Just got my pandora, a couple of quick q's

[WhiteElephant]

Hi everyone, as the title says I recieved my pandora this morning and have a few questions. I only had about half an hour to play with it before I went to work but I noticed a couple of things and I am not sure if they qualify as problems or not.


1. Both of my analogue sticks / nubs seem to be working fine (aside from auto-calibration sensitivity issues which I already know about) but they don't seem to center properly. Specifically the right nub, it always seems to remain slightly in favour of the direction it was last pulled in... is this normal?


2. I can't seem to touch the top 1/2cm or so of the screen with the stylus, the pointer just wont go any higher. I think I read in another thread this was not an uncommon problem, is it just a case of waiting for a firmware update? (Recalibrating the touch screen helped a tiny bit but not much).


3. Minimenu seems to hang quite a lot, but the full xfce desktop is fine... maybe I just need to be a bit more patient?


4. When it boots up it says it is booting kernal 3.2 and superzaxxon1.5. Is this the latest version or is there a better one recommended? I appreciate this question is probably answered elsewhere but since I was asking questions anyway I thought it would be OK to tag this one on to the end.


Other than that I am impressed so far. It boots pretty quick, initial setup was easy, and apart from a couple of small scrapes to the casing I can't find anything wrong with it physically.


Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[TrashyMG]

Hi everyone, as the title says I recieved my pandora this morning and have a few questions. I only had about half an hour to play with it before I went to work but I noticed a couple of things and I am not sure if they qualify as problems or not.


1. Both of my analogue sticks / nubs seem to be working fine (aside from auto-calibration sensitivity issues which I already know about) but they don't seem to center properly. Specifically the right nub, it always seems to remain slightly in favour of the direction it was last pulled in... is this normal?


-This happens every once and a while. sometimes a full power down and start up seems to fix it for me.


2. I can't seem to touch the top 1/2cm or so of the screen with the stylus, the pointer just wont go any higher. I think I read in another thread this was not an uncommon problem, is it just a case of waiting for a firmware update? (Recalibrating the touch screen helped a tiny bit but not much).


-I have a similar issue, but on the bottom.. I just push the Bezel a up or down in my case a little to get the stylus in a little more.. not ideal. I was thinking of taking off the bezel and shaving a little more space around them .


3. Minimenu seems to hang quite a lot, but the full xfce desktop is fine... maybe I just need to be a bit more patient?


-Not sure, I don't seem to have any issues with Minimenu.


4. When it boots up it says it is booting kernal 3.2 and superzaxxon1.5. Is this the latest version or is there a better one recommended? I appreciate this question is probably answered elsewhere but since I was asking questions anyway I thought it would be OK to tag this one on to the end.


-There currently is a SuperZaxxon Beta 4, it has many bug fixes.. I suggest using upgrading.


Other than that I am impressed so far. It boots pretty quick, initial setup was easy, and apart from a couple of small scrapes to the casing I can't find anything wrong with it physically.


Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[Prometheus]

Hi and welcome!


I can't answer much of this, but I have a question of my own, if you don't mind.

1. Both of my analogue sticks / nubs seem to be working fine (aside from auto-calibration sensitivity issues which I already know about) but they don't seem to center properly. Specifically the right nub, it always seems to remain slightly in favour of the direction it was last pulled in... is this normal?

Do you mean that the nub cap itself sits a tiny little bit off in the direction it was last moved in, and that it doesn't spring right back to dead centre?


If so, then yes, that is normal. Mine does it on both nubs, and it doesn't affect operation at all.

 

[diligentcircle]

1. Both of my analogue sticks / nubs seem to be working fine (aside from auto-calibration sensitivity issues which I already know about) but they don't seem to center properly. Specifically the right nub, it always seems to remain slightly in favour of the direction it was last pulled in... is this normal?

Yes, that's normal. You'll eventually not notice it all that much.

 

[WhiteElephant]

Thanks for the help! Especially Trashy. @Prometheus yes that is exactly what I mean... maybe I could have been a little clearer in my explanation though.


One more thing while I am thinking of it, as a general rule would you say it is better to run the OS off of the internal nand or off of the SD card. I had a quick look but I couldnt find a list of advantages / disadvantages for either method.


Thanks again

 

[Prometheus]

@Prometheus yes that is exactly what I mean... maybe I could have been a little clearer in my explanation though.

Don't worry - you were plenty clear. I just wanted to be sure, just in case it might have been some other issue.

One more thing while I am thinking of it, as a general rule would you say it is better to run the OS off of the internal nand or off of the SD card. I had a quick look but I couldnt find a list of advantages / disadvantages for either method.

There is no general rule, really - it all depends on how you intend to use the machine, and that's why there aren't really any lists of pros and cons floating around out there. What are you looking to do with your Pandora? That will probably yield the answer.

 

[WhiteElephant]

I am planning to use it mainly for gaming but I will also be using it as an all purpose computer including web browsing, limited linux server administration and possibly some programming in python / c++ etc etc. I have 2 SanDisk 32gb class 10 sdhc cards if that is important.


Going back to my superzaxxon question from earlier, on closer inspection 'beta 4' is written in the top right of the screen at boot. I take it I already have the latest version then?


Thanks

 

[Prometheus]

If you want to be installing tools from the Ångström (the specific Linux distribution that the Pandora's firmware is based on) repository, or want to compile code on the device (which if my memory serves me correctly, may need more tools present/can take up more space than the in-built NAND has the room for; Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please!) you may very well be well-served by booting from an SD Card. I can't help with that, myself, though, as this isn't my use-case and I haven't had cause to learn how it's done.


As for Super Zaxxon, as far as I know, Beta 4 is indeed the latest, so you are indeed up-to-date.

 

[TrashyMG]

The NAND only has 512Megs of space, it's easy to fill it up without realizing it when downloading libraries and such... which most of the time causes it lock up the install and you need to reflash the firmware.


I tend to use sebt3's cross compiler mainly for cross-compiling programs for the Pandora on my laptop running Linux.. There is a Virtualbox image floating around too if you don't run Linux natively..


If I need to compile on the Pandora there is C/C++ Development Tools by Freamon.. It includes most of the core libraries and compiling tools. Also I use an ext2 formatted SD card to compile on, as it seems fat32 formatted SD cards will bomb out any compiling script that deals with changing permissions.


More info here