Installer, Package/data Management, Etc?

[sparr]

Is there any work being done on the Pandora OS to facilitate package management? The current state of affairs on the GP2X (some things go in NAND, some go in specific SD folders, some go in arbitrary SD folders, some launchers read some folders and not others, nothing recognizes swapped out cards, etc) is behind even the PDA-Linux state of the art of five years ago.

I do not think that dpkg/apt/ipkg(look it up, dpkg-alike for PDAs, far less overhead) alone is a viable solution. We need something custom, that is aware of and can handle swapping out SD cards that may have programs installed on them.

Whatever we could come up with, if it was semi-standardized before the public release, it would majorly impact the ability of new users to get up and running with new apps. Right now significant console/linux knowledge is required for a lot of games, and even the easiest are still not as easy as they would be with a package manager.

Ideas?

 

[atomicthumbs]

Look in the developer section for the PXML topic.

 

[AireTamStorm]

We've had this discussion before.
Most likely, we'll be using APT as our package manager.
Edit: If the SD cards are mounted as a Union, it will be plenty sufficient, as all libs will just go on the SD card with the apps that require them.

 

[Squidge]

Yup, atomicthumbs & AireTamStorm have pretty much answered your question the best it could be answered.

The Pandora will have an installer, and it will be easy to install programs direct to SD card if you don't want to switch on your Pandora to just install apps. See the PXML topic.