesn't work. A small dialogue box stating something was invalid pops up. Otherwise it's a very noce GUI!

I'll go look around the repo for anything I can fit into my pandora!

 

[rygD]

I noticed with the OpenBox GUI that when you push the pandora button to get into > System, it doesn't work. A small dialogue box stating something was invalid pops up.

Thanks for bringing this up.  This is the type of stuff that leads me to not using it primarily.  For me there is a problem with one of the files used to make the menus using stuff on SD cards.  I think it is the system category.  I have tried to fix it, but with all the little things adding up I stopped using OpenBox.  When I tried messing with it a little while ago I notice it killed live system info when I hit the Pandora key to open the start menu type thing, and as you mentioned it did nothing.  I think when I right or left clicked on the desktop it opened the menu, so if you like it for the most part, and you don't feel like moving the mouse, just click (unless there are icons or something covering the desktop).  

I just remembered that AB mouse was also killed when I tried to open the menu with the Pandora key, and, due to my nub settings, I had to switch over to the stylus.

I think Pandora system info is best when you are testing stuff, or trying to get info over a period of time.  I haven't really figured out how to do much more than get the pages with graphs and everything that pops up when you run it.  I think there is more to it, and I should probably sit down and figure everything out.  Generally I just keep live system info running to monitor everything it spits onto the screen, which isn't necessary for what I am usually doing, but I like watching anyway.

 

[Yellow Kitty]

I noticed with the OpenBox GUI that when you push the pandora button to get into > System, it doesn't work. A small dialogue box stating something was invalid pops up.

Thanks for bringing this up.  This is the type of stuff that leads me to not using it primarily. 

You're welcome. It's still a very nice layout and theme! Did you make it? I like it because the desktop is not cluttered with icons. The warlock bar is really cool On my pandora's default xfce desktop, all the PND files I have clutters the desktop. I tried to delete the icons, but they come back when I turn it on or restart it I checked the folder > /pandora/desktop/ and there is nothing in there. I place all of the PND files in > /pandora/apps/ folder. Should I move them all to /pandora/menu/ instead?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

@RygD & Shenmue: I installed Live System Info, Pandora System Info, & Openbox. Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

I noticed with the OpenBox GUI that when you push the pandora button to get into > System, it doesn't work. A small dialogue box stating something was invalid pops up.

The Codecpack PND is the one that causes this.  What you need to do is move that PND to the /pandora/desktop directory so it will only shows up on the desktop and won't show up in the System menu.  Or you can delete it after installing the codecpack as it that pnd won't be need after it installs its stuff to NAND.

As for XFCE, if you don't want icons on desktop, go to Settings/Desktop/Desktop and choose Minized application icons in the Icon type.

 

[Yellow Kitty]

@RygD & Shenmue: I installed Live System Info, Pandora System Info, & Openbox. Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

I noticed with the OpenBox GUI that when you push the pandora button to get into > System, it doesn't work. A small dialogue box stating something was invalid pops up.

The Codecpack PND is the one that causes this.  What you need to do is move that PND to the /pandora/desktop directory so it will only shows up on the desktop and won't show up in the System menu.  Or you can delete it after installing the codecpack as it that pnd won't be need after it installs its stuff to NAND.

As for XFCE, if you don't want icons on desktop, go to Settings/Desktop/Desktop and choose Minized application icons in the Icon type.

Aha! You did it again! I minimized the apps like you said, and all the icons are gone from my desktop. I deleted the CodekPack also and the system button works now!

Okay, is there a way to customize that warlock bar, as in to delete some icons and put in others?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

You are on your own now as I don't use that warlock bar on mine

I'm sure you can do that.  Just wait for someone more knowledge than me to help you out on this one.

 

[mcobit]

The apps folder will make them appear on the desktop AND in the menu.


If you only want them in the menu, place them in a folder /pandora/menu instead.

 

[Ziz]

@Ingoreis: Guten tag mein freunde! Ich sprechen pochito de Aleman (y espanol y esperanto tambien). I took elementary German in high school for a year!

Your German sounds as good as Ingo's (or to be fair: mine) English. :>

Welcome aboard!

 

[rygD]

Did you make it?

Nope, I am not exactly productive here.  I try to help out when I can through whatever I am able to do.

I like it because the desktop is not cluttered with icons.

On my pandora's default xfce desktop, all the PND files I have clutters the desktop.

Should I move them all to /pandora/menu/ instead?

I see that everyone already gave you the information, but since I typed it, here ya go:

I hide icons on all desktops I use.  You can hide icons on the Xfce desktop, and, yes, you can put all pnds in the menu folder so they only show up in the menu.

 

[Yellow Kitty]

Did you make it?

Nope, I am not exactly productive here.  I try to help out when I can through whatever I am able to do.

I like it because the desktop is not cluttered with icons.

On my pandora's default xfce desktop, all the PND files I have clutters the desktop.

Should I move them all to /pandora/menu/ instead?

I see that everyone already gave you the information, but since I typed it, here ya go:

I hide icons on all desktops I use.  You can hide icons on the Xfce desktop, and, yes, you can put all pnds in the menu folder so they only show up in the menu.

Thank you. I relocated all my PND files to the menu folder, then put the desktop icons back to default launcher. That did it. Now I can populate the desktop with a few of the apps I use a lot!

I also learned how to install things on the PanDebian. For some reason the synaptic thing doesn't work for me? I use the terminal and 'aptitude install...' which works. I've installed Open Office, Dragon Player, & VLC! It all works! This is just like a mini laptop. I love it!

 

[mcobit]

Debian has a lot of options to install packages.


The had way is to compile them yourself, the easier one is to use dpkg. Then there is apt zhat is kind of a database and frontend for dpkg and aptitude is a frontend for apt.


So many options in linux. Gotta love it.

 

[rygD]

I use the terminal and

I love hearing this.  I wish more modern users weren't afraid of the command line.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

@Kitty:  You can bring up the synaptic package manager via commandline.  Just do sudo synaptic

Also, you can upgrade it to wheezy, jessie, or sid.  I'm running debian sid now and it works nicely.

If you wish, you can also install the xfce4 package which will give you full debian desktop environment within Zaxxon.  

 

[Yellow Kitty]

@ McObit & RygD: I really like Debian, mostly for the enormous amount of software and packages! I used to be afraid of the terminal a year ago, but I like it now. Still don't know how to use it fully, but I'm getting there.

@Shenmue: Thank you again! I'll use 'sudo synaptic' like you said! I have Sneezy or Squeezy [whatever] on my PanDebian. I tried to install Lenny and Sid but I get errors and Debian fails to install. With Sid, After it collects all of its packages and is ready to extract them it says: 'xzcat is not in system,' and stops installing. Sneezy is the only one that works for me. I would really like to use xfce4 on my Pandora. Do you have a link where I can find it at? I'll try and google for it.

 

[TrashyMG]

yeah the wheezy option is broken in the installer, suppose you could try to drop a compiled version of xzcat into the appdata folder of the installer PND.. but that is a bit overboard..  

However I've used this tutorial to apt upgrade squeeze to wheezy on pandebian.

http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-upgrade-debian-squeeze-to-wheezy

Although I didn't bother backing up the /etc directory in the first step.. It wasn't necessary.