How to install Android on your Pandora

[ZXDunny]

If you put it in the menu folder, it turns up in the System category.


D.

 

[apersonthinks]

Any way to stop it from wandering through your SD cards and dumping .thumbnail directories everywhere it finds images?


D.

Yes, simple create a blank file named .nomedia wherever you want it to ignore images/music. I think that if you put it in /this/is/a/path/ for example, all directories within /this/is/a/path/ will also be ignored

 

[Garrett]

Nope.. tried re-downloading & putting the .pnd in every folder.. nothing is showing up...??

 

[Neelix]

Are you sure you have the whole file? I was unable to download it the first few times I tried because firefox kept ending the download before it finished. (and called it complete)


If you open a terminal and run:

 md5sum /path/to/PND/gingerbread_r5.pnd

it should return the following code:

54fcb36c057bd525838de31e70de6183

If not, try changing to the folder where you want to put it and typing:

wget http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/gingerbread_r5.pnd

 

[Link]

So we need a 2nd SD card to put the Android files we download onto?

 

[ZXDunny]

So we need a 2nd SD card to put the Android files we download onto?

Only for some of the apps - others can be installed to "internal storage" which is what the PND sets up - for example, google maps. I downloaded the minecraft pocket demo but that requires a 2nd SD card.


D.

 

[Link]

^


Thanks Dunny. Got it running. Thanks Streak & ED for the instructions & Notaz for kicking ass and taking some names on this lil project.

 

[Garrett]

Can someone suggest some things I may be doing wrong, I just can't get the .pnd to show up no matter what I try (I've re-downloaded it several times) does the card & how it's formatted matter..? (it's a 16GB Kingston SDHC)


Thanks.

 

[Link]

I'm stuck at the Setup Wizard after replacing the system folder inside /pandora/appdata/android_gingerbread/.


It's just hung there on two separate installs. The first one, I didn't configure the wifi or have the wifi update installed first, so I deleted the appdata folder.


Any idea how to get past this Setup Wizard?


I downloaded the .zip file, opened it, and copied the system folder onto the SD card, and hit replace when prompted. Since system was there to begin with.


Seems like a restart (power button/Pandora key) fixed this. Now trying to get some games to work that are on SD2. Should they be someplace special, as I put the ,apk's in the android folder?

 

[ZXDunny]

I'm stuck at the Setup Wizard after replacing the system folder inside /pandora/appdata/android_gingerbread/.


It's just hung there on two separate installs. The first one, I didn't configure the wifi or have the wifi update installed first, so I deleted the appdata folder.


Any idea how to get past this Setup Wizard?


I downloaded the .zip file, opened it, and copied the system folder onto the SD card, and hit replace when prompted. Since system was there to begin with.


Seems like a restart (power button/Pandora key) fixed this. Now trying to get some games to work that are on SD2. Should they be someplace special, as I put the ,apk's in the android folder?

That is exactly what happened to me - booted up fine, then on the second time around failed to start in the same way. Fixed by a Pandora Key+Power reboot, but that trashed my NAND


D.

 

[Link]

Hmmm. Didn't trash my NAND as far as I can tell.


I've got some of the APKs on SD 2 working now as well, and have successfully downloaded some stuff.


TALK ABOUT A GAMECHANGER. Its just fun because I never really played with an old Android X I had for a few months other than calls, texting, and some browsing on the interwebs. It's just really strange to have this on the Pandora considering I've been using XFCE forever.


I tried that gamekeypad app that ED mentioned but it's $2.49, and I'm not quite sure how to download it and pay for it? It keeps making me force quit the market when I try to download.


EDIT:


Got gamekeypad, but haven't quite figured out how to set it up for different games.

 

[milkshake]

I purchased it fine just clicked purchase and then paid with my google wallet account.

 

[Link]

^


Maybe you're the person who got it flagged

 

[EvilDragon]

That is exactly what happened to me - booted up fine, then on the second time around failed to start in the same way. Fixed by a Pandora Key+Power reboot, but that trashed my NAND

We found out the reason and a fix for that trashed NAND.


Someone mentioned that when that happens, booting Kernel 2.6 works and after that, you can boot 3.2 again (so it's not trashed).


After some investigation, things were clear:


Kernel 3.2 is sitting in rootfs-partition, Kernel 2.6 in boot-partition.


A hard reset can mark the rootfs-partition as unclean and it needs to be recovered.


However, U-Boot can't do recovery - only the kernel can do that.


Kernel 3.2 is in the unclean rootfs-partition, so it can't be loaded at all and no recovery takes place.


As Kernel 2.6 is in the clean boot-partition, it loads up, fixes rootfs and continues to boot. As it fixes rootfs, Kernel 3.2 can be booted as well afterwards.


So the temporary fix is to boot into 2.6 once and that's it.


We'll move Kernel 3.2 into boot partition as well, so this shouldn't happen anymore.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Smells like an imminent hotfix ?

 

[hmc]

After some investigation, things were clear:


Kernel 3.2 is sitting in rootfs-partition, Kernel 2.6 in boot-partition.


A hard reset can mark the rootfs-partition as unclean and it needs to be recovered.


However, U-Boot can't do recovery - only the kernel can do that.

I always wondered why people put the Kernel into a different parition than the rootfs partition (even more astonished that it is often put into a FAT partition, which I experienced as being quite volatile in a Linux system).


Now I have learned a reason.


But isn't this a major weakness of a Linux system? Flagging a partition as unclean is common behavior when not cleany unmounting it. And if a partition is not bootable anymore, when this flag is set, you DEPEND on another partition to boot from and to handle recovery.


Daniel

 

[Galaxis]

But isn't this a major weakness of a Linux system? Flagging a partition as unclean is common behavior when not cleany unmounting it. And if a partition is not bootable anymore, when this flag is set, you DEPEND on another partition to boot from and to handle recovery.

That's why you usually have the kernel (and in the old times, static tools that might be needed for basic system administration) on a separate filesystem that is rarely written to in normal operation - or could even be mounted readonly in multiuser mode to prevent corruption. If the boot filesystem is inconsistent, it will be mounted anyways to try to load the kernel. Details vary by type of bootloader, distribution, etc.

 

[WizardStan]

I'm stuck at the Setup Wizard after replacing the system folder inside /pandora/appdata/android_gingerbread/.

Delete the Meta-inf directory. That is what worked for me though I didn't do extensive tests: boot with and it stops there; delete and it is fine. Others said this advice works for them, too. I just hope it isn't something else and the meta-inf is just a red herring/coincidence.

 

[ZXDunny]

I'm stuck at the Setup Wizard after replacing the system folder inside /pandora/appdata/android_gingerbread/.

Delete the Meta-inf directory. That is what worked for me though I didn't do extensive tests: boot with and it stops there; delete and it is fine. Others said this advice works for them, too. I just hope it isn't something else and the meta-inf is just a red herring/coincidence.

The same thing happened to me, but the difference was that I didn't even extract the meta-inf directory in the first place!


D.

 

[Link]

^


Me either, I didn't copy that over at all.


And my Android is happily working now. Not sure why Dunny's NAND got trashed and mine didn't. I did dedicate two brand new SD cards to the Android process though, just to be safe.