Release Hotfix 4 Final Released!

[naples39]

As for the stuttering, it seems partially fixed since hotfix beta 3. In gpfce for example, it's not stuttering anymore. Mame4all however still seems to stutter. :huh:

MAME4ALL has sound problems, those are not related to any Hotfix

I am certainly no expert, but mame4all did not stutter before this hotfix, and now it stutters even with sound emulation disabled entirely. I'll survive, just sayin'.

 

[notaz]

Maybe minimenu is still overriding your overclock there.

 

[skeezix]

minimenu should default to not touching the clockrate; or if its been set to, can disable that in the mm conf UI.

(thats the 'speed on leaving mmenu' setting.)

(in beta 4, I removed the 'speed inside mmenu', since it seemed to crash when reading SDs at high speed (!!) during image caching, and added the toggle for 'change cpu speed on leaving' (yes/no, default no). So by default it should do nothing it didn't already do, speedwise. (Even if you'd used beta 3 and had the speed mucking, going to beta 4 would have disabled that.)

Mind you, going to the new hotfix using mmenu, would probably show more tabs than folks had seen before, so that they could then turn them off using the UI. So I have worried that people had only a few tabs, now have like 20 tabs, and don't notice they can disable them now.. maybe I should put a 'random tip' into the detail-box on startup; I did add 'hit select for the menu' or whatever there, as a tip off, though..

jeff

 

[Prometheus]

I've installed the hotfix, and it mostly went well, except it told me that the kernel could not be updated due to a checksum error. It told me to check my SD Card, and to re-copy the PND to it and try again. I did this, and also removed the entry that the updater left in the appdata folder on the SD Card it was run from, but the PND refuses to execute again. I even tried re-downloading it, and that didn't help either.

Any suggestions, please?

The good news is that this update, inexplicably, fixed the problem I had been having with NesEmu failing to save states properly, and failing to run ever again after trying to save a state. I have no idea why this would fix that issue, but it did. Thanks. Now I can finally get stuck into my NES collection on my Pandora!

EDIT: Oh, and I must say that I absolutely LOVE the speed setting dialogue. It's so useful, as I often forget to manually adjust my speed before running something that needs an overclock. Thanks very much for that one - it's an excellent addition and a great bit of polish.

 

[naples39]

Okay, it appears to be a setting in mame4all. If you set the video sync to "vsync", it runs okay. Setting it to "normal" will cause the stuttering as seen in other programs in beta 3.

I guess I'll give you guys a break from my valuable feedback. :unsure:

 

[EvilDragon]

ED, what about my UFT8 proposal, is it still in the testing phase? :lol:

Yep, if you browse through the internet, you can find a lot of problem posts regarding UTF8 with VFAT - definately not something I want to put into the final without real testing.
I need to get to a Windows Box, too, and create files with Umlauts first

 

[Lorkile]

Thanks Ed, I've been reading about all the changes included in this hotfix and waiting patiently for a final before updating.

 

[DaveC]

The FIR filter thing is really nice, you can disable the blurry scaling in GINGE etc. and use nearest neighbour.
All you have to do is run: sudo /usr/pandora/scripts/op_videofir.sh none

Cool now if I could just click on an icon through minimenu to toggle that would be cool. Don't you have to enter passwords and stuff to get it to work with that command line method? I hope apps start adding this as an option in their menus in the future, would be convenient.

New things planned for HF5:
* Remove caching to NAND for as many programs as possible

Caching to NAND? That sounds like a really bad, bad thing. When the NAND gets full and/or if it gets corrupted you have problems, or just wears out you have a brick.

Why are apps still doing this? I thought this appdata thing was supposed to keep apps from doing that? They should write all of their crap there. There should be some kind of rule that if you don't absolutely HAVE to write to NAND you shouldn't. Also I think apps that do should warn you in their documentations that they do so you can choose not to use them.

Also there should be a guide of how to delete all of the useless (to some) shit like demos, unwanted apps, card games etc.

 

[skeezix]

Good idea .. We could probably opkg remove some junk, but probably not too too much extras in there.

ED is working on the filter selector so should be in HF5 but yeah, apps will have to look into it perhaps, and maybe a libpnd change to force (?) it back to default on exit so misbehaved apps dont chabge it and forget to change it back?

Should also add in an option so appdata can group with the app, for you and time permitting, when looking at an ovr editor, will make it so you can override preview pics even if not present.. I didnt forget!

Only a couple apps are spitting to nand, like chromium .. Not really ported to pandora, just hacked to run on it, so doesnt follow all the rules, but likely an easy workaround

Jeffphone

 

[EvilDragon]

I meant internal apps like ClawsMail, Thunar, etc.
PNDs usually don't use cache on the NAND.

 

[peca]

I booting from card and run HF4 PDN. Is HF4 applied to OS on card or to OS on NAND? Anyway, after this I run HF4 PND again, but boot from NAND instead from card. I'm not sure, how to state what HF is applied and if all patches from it.
---
And for explanation - I'm a lame in Linux (just an user).

 

[EvilDragon]

I booting from card and run HF4 PDN. Is HF4 applied to OS on card or to OS on NAND? Anyway, after this I run HF4 PND again, but boot from NAND instead from card. I'm not sure, how to state what HF is applied and if all patches from it.
---
And for explanation - I'm a lame in Linux (just an user).

As HF4 installs most things using a package manager, it will update your main OS.
That means: If you boot from your SD Card, it updates the OS on your SD Card.
If you boot from NAND, it updates the OS on your NAND.

The only thing that is not properly updated maybe is the kernel. If you use the kernel from the NAND (even when booting from SD Card), it should be the most recent.
If you use your own kernel on the SD Card, you might check if it needs to be updated.

Easiest check: Run any N64 game in Mupen. If it doesn't show graphics, you're using an old kernel

 

[peca]

I'm not N64 fan yet, but if replace kernel mean: "boot from NAND, put latest uImage (or one from Pandora-Flashkit-2010-08-Zaxxon.zip/bootf.tgz file) on USB flash, copy it to SD card (sudo cp from to should work) and reboot from card", then I can manage it
Thanks for tip.

 

[EvilDragon]

I'm not N64 fan yet, but if replace kernel mean: "boot from NAND, put latest uImage (or one from Pandora-Flashkit-2010-08-Zaxxon.zip/bootf.tgz file) on USB flash, copy it to SD card (sudo cp from to should work) and reboot from card", then I can manage it
Thanks for tip.

Yep, exactly that

 

[Kimundi]

ED, what about my UFT8 proposal, is it still in the testing phase? :lol:

Yep, if you browse through the internet, you can find a lot of problem posts regarding UTF8 with VFAT - definately not something I want to put into the final without real testing.
I need to get to a Windows Box, too, and create files with Umlauts first

If it's just about the that, then I could send you some testfiles I created.

 

[DaveC]

Good idea .. We could probably opkg remove some junk, but probably not too too much extras in there.

ED is working on the filter selector so should be in HF5 but yeah, apps will have to look into it perhaps, and maybe a libpnd change to force (?) it back to default on exit so misbehaved apps dont chabge it and forget to change it back?

Should also add in an option so appdata can group with the app, for you and time permitting, when looking at an ovr editor, will make it so you can override preview pics even if not present.. I didnt forget!

Only a couple apps are spitting to nand, like chromium .. Not really ported to pandora, just hacked to run on it, so doesnt follow all the rules, but likely an easy workaround

Jeffphone

Sounds like cool additions. Have you given any thought as to how to do the graphic instead of text on tabs option? I didn't get a reply as to what you thought of it.

I rarely ever even boot into XFCE so any non-essential apps could be nixed. I don't use it for any internet stuff (hardly ever near WiFi and my phone does it better anyway) So I could nix all but the most rudimentary internet stuff which I would only need in a rare case. All of those other games demos etc could be deep sixed too. It would be nice to have an app picker that would remove unwanted crap (the crap would be decided by user) kind of like the windows control panel app remover.

 

[peca]

Yep, exactly that

Just FYI, uImage on SD card has the same size as new one from tarball. I suppose that HF4 update it properly.
---
Anyway, it will be nice to see HF# and kernel version on some splash screen, about box or just on booting screen.

And second thought, should be nice if logon screen allow switch to console. I have trouble with full NAND (not confirmed) on my trip in Bulgaria - while browsing with Chromium I get some trouble and after reboot Pandora wasn't start X. I know that on standard PC Alt+F# work. I try it on Pandora ant it work too (it's little tricky - press Alt+F1 after graphical logon disappear). I messing with manual starting X and when spot messages about insufficient space I take suspicion that Chromium fill up my NAND. So I delete whole content of (don't remember exactly) some tmp dir and maybe even application dir in home dir. After that I can't get to console any more. When I try logon (i graphical logon screen) it show again and again as it can start windows. But at this state I can't get to console and can't do anything.

 

[Loon]

...
Anyway, it will be nice to see HF# and kernel version on some splash screen, about box or just on booting screen.
...

+1, can't be that hard surely?

 

[Trickyhero]

...
Anyway, it will be nice to see HF# and kernel version on some splash screen, about box or just on booting screen.
...

+1, can't be that hard surely?

+1 that would be nice