Help for new Pandora user

[Charfield1]

Hello I have just signed up to the Community and would welcome some advice as I'm new to this platform and am trying to configure the Pandora for my 12 year old to play the many retro-type games available.

I successfully managed to bid for the Pandora via EBay and it arrived from Germany a few days ago. We are extremely pleased to aquire this tremendous machine.

The specifications are as follows;

OpenPandora (with silver case ), after charging the battery and booting up, it displays Kernel 3.2 with Angstrom System 1.60 Super Zaxxon, then opens up Xfe4 Version 4.6.2.

I understand that it might need to be upgraded, so I started by trying a few options on the GUI. First, I attempted to configure an SD card in slot 1, but the machine requires an administrative password. I then tried to connect to WLAN and it indicated that it was connected and displayed a red LED at left of machine ( though I wasn't prompted for a wireless key ). I then attempted to update/upgrade the system from the menu and again I was asked for the administrative password.

I contacted the EBay seller who was very helpful and asked that I try a password provided - unfortunately this failed. The next item of advice was to consider re-flashing the firmware, which I presume is the best way forward.

I would be grateful for any advice on how to go about this task. I have the SD card ready to download the firmware to the card, but am now stuck where to go from there.

I am hoping to have the Pandora ready for Christmas so my son can use the system to its full potential.

Apologies in advance if this message is protracted and written to the wrong thread. We have read a lot of posts, but I'm just a bit concerned that re-flashing the firmware might make the machine unusable.

Thanks in advance and Happy Christmas from the UK

PS: Have been a Linux user for over 10 years on PC & Laptop, but a bit stumped on proceeding on the Pandora due to the problem outlined above...

 

[Alperoot]

1. You will need an SD card formatted with the FAT32 filesystem (default on Windows).
2. Download the latest full-flash operating system zip. (http://openpandora.org/firmware/fullflash/SuperZaxxon175.zip)
3. Extract the contents of the operating system zip file to the root (top level) directory of the SD card.
4. Make sure your Pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
5. Insert the SD card into your Pandora's first slot (the one on the left, which is closer to the headphone jack).
6. Press and hold the right shoulder button ('R'), then turn the power on (if you removed the battery, insert it while holding 'R').
7. A text menu should appear on screen. Switch to "boot from SD1" using the D-pad, and select this entry with either the 'B' or 'X' controller button.
8. Wait for the flash process to finish. Connect a charger to be sure the battery doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so. This might take up to 15 minutes, so be sure to wait for it to finish.
9. If you use an external power supply, the device will reboot. Otherwise, it should turn off - in this case press power (without holding 'R') to turn it back on.
10. The Pandora should then start its first boot process which might take up to 15 minutes. Be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen. The installation process will show some warnings, which can be safely ignored.
11. When everything is set up, you will be guided through the first boot wizard.

Source : https://pandorawiki.org/Ångström

 

[Charfield1]

1. You will need an SD card formatted with the FAT32 filesystem (default on Windows).
2. Download the latest full-flash operating system zip. (http://openpandora.org/firmware/fullflash/SuperZaxxon175.zip)
3. Extract the contents of the operating system zip file to the root (top level) directory of the SD card.
4. Make sure your Pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
5. Insert the SD card into your Pandora's first slot (the one on the left, which is closer to the headphone jack).
6. Press and hold the right shoulder button ('R'), then turn the power on (if you removed the battery, insert it while holding 'R').
7. A text menu should appear on screen. Switch to "boot from SD1" using the D-pad, and select this entry with either the 'B' or 'X' controller button.
8. Wait for the flash process to finish. Connect a charger to be sure the battery doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so. This might take up to 15 minutes, so be sure to wait for it to finish.
9. If you use an external power supply, the device will reboot. Otherwise, it should turn off - in this case press power (without holding 'R') to turn it back on.
10. The Pandora should then start its first boot process which might take up to 15 minutes. Be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen. The installation process will show some warnings, which can be safely ignored.
11. When everything is set up, you will be guided through the first boot wizard.

Source : https://pandorawiki.org/Ångström

Many thanks for the prompt response! Will give this a go and report back.
Just a final question regarding point #3;
Once the SD card is formatted to FAT32, will I have to create a root directory or other directories before extracting the zip file, or will these directories be created automatically during extraction? I read on another thread about preparing the SD card to receive the extracted zip file in the event that the 'boot' might not execute.
As explained previously I had attempted to mount a new SD card with a format and creation of all the necessary directories but was presented with the administrative password and of course that failed.
I'll go ahead anyway - thanks for the advice.

 

[PowerGod]

Pay attention with the battery, it is better to put it in only when the pandora is OFF and without the AC cable plugged in, else there's a chance to fry something.

 

[Eight Bit]

without the AC cable plugged in

THIS!

Or just let the battery stay in place. I never remove mine. Ever...

 

[Charfield1]

THIS!

Or just let the battery stay in place. I never remove mine. Ever...

Ok, I have completed all instructions, including number 6 to show the boot menu.
The boot menu does not offer 'boot from SD 1'
What I do get is the following:
Boot Menu

Default boot
Power off
Boot older 2.6.27 kernel (OMAP-only)
Boot in CLI mode (kernel 3.2)
Boot with RAM cut for DSP (2.6.27) (OMAP - only)
USB serial prompt
Serial prompt
These are the 7 options, no option to boot from SD1

Please help!!

 

[TrashyMG]

Is the SD card formatted to FAT32? if it's exFAT it won't work as in it won't be able to see the boot files.

 

[Alperoot]

Ok, I have completed all instructions, including number 6 to show the boot menu.
The boot menu does not offer 'boot from SD 1'
What I do get is the following:
Boot Menu

Default boot
Power off
Boot older 2.6.27 kernel (OMAP-only)
Boot in CLI mode (kernel 3.2)
Boot with RAM cut for DSP (2.6.27) (OMAP - only)
USB serial prompt
Serial prompt
These are the 7 options, no option to boot from SD1

Please help!!

Sometimes only old SD cards work, it never worked on my 32GB FAT32 card, but then it did work with a 4 GB one.

 

[Charfield1]

[QUOTE="Alpibrine28, post: 1401162

Thanks for the advice everyone. Yes I 'was' using a 8GB Sandisk SD and I initially formatted it to FAT32 on a Windows platform.
Then I attempted to boot up in Pandora - no option to boot from SD1

So I went to my 'trusty' Linux machine and opened up GParted, then deleted the partition and formatted the SD card to ext2 and enabled flags to 'boot'. Then copied the zip-file in to the new partition and extracted it. So far so good!
Re-inserted the SD card in to Pandora slot1 and low and behold I was given the option to boot from SD1.
It has now fully installed the 'Welcome' Wizard.
It took about 5-10 minutes but seems to be working and fully up to date.

If using ext2 is a potential problem, then please let me know.

Once again, thanks for all the advice.

 

[canseco]

If using ext2 is a potential problem, then please let me know.

No problem at all, even ext4 works great, at least it worked for me with 3 SD cards for 4 years.

But with FAT32, you can have permission problems or some programs expecting a journaled file system that would fail to work correctly.

Anyway, welcome to the party/jungle,

 

[HelenF]

My EXT2 cards were getting corrupted any time I let the battery run out (while the FAT32 ones were usually OK for some reason). And EXT2 is slow on big files. I'm now using some cards with FAT32 and some with EXT4.

A few programs (e.g. Code::Blocks) need a file system with the permissions and special files. On the other hand, a few programs might break if there are permissions.

You can only boot from EXT4 after doing a full flash or u-boot update to SZ 1.75 (which it seems the OP has done).

 

[levi]

No problem at all, even ext4 works great, at least it worked for me with 3 SD cards for 4 years.

But with FAT32, you can have permission problems or some programs expecting a journaled file system that would fail to work correctly.

I can't think of many programs that even know if a filesystem is journalled or not, and those are filesystem debug tools. Games and general apps really shouldn't care. But yeah, there are other reasons why ext3/4 is better than ext2, and I just use ext4 for everything these days.

 

[canseco]

I can't think of many programs that even know if a filesystem is journalled or not, and those are filesystem debug tools.

Yep, i was wrong about programs expecting journaling, maybe i confused it with the lack of hard links, soft links or case-sentitive among other things FAT32 doesn't support.

My EXT2 cards were getting corrupted any time I let the battery run out (while the FAT32 ones were usually OK for some reason). And EXT2 is slow on big files. I'm now using some cards with FAT32 and some with EXT4.

EXT2 didn't had journaled filesystem, but FAT32 supports partially journaled metadata at least, so you can still recover something.

On the other hand, a few programs might break if there are permissions.

They could not work if permissions are not correct, not because the filesystem supports permissions.

 

[rygD]

Can we get this stickied/pinned?

 

[Charfield1]

I'm pleased that this thread has proved useful, in particular relating to 'Journaled File systems' and the like.
In hindsight I may well have formatted the SD card to Ext4, but I was under a bit of time pressure to get the Pandora re-boxed and wrapped up for XMas to avoid peering eyes which might spoil the surprise - ( I wish I now had 2 of these machines as they are fantastic!). Everything appears to be fine and Dandy and it will be 'all systems go' as from XMas Day as its now sitting under the tree awaiting to be re-opened for the really serious fun stuff.
No doubt I will encounter issues in the future, but that's what it's all about.
On this occasion it all worked out in the end, which typifies using any Linux based systems - and our understandings become broader.
That's it until XMas - thanks to everyone who helped me sort this issue out.
I could say ' this is just the start of the beginning!'
Cheers...

 

[levi]

Awesome! Now subscribe to Pyra news so that you can buy one of those for yourself once they're out. Or even preorder one now if you're feeling lucky

 

[rygD]

I'm pleased that this thread has proved useful

Your difficulty shows that this info needs to be easier to find. The thread is also helpful for those of us that have been around for a bit, as I learned a couple things, and I am sure others can as well.

Both of you enjoy the Pandora. Do you know which version it is? I saw you say it has a silver case, which doesn't help much with identification since I have a refurbished classic unit in a silver case. If you decide to pick up a second one for yourself you might want to look for a 1GHz unit, as some things will only work with those. I have one of the earliest ones made and love it, so if you won't be playing those games that require more power you might be able to save yourself a little money. Or you could get yourself a Pyra and join us on the journey from the beginning.

Oh, and welcome, we would love to have you stick around.

 

[Charfield1]

Thanks for the comments and welcome(s). I'll certainly sign up to Pyra News, as I anticipate the learning curve will continue.
In a kind of envious way, I just 'have' to have one of these beauties for myself, which could be useful when my son starts to use his one. (though he is quite Tech-Savvy). That should be a good enough excuse for me though!
It's like that kind of feeling when you buy a present for someone and wished you had kept it for yourself..haha. If I acquire a new Pyra, I will end up with the older one - but no problem.
Sadly, I have already gift-wrapped the box, so I will wait until later to discreetly unwrap it to get the model number which was printed on the inside of the box under the battery.
All I can say at this time is that it is the 'Classic Model' and I have provided a link below which is essentially what I got - pictures and all. I have noted the comment regarding using the 'box' for games. Conveniently, there is a toggle menu to over-clock which I think goes up to 800 with a default of 600. I discovered this when I was taking the battery in and out and booting up, each time telling me my clock was set to 800 with the option to 'play safe' at 600. No doubt I'll have a toggle with that feature in due course.
Anyhow, the link is what I have.
What you see is what I got ( WYSIWIG)
Cheers again...

http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eB...169&category=139971&pm=1&ds=0&t=1482318993089

 

[rygD]

The "Classic" is the earliest model, and is what I have. No worries, all the bad stuff mentioned when you overclock probably won't really happen, although it could, in theory, kill it quicker.

 

[PowerGod]

...kill it quicker.

To make it really die fast you'll have to keep it going 24/7 overclocked like hell. The ARM processor doesn't explode like the x86, it just consume itself faster, but we are speaking about years of running there.

Mainly if you overclock too much, the Pandora will become crazy or not responsive, but it just needs a reboot with the right clock speed and everything returns normal again, that's why there's the selector when you turn it on.