It's arrived!!! Questions...

[freamon]

It's useful if you want to save the physical PND on the NAND (in /usr/pandora/menu for example), but you want the PND to save its data on to a SD card.  I've done this before, but I can't remember why (maybe I thought it would speed up the start-up time ... )

 

[batfastad]

If you want to change the location of where some PND saves its data, you can just replace the folder [sDCARD]/pandora/appdata/blah/ with a symlink pointing to a folder anywhere else. I don't really see why you would want to do that though. And this will of course only work if you format your SD card with a file system that can make symlinks, e.g. ext2/3/4, not FAT.

Ok that's great. For example, I want to keep the SNES ROM save files (.srm) in the same folder as the roms themselves, not buried down in appdata. Firstly this will be for Snes9x4P though I'll probably end up doing this for most emulators.

10) So is creating a symlink the recommended and most reliable way of doing this?

11) Also I'm very tempted to move my home directory off the NAND and onto my SD card. I'm planning on having one SD card permanently inserted with another that's removeable for transferring media etc.

These are the instructions I've found for doing this... http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/8824-nand-space-issue/?p=158757

Are there any other instructions out there to do this or does that have it covered?

12) Is it possible to create multiple partitions on my SD card, of different formats? So have an ext2/3 partition of say 200MB for the home directory, another of 10GB for PNDs and general programs.

Then another of 5GB in FAT32 so I can easily drop stuff onto it from a Windows machine? Though I'll probably have another dedicated SD card for that.

13) Is there a keyboard shortcut that you can press to perform a right mouse click?

EDIT: Just tried the Start/Alt key and it seems to do the job. Press and holding the touchscreen seems a bit fiddly sometimes.

14) Where is the Trash directory stored? Hopefully not on the NAND?

If I delete something from the SD card, larger than the size of the available NAND memory, then what happens?

15) And finally (for now). Is there any way to mount an FTP account as a directory on the file system?

When I'm at home I'd lke to be able to browse my FTP server and it would be great to do this without needing to use an FTP client. FileZilla works well enough but it's quite cramped on the Pandora's screen. I had a look at Gigolo but it doesn't look like it supports FTP and ideally I'd like to use FTP over TLS when "roaming".

Just played some music on the device... the sound quality is superb!!

Cheers, B

 

[Kumaki]

I am curious why you care that they would be saved somewhere other than appdata.  There IS a ROM folder for the SNES application right in appdata.  So why not put your SNES roms in THAT folder, and just let the PND write your saves within that same folder which it would do.

Is there some reason ytou want all your roms for all systems to be in one folder instead of seperate rom folders for each emu, within appdata?

 

[batfastad]

I want each platform/emulator to have its own directory for the roms and savedata.

But I don't want this directory to be buried in sdcard/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/.snes96_snapshots for example.

I want to keep the roms and save data together and free of any other cruft, in an easy to access directory, so its easy for me to just grab that folder and drop it into the zsnes installation on my PC for example.

 

[Kumaki]

I want each platform/emulator to have its own directory for the roms and savedata.
But I don't want this directory to be buried in sdcard/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/.snes96_snapshots for example.

I want to keep the roms and save data together and free of any other cruft, in an easy to access directory, so its easy for me to just grab that folder and drop it into the zsnes installation on my PC for example.

It will STILL be in it's own folder, roms and saves.

For example, my SNES roms and savestaes are both in sdcard/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha

The .snes96_snapshots folder happens to be there also, but I don't use it.

So you COULD drop the whole folder in to your ZSNES, and then just delete the .snes96_snapshots folder if you want to...or just leave it alone, it won't hurt anything.

Nothing is in there BUT my roms and my saves.  And savestates!

They all go there.  and I did nothing special to make it happen.

My point is:  Why do all sorts of fancy-dancy weird stuff that might screw thingsup, when you can do what I just did with no effort whatsoever, and it definitely works?

 

[hedwards]

I want each platform/emulator to have its own directory for the roms and savedata.
But I don't want this directory to be buried in sdcard/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha/.snes96_snapshots for example.

I want to keep the roms and save data together and free of any other cruft, in an easy to access directory, so its easy for me to just grab that folder and drop it into the zsnes installation on my PC for example.

It will STILL be in it's own folder, roms and saves.

For example, my SNES roms and savestaes are both in sdcard/pandora/appdata/snes9x.skeezix.alpha

The .snes96_snapshots folder happens to be there also, but I don't use it.

So you COULD drop the whole folder in to your ZSNES, and then just delete the .snes96_snapshots folder if you want to...or just leave it alone, it won't hurt anything.

Nothing is in there BUT my roms and my saves.  And savestates!

They all go there.  and I did nothing special to make it happen.

My point is:  Why do all sorts of fancy-dancy weird stuff that might screw thingsup, when you can do what I just did with no effort whatsoever, and it definitely works?

I'll personally probably write a small script that runs from time to time to manually copy those items to the SD card as a back up. I don't think that will be too hard. Perhaps also rotate the directories, so that I don't overwrite the same file directory. Which on Linux should be easily enough accomplished.

The main problem with cross device simlinks is the corruption that can happen if they get ejected while in use or if a card otherwise gets lost to the system.

There's probably already shell scripts that will do just that already written.

 

[_wb_]

In your case, I would add symlinks in an easy to find spot (e.g. your homedir) pointing TO those deep appdata dirs.

Also: yes, you can make several partitions, see e.g. GParted on the repo.

 

[Kumaki]

They aren't all that deep.  If you know where they are it is no big deal.

I also have all my roms backed up on my laptop.  sorted by which emu runs it.

Personally, if it was me, and I was batfastad...I'd just recommend using a flashstick, and back up the folder onto that once in a while, and then use the flashstick to drop back to ZSNES on the PC.

 

[Binky]

13) Is there a keyboard shortcut that you can press to perform a right mouse click?

EDIT: Just tried the Start/Alt key and it seems to do the job. Press and holding the touchscreen seems a bit fiddly sometimes.

Try 'AB-mouse' (on the repo)

 

[padoro]

The "ab mouse" pnd works perfectly, much better than the right nub.

 

[klapse]

In your case, I would add symlinks in an easy to find spot (e.g. your homedir) pointing TO those deep appdata dirs.

Exactly right. From your home dir you can


ln -s /path/to/the/snes/roms/appdata snesroms


Then you can just "cd snesroms" and be in your Rom dir. Doing things this way is safer than moving the actual data files.

 

[batfastad]

Hi everyone

Thanks for all the help so far. With my PND appdata directory problems it looks like I have no choice. I'll have to live with my Snes9x4P save states living with my zsnes save states. And with the Snes9x4P .scfg files for each rom living in that directory as well.

But I still have the following questions. Is anyone able to shed any light on these?

11) I'm very tempted to move my home directory off the NAND and onto my SD card. I'm planning on having one SD card permanently inserted with another that's removeable for transferring media etc.

These are the instructions I've found for doing this... http://boards.openpa...issue/?p=158757

Are there any other instructions out there to do this or does that have it covered?

14) Where is the Trash directory stored? Hopefully not on the NAND?

If I delete something from the SD card, larger than the size of the available NAND memory, then what happens?

Generally the files I'll be deleting will be larger than 200MBs... music, video etc. So I really don't want this to be hammering the NAND.

Can I just disable the trash function? I don't want to have to "rm" in terminal all the time or shift+delete etc.

15) Is there any way to mount an FTP account as a directory on the file system?

When I'm at home I'd lke to be able to browse my FTP server and it would be great to do this without needing to use an FTP client. FileZilla works well enough but it's quite cramped on the Pandora's screen. I had a look at Gigolo but it doesn't look like it supports FTP and ideally I'd like to use FTP over TLS when "roaming".

16) When dragging a file between folders in Thunar it seems the default action is copy. Is it possible to change that to move?

Ideally when going across partitions/file systems it would default to a copy.

Cheers, B

 

[Kumaki]

As to "Trash" I never use it.  I would think it just plain goes away - that it did not get stored anywhere, since there is basically no internal memory in the Pandy.

But why not just get an SD card reader, and use your laptop or desktop computer to add things to - and remove things from...your SD Card?

Likewise, why not do the same for moving thigs around on your SD Card?

This is how I do it and life is much simpler that way.

You can GET an external USB SD Card reader for like 10 bucks at Staples here in America.  Not sure where you are, but, surely you must have some sort of office-supply or computer store in your area where you could get the same...for whatever is the equivalent of about 10 American dollars.

 

[_wb_]

11) Yes, those instructions should be fine. You can also consider to use the SD installer tool (it's on the repo) to install the OS on an SD card. That also puts your home dir on the SD card, and you get more space to install additional (non-PND) software too.

14) I'm not sure about Thrash (I do file management in mc and never use Thrash), but I would assume it's stored on the same disk/partition where the original file was, so it doesn't need to do a potentially big copy operation. So if you remove something from NAND, it stays on NAND, if you remove something from your SD card, it stays on your SD card, etc.

15) Yes, this should be possible, but I can't tell you how to do it. If you're using mc (Midnight Commander) there's an option to put an ftp session in one of the panels, and I think it does that by mounting it as a VFS.

 

[urjaman]

I'm not sure about that Trash behaviour description. It atleast used to copy to NAND (way back). I compiled a hacked version of thunar with option to disable Trash so I never use it...

 

[EvilDragon]

I'm not sure about that Trash behaviour description. It atleast used to copy to NAND (way back). I compiled a hacked version of thunar with option to disable Trash so I never use it...

Care to give us the patch so we can include it in the official firmware?


That ugly trash behaviour is still there and can't be disabled with configuration files.

 

[WizardStan]

Instead of mounting home on an SD card (which you intend to have always installed anyway) just install the OS to the SD card itself. That would solve all your problems and have the benefit of an emergency "oh crap my SD card got corrupt and I'm out in the middle of nowhere so I can't use my Pandora OH WAIT I can just eject the SD card and I have a default OS again."

 

[urjaman]

I downloaded that attached patch from ArchLinux AUR thunar-notrash package history - one that worked for thunar-1.0 series that we have. I think you should somehow also change the default to be no Trash... Sorry for this weird place to post the patch but I was not planning on distributing/pandora-upstreaming this one since it was just a copy of an existing hack that you can find by just googling thunar no trash (or something). (Note: I was not permitted to attach .patch so i gzipped it.)Ability_to_disable_trash_on_Thunar.patch.gz

EDIT: The thunar developers will not accept a patch to disable the trash since they think that after a certain OS made people comfortable with deleting files to trash nobody will be able to handle a system that directly deletes files when you say delete - even if the system warns about permanent delete as thunar does. Feels a bit too religious-like to me... Maybe they will add (or have, i have not checked) per-device trashes later though...

 

[A2000]

13) Is there a keyboard shortcut that you can press to perform a right mouse click?

EDIT: Just tried the Start/Alt key and it seems to do the job. Press and holding the touchscreen seems a bit fiddly sometimes.

Try 'AB-mouse' (on the repo)

I used "AB Mouse".pnd (and "Normal Mouse".pnd to switch back) a lot when I first got my Pandora. But now I just use the keyboard:

Pandora-key to open the menu, d-pad for fast moving through the menu, enter-key to start a program.

or on the desktop

d-pad for jumping from icon to icon, enter-key to start a program.

No really need to use the nubs or the stylus, especially if you are used to the shell and leave your fingers on the keyboard anyway.

 

[Kumaki]

That's the same thing I do with regards the mouse.  Once someone told me about it in a different thread.  It's really much easier.